The Rivalry: Red v. Blue

The Rivalry: Red V. Blue
The Rivalry: Red V. Blue
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Rory Owen Delaney
Screenplay by	Rory Owen Delaney; Wm. Wade Smith
Starring	Wm. Wade Smith ; Rick Roberts ; Rick Pitino ; Denny Crum ; Ronnie Dee Blaire ; John Calipari
Cinematography	Rory Owen Delaney; Aaron Mikel
Edited by	Aaron Mikel
Music by	Matthew Atticus Berger
Production; company	Man Bites Dog Films
Distributed by	Volar Video
Release date	December 27, 2013;
Country	United States
Language	English

Last updated September 06, 2024

The Rivalry: Red V. Blue is a 2013 documentary film directed by Rory Owen Delaney and produced by Wm. Wade Smith. It is the first film to document the famous college basketball's rivalry of the University of Louisville vs. University of Kentucky.^[1]^[2] The film weaves current events, including back-to-back national championships in 2012 and 2013, with the history of a rivalry game that didn't even exist for decades. From 1959 to 1983, the two basketball teams refused to meet on the hard court.^[3]

Synopsis

Red V. Blue is a documentary about the instate rivalry between the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville, the two most prominent universities in the state of Kentucky. The universities are located in the state's two largest cities, respectively the second-largest city of Lexington and the largest city, Louisville, and are separated by 75 miles of Interstate 64. But this is the least of their differences.

The close geographic proximity of the schools to each other has bred an intense rivalry, a rivalry made even more contentious by the national success of both college basketball programs. The two schools have won a combined 11 NCAA Division I basketball championships between them (the University of Kentucky has eight championships and the University of Louisville has three). However, the rivalry between the Wildcats and the Cardinals runs much deeper than geographical proximity.^[5]

Unlike many of college basketball's other great rivalries, such as Duke and North Carolina, or Purdue and Indiana, the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville do not play in the same conference and have only one scheduled meeting a year. Theirs is a rivalry that is not born simply of familiarity or from battling year after year for the conference crown; it starts and ends with basketball bragging rights in a state that is more religiously devoted to basketball than to almost anything else.

The Kentucky and Louisville basketball teams met for the first time in 1913 but rarely played each other for the following 70 years. A somewhat improbable matchup in the 1983 Elite Eight between the No. 2 ranked Cardinals and the No.12 ranked Wildcats, however, sent the Bluegrass State in to a frenzy. Fans from both schools refer to this post regular season clash between the two storied programs in 1983 as the "Dream Game." In the game itself, after regulation time ended with Kentucky tying the game at the "buzzer," Louisville went on to dominate the overtime and ran out as comfortable 80–68 winners. This was the defining moment in this rivalry. The result of this game lead directly to the start of the "Battle for the Bluegrass" annual series between the two schools that November. But it took the best personal efforts of the then Governor of Kentucky John Y. Brown, Jr. to put these two universities, separated by 75 miles of freeway, back on the basketball court.

Cast

The film features interviews with Denny Crum, Joe B. Hall, Jim Host, John Y. Brown, Van Vance, Jock Sutherland, Tom Leach, Matt Jones, Mike Rutherford, Russ Smith, Gorgui Dieng, Mayor Greg Fischer, Mayor Jim Gray, Mayor Bob Porter, Terry Howard, Rob Bromley, Ryan Clark, Al Benniger, Jim Tharp, Tony Vanetti, Pat Forde, Derek Anderson, Oscar Combs, Luke Whitehead, Scott Padgett, James Boo Brewer, Peyton Siva, Bill Mike Runyon, Landon Slone, and Attorney Jonathan C. Shaw.

Related Research Articles

Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center is an arena located in downtown Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Since its opening in 1976, it has been the centerpiece of Central Bank Center, a convention and shopping facility owned by an arm of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, which is located next to the Lexington Hyatt and Hilton hotels. Rupp Arena also serves as home court to the University of Kentucky men's basketball program, and is named after legendary former Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp with an official capacity of 20,500. In 2014 and 2015, in Rupp Arena, the Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team was second in the nation in college basketball home attendance. Rupp Arena also regularly hosts concerts, conventions and shows.

The Louisville Cardinals are the NCAA athletic teams representing the University of Louisville. The Cardinals teams play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, beginning in the 2014 season. While playing in the Big East Conference from 2005 through 2013, the Cardinals captured 17 regular season Big East titles and 33 Big East Tournament titles totaling 50 Big East Championships across all sports. On November 28, 2012, Louisville received and accepted an invitation to join the Atlantic Coast Conference and became a participating member in all sports in 2014. In 2016, Lamar Jackson won the school its first Heisman Trophy.

The Bluegrass Bowl was a college football bowl game that was played only once, on December 13, 1958, at Cardinal Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky. The Oklahoma State Cowboys defeated the Florida State Seminoles, 15–6.

Joe Beasman Hall was an American college basketball coach. He was the head coach at the University of Kentucky from 1972 to 1985, leading the Wildcats to a national championship in 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denny Crum</span> American basketball coach (1937–2023)

Denzel Edwin Crum was an American men's college basketball coach at the University of Louisville from 1971 to 2001, compiling a 675–295 (.696) record. He guided the Cardinals to two NCAA championships and six Final Fours. Honored in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame since 1994, Crum was one of the major figures in the history of sports in Kentucky and in college basketball.

Sports in Louisville, Kentucky include amateur and professional sports in baseball, football, basketball, horse racing, horse shows, ice hockey, soccer and lacrosse. The city of Louisville and the Louisville metropolitan area have a sporting history from the mid-19th century to the present day.

Trinity High School is a Catholic, all-boys, college preparatory high school located in St. Matthews, Kentucky, a city within Louisville Metro. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville. The school incorporates the Catholic tradition of teaching and learning. The school campus comprises about 1,200 students. In 1992, Trinity was named a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. In 1995, Trinity was accredited by the non-profit Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30,473 students attend the university. Historically, the women's teams and athletes were referred to as the "Lady Kats", but all athletic squads adopted the "Wildcats" nickname in 1995. Collectively, the fans of the Kentucky Wildcats are often referred to as the Big Blue Nation. Their main and most intense rival is the University of Louisville. The Wildcats are composed of 25 varsity teams that compete nationally—23 in NCAA-recognized sports, plus the cheerleading squad and dance team.

The 1981 NCAA Division I basketball tournament involved 48 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 12, 1981, and ended with the championship game on March 30 in Philadelphia. A total of 48 games were played, including a national third-place game. It was also the last tournament to be televised on NBC, before CBS took over the following year. Additionally, it was the last season in which the NCAA sponsored championships only in men's sports; the first Division I women's tournament would be played the following year.

The Kentucky–Louisville rivalry refers to the rivalry between the University of Kentucky Wildcats (Kentucky) and the University of Louisville Cardinals (Louisville). It is considered one of the most intense and passionate rivalries in the NCAA, especially in men's college basketball. The intensity of the rivalry is captivated by the proximity of the two schools and the commonwealth of Kentucky's interest in college sports.

The Big Blue Nation is the fan base of University of Kentucky (UK) athletics programs, particularly the men's basketball team, the women's basketball team and the football team. The Big Blue Nation is a reference to both the signature color of UK athletics (blue) and the fact that when the Wildcats play at a neutral site and occasionally at an away game, the school's fans frequently make up a disproportionate majority of the crowd. For example, Pat Forde, a resident of Kentucky's largest city of Louisville and then a columnist with Yahoo Sports, remarked after the 2014–15 men's basketball team finished its regular season undefeated,

The Southeastern Conference tournament is in nearby Nashville, and you can expect the seats to be 90 percent blue when the Cats play. Then they'll start the NCAA tournament in Louisville's home area, the Yum Center (sic), in a city where about 40 percent of the population roots for UK. The following weekend assuredly will be spent in Cleveland, a manageable drive from the Bluegrass State, and the Final Four is in Indianapolis, which is 114 miles up I-65 from the Ohio River that separates Kentucky and Indiana. You could put NCAA tourney sites in Kabul, Marrakesh and Reykjavík, and Kentucky would have the most fans in the gym. But when you make the commute this easy, the Big Blue occupation will be overwhelming.

The U.S. State of Kentucky is currently home to two professional soccer teams: Louisville City FC, which plays in the USL Championship, and Racing Louisville FC, which plays in the NWSL. Kentucky has had professional sports teams in its past, such as the Louisville Brecks/Colonels of the NFL in the early 1920s.

The Kentucky Wildcats football program represents the University of Kentucky in the sport of American football. The Wildcats compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The Wildcats play their home games at Kroger Field in Lexington, Kentucky and are led by head coach Mark Stoops.

The Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team is the men's college basketball program representing the University of Louisville in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) of NCAA Division I. The Cardinals have officially won two NCAA championships in 1980 and 1986 ; and have officially been to eight Final Fours in 39 official NCAA tournament appearances while compiling 61 tournament wins.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the United States Commonwealth of Kentucky:

The Governor's Cup is a trophy awarded to the victor of the annual college football game between the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville in the commonwealth of Kentucky; it is also used as a reference to the rivalry itself.

The Kentucky–Tennessee rivalry is a college sports rivalry between the University of Kentucky Wildcats and the University of Tennessee Volunteers. The passionate rivalry between these two Southeastern Conference (SEC) schools, located about 173 miles (278 km) apart, dates to their first college football game in 1893, and has continued across all sports, with the men's basketball series gaining particular attention in recent years.

The Indiana–Kentucky rivalry is a college sports rivalry between the Indiana University Hoosiers and the University of Kentucky Wildcats. The rivalry between these two schools, located about 180 miles (290 km) apart, dates to their first college football game in 1893, and has continued across all sports, with the men's basketball series gaining particular attention. The football game was previously played for a wooden Bourbon Barrel trophy, which was discontinued in 1999.

Jim Host is an American businessman best known for founding Host Communications, a pioneering collegiate sports-marketing and production services company that was acquired by IMG in 2007 for $74.3 million. Host sits on the National Advisory Board of the College of Communication and Information at the University of Kentucky.

The Cincinnati–Louisville rivalry is a college sports rivalry between the University of Cincinnati Bearcats and the University of Louisville Cardinals. The rivalry between these two schools, located about 100 miles (160 km) apart, dates to their first men's college basketball game in 1921, and has continued across all sports, with the football series gaining attention as well, having started in 1929. Both universities share common characteristics, both being over 200 year old institutions in urban settings. The schools have also shared conferences historically, with the rivalry stretching over the span of four conferences from the Missouri Valley Conference, to the Metro Conference to Conference USA, and more recently in the Big East Conference, which in 2013 was renamed to the American Athletic Conference. After the 2013–14 season, Louisville joined the Atlantic Coast Conference and since then the rivalry has been put on hiatus in football and basketball. Cincinnati will officially join the Big 12 conference in 2023. However, many other sports at the universities, such as baseball, continue to battle periodically.

References

External links

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[1] UK basketball notebook: Rupp renovation involves tricky negotiations | College Basketball | Kentucky.com

[2] "The Courier-Journal".

[3] Albrecht Stahmer: Group using Kickstarter to bring 'The Rivalry: Red v. Blue' to the Big Screen | Insider Louisville

[4] Today Is Your Chance To Be In The Red V Blue Documentary - Card Chronicle

[5] "'Red V. Blue' documentary showcases state's biggest rivalry". Archived from the original on 2014-03-24. Retrieved 2014-03-07.

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v t e Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball
Venues	State College Gymnasium (1903–1914) Buell Armory Gymnasium (1910–1924) Alumni Gymnasium (1924–1950) Memorial Coliseum (1950–1976) Rupp Arena (1976–present) Joe Craft Center (practice)
Rivalries	Centre (historical) Florida Indiana Louisville North Carolina Tennessee Transylvania (historical)
Culture & lore	History under Adolph Rupp Fabulous Five Point-shaving scandal Fiddlin' Five Rupp's Runts The Season Without Celebration "The Shot" Unforgettables Untouchables Comeback Cats John Wall Dance Tweakables Pursuit of Perfection 2011 Indiana game Basketbowl Champions Classic CBS Sports Classic The Rivalry: Red v. Blue The Wildcat Scratch Blue "On, On, U of K" "Kentucky Fight" Big Blue Nation Blue blood status
People	Head coaches Honorees NBA draftees Players Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Helms and Premo-Porretta national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics; NCAA championships in bolded italics

v t e Louisville Cardinals men's basketball
Venues	Belknap Gymnasium (1933–1944) Jefferson County Armory (1945–1956) Freedom Hall (1956–2010) KFC Yum! Center (2010–present)
Rivalries	Cincinnati Kentucky Memphis
Culture & lore	Billy Minardi Classic Cardinal Bird The Rivalry: Red v. Blue
People	Head coaches NBA players Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
NAIA and NCAA national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics

The Rivalry: Red v. Blue

Contents

Synopsis

Cast

See also

Related Research Articles

References

External links