Kentucky Rivalries

November 5, 2022–December 3, 2023 - Get Tickets
2nd Floor

From archrival teams like the Cats and the Cards to dueling editors, competing caves, and beefing barbecues, Kentucky Rivalries captures the most iconic conflicts in the Bluegrass State.

On display are 179 objects—representing dozens of high school and college sports rivalries in Kentucky, plus pop culture feuds and historic face-offs—dating from the 1800s to the present day.

A wide range of interactive stations allow Cards and Cats fans to measure their sizes vis-à-vis 5’7”-tall Louisville Cardinal Hailey Van Lith and 7’6”-wingspan Kentucky Wildcat Anthony Davis, try to palm a basketball, and go mano a mano in UK-vs.-U of L Pop-a-Shot and Quarterback Toss. In a replica locker room with benches visitors can design a play and compare their shoe size to that of a basketball player.

On a fifty-foot replica hardwood court—one side for Cards fans (Cheat-em Hall!), the other for Big Blue Nation (Corrupt Arena!), with wall panels about the heated rivalry and coaches Denny Crum, Joe B. Hall, and Rick Pitino in the middle—visitors can simulate high-fiving U of L stars Wiley Brown and Derek Smith, co-inventors of the high five. Slapping a palm against either player’s activates one of several “big time!” or “get up, get up!” audio responses Brown recorded for the exhibition.

SELECTED OBJECTS

Each of the sections—Historic and Pop Culture Rivalries, Louisville High School Rivalries, High School Rivalries Around Kentucky, University of Louisville, University of Kentucky, and Other College Rivalries—features cases of original objects dating from the 1800s to the present day.

At a photo op station visitors can pose on the original Family Feud TV show set, which in 1979 hosted the Hatfields and McCoys playing for a cash prize and a pig. Other Historic Rivalries featured include the 1857 duel between rival Louisville newspaper editors George Prentice and Reuben Durrett and the 1920s and `30s “Cave Wars” between competing attractions Great Onyx Cave and Mammoth Onyx Cave.

Notable artifacts include vintage mascot suits from Flaget (Brave), Male (Bulldog), St. X (Tiger), UK (Wildcat), U of L (Louie), and WKU (Big Red), vintage Trinity cheerleader uniforms, a game program UK basketball head coach Joe B. Hall rolled up during a game, the Shillelagh awarded to the winner of the St. X-Trinity football game, a replica of the Barrel awarded to the winner of the Male-Manual game, and an original Antoine Walker UK basketball uniform from the 1995–96 season.

Showcasing the aptly named “Old Rivalry”—the annual Manual-Male football game, the oldest high school football rivalry in Kentucky!—are spirit week pennants, drum majorette attire, homecoming corsages, knit beanies, cheerleader sweaters, letterman jackets and patches, sticker-coated megaphones, game programs, yearbooks, final score–emblazoned footballs, stuffed toy rams and bulldogs, and a replica of the Barrel the winning team gets to display between annual matchups.

For diehard affiliates of area Catholic girls schools Assumption, Presentation, and Sacred Heart, there are buttons, pep club lapel pins, plush mascots, student newspapers, brass trophies, alumnus sweaters, Senior Memories booklets, a wood block from the original Presentation Academy gym floor, dating to 1938, and a Catholic Girls Academy Basketball League binder with sports memorabilia galore, including photos, posters, news clippings, game notes, and team rosters. There’s also a 1950s romper-style Presentation Academy girls’ basketball uniform with the last name “KEHL” embroidered on the back.

On display in the St. X-Trinity rivalry section is an embroidered band sweater personalized for C. L. Sunderhauf, who graduated St. X around 1914 before going off to fight in WWI, and Trinity’s 1958 Mr. Football Shamy Award. There are athletic bags, band capes, drums and batons, football cleats, basketball jerseys, baseball cardigans, soccer jumpsuits, cheerleader uniforms, scorecards and programs, ribbons and pennants, bumper stickers, and student newspapers from Boyle County, Butler, Central, Flaget, Hopkinsville, PRP, Shawnee, Valley, Waggener, and other high schools.

Representing collegiate rivalries are a 1930s UK football jersey, an AdaptaHorn from Memorial Coliseum, 1950–76; a Louisville Municipal College bucket hat, a WKU men’s basket uniform worn by Clem Haskins, 1964–67; a program from the UK men’s basketball exhibition against Yugoslavia, 1975; a 1983 Dream Game snapback, a Ghostbusters-themed “Louisville Catbusters” poster, 1980s; and an original UK men’s basketball uniform worn by forward Antoine Walker, 1995–96.

Select objects of historic (non-sports!) Kentucky rivalries include a gold ring that belonged to Kentucky politician and 1801 duel survivor Judge John Rowan, a percussion rifle re-engraved to Louisville Journal editor George Prentice, who in 1857 dueled Louisville Courier editor Reuben Durrett; midcentury postcards and pamphlets advertising the “Cave Wars” rivals Great Onyx Cave and Mammoth Onyx Cave; and a commemorative plate from the Hatfield-McCoy reunion festival of 2001. Famous for the violence its “feudin’, fussin,’ and fightin’” begat along the Kentucky-West Virginia border from 1863 to 1891, the Hatfield-McCoy conflict is perhaps the best-known rivalry in American history.

Squabbles in pop culture—like Flatt & Scruggs’ 1948 departure from Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys or the big-name BBQ sauces in Owensboro competing for consumers—also feature in the exhibition. And visitors get to learn about the annual Dirt Bowl basketball tournament in Shawnee Park, 1969–present; the Ali-Frazier boxing matches of the 1970s, and 1977 Kentucky Derby opponents Affirmed and Alydar.

At photo ops visitors can cheer their alma mater at the 1953 Male-Manual and 1959 St. X-Trinity games, boast their allegiance at UK-U of L and EKU-WKU matchups, and dunk in a packed arena. There’s a map of school rivalries throughout the state of Kentucky with a Sweet 16 bracket.

Featured Rivalries

Featured high school rivalries are Belfry-Central, Bellevue-Dayton, Bowling Green-Warren Central, Brooksville-Maysville, Covington Catholic-Highlands, Danville-Somerset, Fort Campbell-Fort Knox, Graves County-Marshall County, Harlan-Pineville, Hazard-Perry County Central, Lexington Catholic-Lexington Christian, Mayfield-Paducah-Tilghman, Mercer County-Southwestern, Paintsville-Pikeville, and Louisville schools Assumption-Sacred Heart, Ballard-Eastern, Butler-Mercy, Butler-PRP, Central-Shawnee, Flaget-St. X, Male-Manual, Presentation-Sacred Heart, and St. X-Trinity.

Featured college rivalries are Bellarmine-Kentucky Wesleyan, Central State-Kentucky State, Centre-Transylvania, EKU-WKU, and UK-UofL.

Alumni Writers

To share the history of the featured high schools and their heated rivalries, the Frazier has enlisted one student and one notable alumni each from a dozen schools.

Alumni guest contributors include businesswoman and philanthropist Alice Houston (Central), U of L Pediatrics publicist Anne Eldridge (Presentation), WAVE 3 anchor-reporter Dawne Gee (PRP), WHAS11 anchor-reporter Hayley Minogue (Sacred Heart), Los Angeles Angels outfielder Jo Adell (Ballard), ESPN sportscaster Katie George (Assumption), business teacher Mike Campbell (Butler), Cleveland Cavaliers guard Rajon Rondo (Eastern), former NBA player Rudy Macklin (Shawnee), and WHAS radio personalities Terry Meiners (St. X) and Tony Vanetti (Trinity). Olympic swimmer and former world record holder Mary T. Meagher has contributed a section on her swim club.