> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.insidekentuckybasketball.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # In new book, Dan Issel shares memories of his storied UK basketball career - URL: https://www.insidekentuckybasketball.com/in-new-book-dan-issel-shares-memories-of-his-storied-uk-basketball-career/ - Published: 2026-10-21T10:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-21T09:59:59.000Z - Description: The program's all-time leading scorer talks to Inside Kentucky Basketball about life's ups and downs ahead of a public launch party for the book on campus Thursday. - Author: Ben Roberts - Tags: Features Dan Issel’s first trip to Lexington wasn’t necessarily the fairy tale, love-at-first-sight experience befitting the incredible basketball story that would follow. He landed in Louisville, for starters, catching a ride with UK assistant coach Joe B. Hall and Wildcats guard Phil Argento for that 75-mile journey east to the campus he’d ultimately call home. At the time, that outcome appeared to be a long shot. There were good experiences on Issel’s first recruiting visit, to be sure. One, in particular, a trip to a couple of Thoroughbred farms, including storied Calumet, sparked a love for horses and horse racing that still endures. But Issel didn’t commit to the Cats on the spot. He likely would have been turned down if he'd tried. While on campus and perusing a copy of the student newspaper, the *Kentucky Kernel*, the teenager noticed an article chronicling at least 15 high school players that Adolph Rupp was pursuing in that year’s recruiting class. There were two names listed at center. “My name wasn’t mentioned at all,” the UK great writes in his new book, *Dan Issel: From Kentucky Wildcat to NBA Legend*. “I left Lexington feeling like I wasn’t really wanted.” That feeling didn’t last long. Soon after Issel’s first visit, the two players who were listed at center in that *Kernel* article (George Janky and Joe Bergman) committed to other colleges. Rupp needed a big man in his 1966 recruiting class, so the staff invited Issel back to campus and rolled out the red carpet. That’s no exaggeration. When the high schooler landed (in Lexington, this time), Rupp was inside the airport and there was a *literal* red carpet waiting to be unfurled. “We landed here at Blue Grass Field, and yeah, they rolled out the red carpet,” Issel said with a laugh during an interview with *Inside Kentucky Basketball* this week. “And all the flight attendants are looking around trying to figure out who it's for, and it's for this 17-year-old pimply faced kid!” His recruitment didn’t end there. In the book, Issel recounts Hall’s dogged pursuit that finally ended in his signature. That was 60 years ago. A Hall of Fame career followed. But to this day, Issel calls choosing to attend the University of Kentucky the best decision he’s ever made. The leading scorer in program history is back in town this week, and he’s been making the rounds. Issel has appeared on local TV and radio shows to publicize the new book, which is set for an official release Nov. 3 but will be available for early purchase [at a special launch party](https://www.kentuckypress.com/events/book-release-and-signing-of-dan-issel-from-kentucky-wildcat-to-nba-legend-with-dan-issel-and-doug-brunk-moderated-by-tom-hammond/?ref=insidekentuckybasketball.com) at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Gorham Hall at the E.S. Good Barn (1451 University Drive) on UK’s campus. Issel will be joined by co-author Doug Brunk for an autograph signing and discussion, moderated by longtime friend and legendary broadcaster Tom Hammond, as part of the event. A $50 ticket includes admission and a hardcover copy of the book, [and pre-registration is available online](https://events.blackthorn.io/en/f44kS177/dan-issel-book-release-and-signing-5a4kVq1X5ht/overview?utm%5Fsource=sfmc-alumniphilantropy&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=Celebrate%2520Dan%2520Issel%25E2%2580%2599s%2520basketball%2520legacy%2520with%2520a%2520special%2520evening%2520at%2520UK). Issel, who will celebrate his 78th birthday Sunday, first met Brunk in 2012 when the author was writing *Wildcat Memories*. Brunk is also the author of *Forty Minutes to Glory* (an account of UK's 1978 national title) and most recently collaborated with Jack “Goose” Givens on *They Call Me Goose*, an autobiography of the Kentucky basketball legend. “I've read everything he’s done, and I knew if he was involved, it was going to be a quality book,” Issel said. “But I thought it would be fun to put down in writing about our lives, so our grandkids and great grandkids would have something to read about the kind of people we tried to be. And I didn't want it to be superficial. I told Doug, ‘If we're going to do it, we're going to talk about everything.’ “I've had so many great things happen in my life. But there's been a few rough spots. And it's important for me to let people know that if you persevere and lean on your faith and your family and your friends — and learn some lessons from it — you come out better on the other side.” Basketball is at the center of Issel’s autobiography, but perseverance is a theme throughout. About half of the book is dedicated to his time in Kentucky, starting with his starring role for the Wildcats and including the five seasons spent with the Kentucky Colonels, a stretch that culminated in the 1975 ABA championship, which he called the highlight of his basketball life. UK fans will surely delight at the stories about his playing days in Lexington, told with Issel’s signature wit and humor, including a few laugh out loud tales of interactions with Rupp and off-the-court antics. (His first trip to Keeneland, with a prominent UK booster, stands out.) In an interview this week, he recounted some of those stories, including the striking difference between Hall’s dogged recruitment to the freshman team workouts led by Rupp’s longtime right-hand man: UK assistant Harry Lancaster. If the NCAA transfer rules of 2026 had applied back in the 1960s, Issel’s career might’ve looked a whole lot different. “When they're recruiting you, you know, it's, ‘Hey, you're great.’ And, ‘We need you to be with our program.’ And then when you're here, they want to make sure,” he said. “And this was Coach Lancaster's job as the freshman coach. He was like a Marine drill sergeant. And it went from ‘Hey, you're great!’ To, ‘Hey, you stink!’ And so, yeah, I think if there was a transfer portal, then after our freshman year, all 11 of us would have been in the transfer portal!” Issel would face much tougher tests later in life, and he doesn’t shy away from those while telling his story. There was the heartache of being “sold” (not “traded,” he points out) away from the Colonels and forced to leave the commonwealth, his adopted home, at the height of the franchise’s on-court success. There was also his relatively short-lived ownership of a horse farm in Woodford County (a lifelong dream, realized at an unfortunate time), a verbal altercation with an NBA fan that made national headlines and led to his resignation as head coach of the Denver Nuggets, and a series of bad investments culminating in personal bankruptcy in 2009. In each instance, Issel says that he came out a better man on the other side. And in each of those cases, as he has throughout his life, he leaned on faith and family to see him through. “I don't think things happen by chance,” he said. “I think that there is a divine intervention in your life. There's a reason things happen.” Those themes are explored in depth throughout his book, starting with a childhood split between Batavia, Illinois and a small farming community in western Missouri, up to the present day, spent with his wife Cheri, a Lexington native and UK cheerleader during Issel’s playing days. Dan proposed to Cheri before his junior season at UK — Rupp wasn’t thrilled, and that conversation is in the book, too — and the couple married before his senior season. The famous Wildcat now has five grandchildren to dote on. Issel lives in Denver these days, but he gets back to Kentucky as often as he can. When folks who don’t know his story ask the 6-foot-8 man if he played basketball, the inevitable follow-up — “Who did you play for?” — doesn’t get a reply focused on his Hall of Fame pro career. “I say the University of Kentucky,” Issel writes. “That always gets a reaction: *‘You played at Kentucky?’* There’s a weight to that name, a tradition that commands attention.” Whenever he’s in Lexington, he rarely gets those questions. This is where he made his name, and, six decades since he left town feeling like he wasn’t really wanted, he’s still greeted warmly everywhere he goes. “That never happens anyplace else,” Issel said this week. “I mean, I can walk down the street in Lexington, and people talk to me like they saw me the day before yesterday. And it's been 57 years since I played here. That's the amazing part about having been a part of this program.” [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4b/42/4b424756-e11a-4365-9300-59cc68bfbdc1/content/images/2026/10/IKB--wide--1.PNG)](#/portal/signup) Please support independent coverage of the Wildcats with a subscription to Inside Kentucky Basketball. [Subscribe to Inside Kentucky Basketball ](#/portal/signup)