This was the Original Bulova watch awarded to player Garland Towne they were given to all the players on the Kentucky Team for there Championship.1948It still retains the original Leather band it has not been cleaner or polished.It now has a working period correct fit stem wind movement runs great and it has the original non running original face movement is a stem wind and it currently is wound to tight and wont run in its current state im going to leave it to the buyer if they want to restore the movement or leave it all original. or keep it with the new working movement.These are very Rare and never show up for sale dont let it get away....
This Kentucky team won more honors than Conqueror Caesar. It won the SEC title for the sixth straight year, and took the NCAA for the second. It became the first team ever to be invited to both national tournaments; it was the first to have four teammates play in the All Star game; Ralph Beard and Alex Groza were placed on everybody\'s All America team and Wah Jones made Kentucky\'s third man, on the UP team.
Mr. Rupp\'s Riflemen and Mr. Wright\'s Whizz, are champions because they can get out in front to stay or come from behind to win. The Cats had to catch up with Holy Cross, Bowling Green, and Xavier. They showed they had endurance, licking Bradley for their fifth win in six days. They showed they had power, whipping Illinois and Notre Dame by 29 and 24 point margins. They showed they could operate under pressure, freezing the ball against Bowling Green and Tulane.
This was Kentucky\'s greatest team. Never again will a series of world events occur so as to bring a like caliber of boys together for such a length of time. It took Patton\'s Third Army to free 27-year-old Cliff Barker from a German concentration cam, where he cultivated his sleight-of-hand with a basketball, and back to UK. It took a national ruling to allow Wah Jones and Ralph Beard to play four straight years together. It was only coincidence that drove two greats like Beard and Groza - two All-Americans for three straight years - together under the tutelage of Coach Adolph Rupp.
They played the best the nation had to offer and emerged with the best record, 32-2. What more can a champion do?
Mr. Wright flips his lucky coin when he thinks of his two, Coaltown and Citation, but Mr. Rupp smiles heavenward when he thinks of his four.
Captain Alex Groza, who was chosen player of the years by Helms Foundation, made more records than Perry Como. He set a national season scoring record of 696 points; he set SEC season and game marks - he inked a mark of 34 in the Tennessee game, only to have it obliterated a week later by Vanderbilt\'s Adcock with 36, and had to hit for 38 against Georgia to make it stick-- and wound up the season hitting 42 percent of all shots taken. He also set SEC and NCAA tournament scoring records. Big AI was named basketball\'s outstanding performer, best player appearing in the Chicago stadium, NCAA most valuable, and most valuable in the East-West All Star game. This quiet, 6\'7\" senior will always be mentioned when all time basketball greats are discussed.
Kentucky\'s ball-bearing Ralph Beard was the most idolized athlete ever to enroll at UK. In training all year around, he\'s the perfect Wheaties ad, the All American boy. He hit long shots, jump shots, and crip shots with monotonous regularity, and when the chips were down, the Louisville Lad came through. One of his greatest tributes came during the black hour of the Loyola defeat. The defensive man had backed up on Rapid Ralph who had just dribbled across the mid-floor stripe; the New Yorkers eager for on upset, groaned and one fan shrieked, \"Don\'t let that guy shoot! He\'ll beat you all by himself!\" and he almost did, putting the Cats in the lead three times with long shots in the closing stages of the game. His sincere modesty, pure sportsmanship, and great desire to win will never be forgotten.
Wallace \"Wah Wah\" Jones joined Beard and former Wildcat Jack Tingle, as the only players ever to make the All SEC team four consecutive years Jones also owns the singular honor of being all conference in both football and basketball the same year. Setting a national high school scoring record in the pivot at Harlan, Jones came to the University as a center. However he switched to the forward post his sophomore year where his accuracy from the side of the floor became known the country over. An all time UK great, Jones earned 11 letters in varsity football, basketball and baseball.
Cliff Barker, the Grand Old Man of basketball, didn\'t get the newspaper inches his teammates did, but not because he didn\'t deserve them. He handles a basketball like it were an apple, doing everything but eating it. He liked to pass to his teammates and was known as no great shakes at long shooting until the last seven seconds of the last game he played in Alumni Gym. With seconds left of the regular season, Bark squinted at the basket 65 feet away and almost knocked the backboard down and the roof off as 2850 students screeched their surprise at seeing the ball bang through the nets.
John Stough, Roger Day, Garland Townes, Al Bruno and Bob Henne rounded out the greatest bunch of basketball bouncers college basketball has ever seen.
