Two years ago today ex-Kentucky Wildcat Ed Davender was sentenced to 8 years in prison. Davender had been running scams where he accepted cash for promised tickets which would never materialize. Davender's attorney stated that the amount he was accused of taking was somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000.
One witness reported paying $2,300 for season tickets for his father, who was dying of cancer and had never attended a UK game in person. The judge, however, seemed more upset that he had to send Davender to prison. During sentencing he stated that he had watched Davender play, and had rooted for him, and apologized for not being able to give him probation. "I hate it. I hate it. I hate it for Mr. Davender and his family," he said.
Davender is 11th on the all-time scoring list at Kentucky.
George Hepbron was born on this day in 1863, in Still Pond, Maryland. A friend of James Naismith, Hepbron became one of the game's earliest officials, and wrote the first book on basketball, How to Play Basketball (1904, AG Spaulding and Co.). At the time the game featured tackling and body blocking, and many -including Hepbron – felt it was too violent. So he began a one man campaign to ensure that all of the rules were properly enforced. At the first men's amateur national basketball tournament (1893) Hepbron ejected so many players that the game had to be halted for several days while replacement players could be found.
Hepbron became the first secretary of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) in 1896. His stated goal in the AAU's Basket-ball Guide was to keep basketball from degenerating "into a game where men would be welcomed who play for money.”
Hepbron was enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1960.
Other birthdays include: Bill Chandler 1895 (Wisconsin), Don Grate 1923 (Ohio State), Ernie Barrett 1929 (Kansas State), Dave Piontek 1934 (Xavier), Otto Moore 1946 (Texas Pan-American), Lynn Shackelford 1947 (UCLA), Marshall Rogers 1953 (Kansas and Texas Pan-American), Emanual Davis 1968 (Delaware State), Matt Painter 1970 (Purdue), Reggie Slater 1970 (Wyoming), and Andre Emmett 1982 (Texas Tech).
