BOZICH | Nobody loved the University of Kentucky more than Mike Pratt | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- There are players who scored more points than Mike Pratt scored for the University of Kentucky men’s basketball program.

There were also guys who won more games and had longer professional careers.

But there isn’t anybody who loved the University of Kentucky more than Mike Pratt, who died Thursday night after a three-year battle with cancer. He was 73.

Pratt was one of the good guys, quick with a kind word, generous with his time and reassuring with his demeanor. He had that strong, confident walk of a talented athlete and large, powerful hands that swallowed every handshake.

You knew him as the player who starred with Dan Issel and Mike Casey over the 1968, 1969 and 1970 seasons on some of Adolph Rupp’s final UK teams.

He was from that generation that truly did play for the name on the front of the jersey — KENTUCKY. Pratt scored 1,359 points, in only three seasons, more than enough for him to earn his place in the UK and Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fames.

Or maybe you knew him as a player who joined Issel with the Kentucky Colonels in the days when the American Basketball Association was trying to elbow the National Basketball Association out of the way.

For the first time in his life, Pratt played off the bench. He didn’t crinkle his nose or demand a trade over that. Along with Les Hunter and Walt Simon, he became part of a group of substitutes that called themselves "The Goon Squad," determined to bring energy any time they were on the court.

"Mike was great in the locker room," said Lloyd Gardner, the Colonels’ trainer. "He had that little chuckle that made everybody laugh. He could make his teammates feel good."

Then, after Mike worked as a college basketball coach and NBA scout, everybody across the state and throughout college basketball knew him in the role that he loved — his 2-decade career working beside play by play man Tom Leach as the radio analyst for Kentucky basketball.

His late-morning radio show with Issel as well as his Friday afternoon time with Bob Valvano on 680 AM in Louisville were other opportunities for Pratt to share his delightful stories.

On UK basketball games, Mike did work to make Claude Sullivan and Cawood Ledford proud, describing the action, sharing anecdotes about every generation of UK basketball and spreading the love for the Wildcats. Kentucky hasn’t had a better ambassador than Mike Pratt.

I knew him as a friend.

A friend I sometimes walked with at Seneca Park. A friend who was part of our group of guys that solved all of the world’s sports problems whenever we got together for lunch.

A friend who would call to discuss and analyze all the latest and greatest things that were going on in college football and college basketball. Mike knew the Southeastern Conference as well as anybody but enjoyed asking me what was going on at Louisville, Indiana, Purdue or other places he noticed I covered games. His love of college basketball was deep and relentless.

A friend I loved to ask what it was like trying to guard Pete Maravich, the Louisiana State scoring machine that he chased around the Southeastern Conference for three seasons.

A friend who had no hesitation busting Dr. Bo’s chops when he thought I got something wrong in a story or during a radio interview.

If Mike Pratt told me something, I knew it was reliable. And he forecast some of the biggest things that happened at UK over the last 15 years. I credit that to decision-makers at Kentucky understanding what I quickly understood:

Mike knew what he was talking about.

I’m not saying Mike had any influence in Mark Stoops becoming the Kentucky football coach. I am saying for years before Stoops arrived, Mike said that Kentucky’s best recruiting strategy for improving its program was to sell itself to prospects in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Indiana as the closest, Northern-most spot to play in the Southeastern Conference. Use that as a hook — and Kentucky certainly has.

I am saying that Mike knew that John Calipari was the right man to direct UK basketball into the post-Tubby Smith era. Knew it when Calipari did not get the job when Smith departed for Minnesota after the 2007 season.

He didn’t issue any "I told you so's," after Billy Gillispie did not work out. What Pratt did do was make certain the necessary people at UK understood that Calipari was the guy who would quickly bring UK basketball out of its brief malaise — and that Calipari absolutely wanted the job.

There were three people who flew from Kentucky to Chicago to interview Calipari in March 2009: The first was UK president Dr. Lee Todd. The second was UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart.

The third was Mike Pratt. He knew and endorsed Calipari’s plan to make Kentucky The Destination for one-and-done recruits, a fresh strategy that resulted in Final Four trips from four of Calipari’s first six Kentucky teams.

Pratt was from the generation when guys came to college, played on the freshman team and then stayed three more seasons. He appreciated the past. But he understood the future.

On the afternoon of April 2, 2012, the day Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and the rest of Calipari’s team led UK to the program’s eighth NCAA title, Mike, his wife, Marcia, and I had lunch in New Orleans to discuss how the plan all came together. And that night against Kansas, it did.

But Pratt was more than just a basketball guy. He came to Kentucky in the summer of 1966 from Meadowdale High School in Dayton, Ohio. He was part of a recruiting class that featured Mike Casey of Shelby County, Ky.; Dan Issel of Batavia, Ill., and Randy Pool of Oak Ridge, Tenn.

At Meadowdale, Pratt starred in every sport on the calendar. In football, as a quarterback and receiver. In baseball as a multi-position star on a team that also featured future Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Steve Yeager. In basketball at any position that he wanted to play.

"It was more than those three sports," said Craig Tschudi, one of Pratt’s high school pals who also attended UK.

"If you played Mike in ping pong, my only advice was, ‘Get out of the way!’ Mike was just a natural and an incredibly nice guy.

"As big as Mike was at Kentucky, he was just as big back in Dayton. Any time he was in town, they treated it like a potentate came home. Keep your wallet in your pocket. Everybody loved Mike."

There were many sad basketball fans in central Ohio when Pratt decided to play for Rupp at Kentucky in 1966. The Dayton Flyers were a big deal in the Sixties. The hometown fans wanted him to play for the Flyers or perhaps for Ohio State.

Pratt picked Kentucky. He was fascinated by Rupp as well as the aura of Kentucky basketball and its tradition of winning. His love affair with the University of Kentucky began when he arrived on campus. It never ended.

As they always do, Kentucky fans loved him back. They muted the sound on television broadcasts to listen to the radio call by Mike and Tom Leach.

They approached him on road trips in arenas and hotels to talk about the Wildcats. They waited in Rupp Arena to get his autograph on a basketball or program after he and Leach signed off on the radio. He made eye contact, extended his hand and signed. Pratt made everybody feel like a friend.

And they responded with kind words, prayers and donations when they learned that Mike was in the fight of his life several weeks ago. With the generous assistance of Calipari, they raised more $115,000 — $20,000 more than the goal — to help Pratt undertake a holistic, alternative form of cancer therapy that was not covered by insurance.

That therapy treatment never began. Cancer stopped that. But what didn’t stop was Mike Pratt’s amazing love for the University of Kentucky and the legacy he built around the program. That will live for a long, long time.