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  • Teammates, coaches remember Mike Phillips

    By: LARRY VAUGHT

    The thing Jack Givens remembers best about former University of Kentucky teammate Mike Phillips is that he was the “kind of guy who would do anything for teammates” and never complain.

    “He sacrificed so Rick (Robey), (Kyle) Macy and myself could be scorers,” said Givens, a former UK All-American and Final Four MVP in 1978 when UK won the national title. “When we needed him to have big games, he had big games. He was a perfect teammate, good husband, great friend and good family man.”

    Phillips, 59, died over the weekend after a fall at his home in Madisonville.

    He played in 120 games at UK and scored 1,367 points and pulled off 755 rebounds. His teams won 100 games under coach Joe Hall. He was a prolific scorer at Manchester (Ohio) High School as he amassed 2,573 career points and remains sixth on the state’s all-time scoring list. He was a two-time Class AA Player of the Year in Ohio and high school All-American.

    New Jersey drafted Phillips with the 45th overall pick in the 1978 NBA draft, but he never played in the NBA. He did play 13 seasons in Spain, averaging about 23 points and nine rebounds per game, and won a league championship in 1981.

    Visitation for Phillips is Thursday and friday at Victory Church in Madisonville and the service will be at noon EST Friday at the church. Givens and Phillips’ other teammates from the 1978 team will be there and be part of the service.

    “Mike was such a great guy and loved his teammates, which made it fun to play with him,” Givens said. “Since we have finished played, if it was possible, we have become even closer. Just one of those things where you form a brotherhood and include everybody on everything that happens in life is the way we were and still are.

    “I talked to every guy on our team and everybody is beat up about what happened. We ill all be at the funeral . It is going to be a sad day. It will be good because we got to experience all things we did together but awfully it will be awfully difficult to be in the room with all the players and no Mike. We are all pallbearers and all will have a few words to say and tell Mike stories. We want to make it as joyous as we can for his family, but it will be tough.”

    Former LSU coach Dale Brown remembers Phillips, and Robey, well from going against them. His team was one of two — Alabama gave UK its first defeat — to beat the 1978 national championship team. LSU won 95-94 in overtime over visiting UK even though all five starters fouled out. Kentucky won its next 13 games to claim the national title.

    “Phillips and Robey had similar games. Neither one had great quickness, but they played hard and were very aggressive, very physical,” Brown said. “On the court, Phillips just looked destructive. That was the way he played. He was just so tough and he made things easier for their scorers because you had to respect him inside or he could go off on you.

    “It’s just too bad and so sad to hear news like that about him. It seems like he ought to still be a teen-age and yet he was 59. Boy, oh boy. You just never know. But I admired him because he brought his lunch bucket to every game. He was a tough guy and he always got the most out of what he had. That’s what lunch bucket guys do. They get all they can out of their body and game, and he sure did that.

    Brown recalled when his former player, Don Redden, dies of heart failure at age 24.

    “His parents are still not over it, so I know it will be the same way with all those who knew Phillips,” Brown said. “I am sure sorry to hear about his death.  He was a good guy from all I knew. That 1978 team was one of the most physical teams I ever played against. Not dirty, just physical. Phillips was a big reason why. Him and Robey were not flashy. They were just efficient and were both so, so good.”

    Kentucky fans certainly would agree.

    Boyle County judge-executive Harold McKinney saw the Cats play often during the 1978 championship season.

    “Phillips’ death brought back so many memories of that year and him,” McKinney said. “What a special season that was and he was a huge part of that. I’ll always remember that team.”

    So will Danville’s Walter Goggin, who was at the NCAA Tournament game in Knoxville when coach Joe Hall benched every starter except Phillips to begin the second half because the Cats had played so poorly the first half.

    Goggin, like McKinney, said he had “long cherished memories of a different time in UK basketball” when there was no race to the NBA like there is today for UK players. Quite different than the race to the NBA of today.

    “That ’78 bunch was as tough and deep as they came, even by today’s standards. They would find a way to have played with today’s players, and were crafty and experienced,” Goggin said. “I remember having a ticket to the 1978 NCAA final Four in St. Louis, and giving it to my younger brother Lewis, who went and had the time of his life. Although I have always regretting not going, that experience was one Lewis never forgot the rest of his life, and he sure loved his Cats.”

    So did Phillips and that’s why saying good-bye to him Friday is going to be so difficult for Givens and his teammates.

    “It’s going to be so emotional for all of us. It’s just hard to think about Mike not being here,” Givens said.
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