Basketball recruiting insanity, 1970 style

Imagine a taller, more talented version of Patrick Patterson stringing Kentucky along in a recruiting process that would include 1,000 Cat fans showing up at the airport to greet him when he came to visit.

That could happen someday, right? A high school basketball star so brilliant athletically and academically that he’d cause such a ruckus.

Hey, hoops fans. We’ve been there, done that, almost 40 years ago.

To show you that all this recruiting insanity is nothing new — it is amplified by infinite more media, sure, but it is nothing new — let’s look back (with the help of Lexington Herald files) to the spring and summer of 1970 when UK was among the schools vying for the affections of Tom McMillen. A 6-foot-11 star from Mansfield, Pa., McMillen was the No. 1 high school player in the nation. He averaged 48 points and 22 rebounds, and was a standout in the classroom, too.

In the spring of 1970, he narrowed his college choices to Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and UK. He was scheduled to visit Lexington the evening of April 10, and more than 1,000 UK fans showed up at Blue Grass Field to greet him. When his private plane was delayed, a lot of fans left, but about 300 stuck around to cheer him when he arrived. Fayette County’s police chief presented him a proclamation declaring Saturday, April 11 as “Tom McMillen Day.”

UK assistant coaches Joe B. Hall and T.L. Plain had accompanied McMillen from his Pennsylvania home. When they arrived in Lexington, UK players Mark Soderberg and Tom Parker took him to Spindletop for dinner. After having the red, er, blue carpet rolled out all over town on Saturday, McMillen returned home on Sunday. UK’s coaches and fans felt good about the visit.

Over the next few weeks, the Herald reported occasional updates, saying McMillen was still undecided. In early May, when many college campuses, including UK and Maryland, were rocked by anti-war protests sparked by the shootings at Kent State, the Herald reported that McMillen might be considering another visit when things calmed down.

When McMillen kept delaying his decision, the Herald reported that it “may be encouraging to note that neither Dan Issel nor Tom Parker signed with the Wildcats until June.”

But June and July came and went, and McMillen hadn’t signed on anybody’s dotted line. There were stories that he commited, then un-commited to North Carolina. August arrived and McMillen was still waffling, although it seemed to be between Maryland and UNC.

Finally, around Labor Day, McMillen chose Maryland.

So if you think Patrick Patterson’s recruiting song-and-dance has gone on too long, consider yourself lucky. Compared to Tom McMillen, he’s making a quick decision.