It’s finally here! The book that finally shows why Kentucky had to play the 1966 Finals game
instead of Duke. Written by a lifetime Duke fan who remembered the 1966 final four and who
was also a civil rights leader in Durham in the 1970s, the UK community gets to read the book
they’ve all been waiting for for more than 50 years about Rupp and the 1996 Final Four! In “The
Bob Verga Shift" What would likely have actually happened if Duke guard Bob Verga had NOT
been sick before the 1966 final four semifinal game, and shows Kentucky folks why it was that
Kentucky had to play the game instead of Duke.

Of particular interest to Kentucky fans is Chapter 2., in which the author, a former Civil Rights
leader in Durham in the 1970s, shows everyone EXACTLY what Rupp was dealing with in
integrating the SEC, because the same sort of stuff was going on North Carolina too. And, while
not completely exonerating Rupp (yeah, the evidence is mixed on that) shows how he was
basically typical of his generation, like say, the Board of Trustees of Duke University who paid
their black employees BELOW the minimum wage, and who integrated THEIR university in the
1960s when the Federal Government stuck a gun to their heads and said they’d cut off their
funding if they didn’t do it.

Chapter 6, showing how the change from Kentucky to Duke in the finals game CLEARLY
would have changed what everyone saw in 1966 is worth a look. Chapter 9, What If For
Kentucky discusses the entire statewide obsession with Rupp’s racial record, which NEVER
WOULD HAVE HAPPENED if Bob Verga hadn’t been sick. Chapter 7, showing what Durham
was actually like back shows Kentucky folks WHY Duke wasn’t playing the game. And the final
chapter, in which the author ends by THANKING Kentucky for saving Duke from playing Texas
Western and keeping America from seeing a game which would have lived forever in infamy for
racial troublemaking, should be worth a look too.

So get your copies today folks, available from Torchflame press! Here is a link to the web site.

That’s “The Bob Verga Shift”, the book you’ve all been waiting for!

https://michaelblayden.com