Russ Ballard Last Time

The Legend Of Richie Farmer

Hanging in the rafters above the home court of the winningest college basketball program in history are the retired jerseys and banners of the men who made Kentucky basketball into an institution. To followers of the Wildcats, the banners are more than just echoes of glories passed; they are emblems of memories now gifted from generation to generation, a lineage of hoops blueblood.

Right next to the banner of Adolph Rupp himself, patriarch of the Kentucky program and namesake of venerable Rupp Arena, hangs the number 32 of Richie Farmer. To those outside the Bluegrass State, the name likely means next to nothing. But ask the basketball-mad denizens of the area who Farmer is and you'll get a tale that weaves itself in and out of two decades of local history, a tale equal parts legend and flat, hard truth. In Kentucky, there might be thousands of Richies -- Richie Smiths and Richie Joneses and Richie Johnsons -- but there's only one Richie .

Maybe they'll recount the exploits of the stocky, mustachioed teenager who lit up Louisville Ballard for 51 points in the state finals. Or perhaps it will be a story about the night Richie returned home on a barnstorming tour to Manchester, the tiny county seat of Clay County, Ky., and treated the devoted to 110 points on 30 three-pointers. Or maybe, these days, they'll mumble a little, as if trophies long since varnished have lost their luster. To the people of Kentucky, the name Richie Farmer once held rare esteem, one gained from hardscrabble roots, basketball excellence and a fierce loyalty. But as so many former athletic stars have found, the glare of the klieg lights outside the arena can illuminate things those tens of thousands of eyes inside never saw.

Richie Farmer never much thought of the spotlight’s raw burn growing up in Clay County. Nestled in the coal hills of Southeastern Kentucky, Manchester is the sort of place you never end up. You're either from there or you're still there. Not much changes, there aren’t any new jobs and there’s never enough money for the things a county with unemployment three times the national average needs. A much-anticipated waste recycling plant that was to bring 1,400 jobs to town has yet to materialize. Recently, a vital local aid program went under.

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