UTEP’s Floyd open to playing Kentucky at Kentucky for rematch of ’66 championship game

Next year marks 50 years since the historic 1966 national championship win for Texas Western over Kentucky.

It featured the first ever all African American starting lineup to win a title.

UTEP believed it would play Kentucky in the same city – College Park, Maryland – next year to commemorate the game.

But now UTEP says Kentucky has backed out.

The rematch seemed to be a done deal, but Kentucky now says there were discussions but never a firm deal.

A Kentucky team spokesman, Eric Lindsey, sent an email toThe Courier-JournalThursday morning clarifying what happened.

“We didn’t back out of anything because we never agreed to play the game. There were discussions about the possibility of playing, but they never materialized past that. It just didn’t work out. Next year our schedule is pretty set as far as games away from home,” according to Lindsey’s statement. “We’re still looking for a couple of games at home, but we didn’t have room in the schedule for what we had discussed earlier. We would be open to playing them in future seasons.”

Kentucky coach John Calipari said the Wildcats’ road schedule is already set for next season, but they’d be happy to consider a home game at Rupp Arena.

While at UTEP’s practice earlier Thursday, ABC-7 observed coach Tim Floyd speaking with Media Relations Director Jeff Darby about the invitation and it looked as if it was the first time Floyd heard of it.

But during the conversation, ABC-7 Sports Anchor Louie Del Rio saw Floyd tell Darby, “we’ll play them. We’ll play them.”

A lot goes into making a game like this materialize, but from Floyd’s reaction it at least seems UTEP is definitely open to traveling for the game.

Darby told ABC-7 before the next move is made Floyd plans to speak with Calipari.

Floyd in Dec. 2013 told ABC-7 that he and Calipari were working out the particulars for the rematch but that it was tentatively scheduled and would have been nationally televised from Maryland, where the championship game was played in 1966.

The win by the Miners in 1966 paved the way for more African Americans to be recruited to play basketball and get an education at colleges in the South.

The Miners championship season was chronicled in the Disney film in 2006’s “Glory Road.”