For our Gameday story this week, I wrote about the legend of Bear Bryant receiving a lighter from Kentucky while Adolph Rupp got a Cadillac. You've probably heard the story but in case you're a little fuzzy on it, here it is in Bryant's book:
Just one thing: It almost certainly never happened. There's no evidence to support it at all.
Here's where the legend began, and why it still lives on today.
"I have this picture in my den of Bud Wilkinson laughing at a banquet over a story I told about that time we won the SEC championship at Kentucky, the only time a Kentucky football team ever has," Bryant said. "(Adolph) Rupp had won it in basketball for the umpteenth time and they gave him a great big blue Cadillac with whitewall tires, and I said at this banquet, ‘And here's what I got.' And I held up this little old cigarette lighter. Well, when the thing came to a head I remembered that cigarette lighter, and I knew I was too far behind to ever catch up."
Just one thing: It almost certainly never happened. There's no evidence to support it at all.
Here's where the legend began, and why it still lives on today.
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