He directed Louisville to the 1980 and the 1986 NCAA Championships, ranking him as one of only 14 coaches in NCAA history to win two or more titles. Six times he guided the Cardinals into the NCAA Final Four, including four times in the decade of the ’80s. Only five coaches all-time coached more Final Four teams than Crum.

“The University of Louisville,��our community and college basketball fans everywhere have lost a legend��in Coach Denny Crum,” said UofL President Kim Schatzel.��“Whether he was leading his beloved Cardinal teams, representing the university with alumni and friends or supporting the many community organizations that counted on his generous spirit and enthusiasm, Coach Crum left a legacy that is unmatched. He will be remembered not only for the many wins and championships, but also for his calm demeanor, warm sense of humor and deep love for his adopted hometown and its people. Our lives are better for having known him.��Our hearts go out to Susan and the entire Crum family.”��

The man admirably labeled “Cool Hand Luke” by former commentator Al McGuire was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on May 9, 1994.

Crum guided the Cardinals to 23 NCAA Tournament appearances, 10th-most by a coach all-time. Crum’s teams regularly faced one of the nation’s toughest schedules and he amassed a 675-295 career coaching record, including an impressive 42-22 NCAA Tournament mark.�� Three of his squads participated in the NIT, reaching the NIT semifinals in 1985. The Cardinals captured or shared 12 Metro Conference regular season titles and 11 post-season tournament championships under Crum’s guidance. Crum engineered UofL to 20 or more victories in 21 of his 30 seasons.

After his retirement following the 2000-01 season, Crum continued to work as a special assistant to the UofL president for several years. The KFC Yum! Center court has been named in his honor. Since 2001, The Denny Crum Scholarship Foundation and the Denny Crum Scholarship Fund at UofL have awarded over a million dollars benefiting over 425 students. The San Fernando, Calif., native made Louisville his home and has lent countless hours of his time for charitable causes throughout the community for over 50 years.

A new residence hall on the UofL campus was recently named in his honor. Denny Crum Hall made possible by L&N Federal Credit Union opened in the fall 2022 semester and houses a mixture of student-athletes and non-student athletes. Men’s and women’s basketball and women’s lacrosse student-athletes – who each train in the adjoining facility, live in the residence hall.

Free tickets can now be claimed for the University of Louisville’s public Celebration of Life in honor of legendary basketball coach Denny Crum on Monday, May 15 at the KFC Yum! Center. The event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the Celebration of Life begins at 7 p.m.

Those who wish to attend may claim free tickets at the following link:��

UofL has been front and center since Derby season kicked off in late April and will hold that spot through this weekend’s Run for the Roses. Once again this year, UofL’s Marching Cards will be the “Official Band of the Kentucky Derby,” a role it has held since 1936. The Marching Cards will usher in the Most Exciting 2 Minutes in Sports on Saturday with their traditional rendition of “My Old Kentucky Home.”

The Cards will also be the first marching band to step off for the Pegasus Parade Thursday at 5 p.m. Leading the parade this year is UofL Hall of Fame Coach Denny Crum, along with former UK coach Joe B. Hall, as co-grand marshals. Notably, these same two coaches participated in the 1975 parade.

UofL Junior Tara Dunaway will also have a big presence throughout the weekend as this year year’s Kentucky Derby Festival queen. And, on Friday for the 144^th running of the Kentucky Oaks, UofL Men’s Basketball Coach Chris Mack will make the traditional “riders up” call.

UofL’s Derby presence extends beyond the track and into the legendary revelries. Former UofL Basketball legend Junior Bridgeman’s charity gala, “The Trifecta,” will . The gala is expected to draw celebrity appearances from Arsenio Hall to Stevie Wonder.��

Other Derby ties

In addition to these direct connections to the world-famous horse race, there are several Derby-themed festivities at UofL year in and year out. UofL Hospital’s Annual Derby Kiddie-Bike Race, for example, is held the Wednesday prior and encourages employees to design their own jockey silks for a tricycle race competing for win, place and show.

A number of UofL School of Medicine students completed the Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon and miniMarathon last weekend and promptly donated their medals to children fighting critical diseases. UofL joined Medals4Mettle in 2008 as the first medical school-based program in the country.

The annual Derby Lecture Series, hosted by the Chemistry Graduate Student Association, is May 7 at 12:30 p.m. in Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium. This year’s speaker is award-winning chemist Geraldine Richmond, from the University of Oregon. Richmond, who used to head up the American Association for the Advancement of Science, will speak on, “Empowering Global Scientific Engagement.” ��

Finally, each year on the Thursday prior to the Run for the Roses, the UofL James Graham Brown Cancer Center hosts the Cancer Survivor Celebration. Music is provided by UofL School of Music performers, while the cancer survivors will be joined by Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, UofL Hospital President Ken Marshall, and Jason Chesney, MD, director of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center.

To get you in the Derby spirit, check out this video of the Marching Cards and the UofL Cardinal Singers opening the 2017 Kentucky Derby with “My Old Kentucky Home.”

The program started in 2002 by the nonprofit Greater Louisville Pride Foundation with the original intent of honoring Louisville native Muhammad Ali.

According to the Louisville Heroes website, the program has since grown to honor “a diverse group of famous Louisvillians from a variety of professions – all of whom have inspired others and represented our community to the rest of the world.”

The University of Louisville is well represented in this program, having a direct or peripheral connection to more than half of the 30 existing banners, underscoring the institution’s influence on its city.

The UofL ‘heroes’

The most recent banner was unveiled in October, honoring Alberta Jones, who graduated third in her business class from UofL in 1953. Jones went on to become the first African-American woman to pass the Kentucky Bar exam, as well as the first female prosecutor in the state (she was also Muhammad Ali’s first attorney). Jones’ life ended tragically in 1965 when she was abducted and murdered at age 34. The case remains unsolved.

Jones’ banner hangs on the River City Bank building at Sixth Street and Muhammad Ali Boulevard.

Her client, Muhammad Ali – the impetus behind the Hometown Heroes program – is honored with a banner on the LG&E building downtown. Though the boxing and civil rights icon is not a UofL alum, . Prior to his death in 2016, Ali received the inaugural Grawemeyer Spirit Award, which was established to recognize an individual whose beliefs, actions and impact are in accord with Charles Grawemeyer’s reason for founding UofL’s awards program that bears his name. UofL also boasts the Muhammad Ali Institute for Peace and Justice, and the Ali Scholars is a part of this institute.��

Other UofL-related “Hometown Heroes” include:

American sculptor Ed Hamilton is honored with a banner on the Glassworks Building downtown. Among his many famous work, his public work, “The Spirit of Freedom” is a national memorial in Washington, DC. He received a Doctor of Arts Honorary Degree from UofL in 2004, when he was also the commencement speaker. Hamilton was honored as a 2005 Alumni Fellow and his work has been commissioned by the UofL Athletics Department.

Bob Edwards, the longtime NPR host, attended night school at UofL in the 1960s in order to graduate in four years to avoid being drafted without a degree. During his senior year, he started his radio career at WHEL in New Albany, Indiana, and went on to produce and anchor TV and radio news programs while in the Army. After completing his service, Edwards moved to Washington, DC, and eventually helped launch NPR’s “Morning Edition,” where he spent 25 years as the host. He has won numerous journalism awards and was inducted to the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2004.

Speaking of well-known journalists, Diane Sawyer did not graduate from UofL, but she did attend one semester of law school on campus. Her Hometown Heroes banner hangs on the Starks building on Muhammad Ali Boulevard.

Drs. Harold Kleinert and Joseph Kutz appear on the Jewish Hospital Heart and Lung Building, visible from I-65. The two helped make Louisville an internationally known destination for hand and upper extremity surgery and the center that bears their names produced the nation’s first five hand transplants. The hand transplant program, under the Louisville VCA Program, is a partnership of physicians and researchers at Jewish Hospital, the Christine M. Kleinert Institute, Kleinert��Kutz��Hand��Care��Center��and the��University��of��Louisville. Kleinert was a clinical professor of surgery emeritus at UofL. Kutz, who received his postgraduate training at UofL, also worked as a clinical professor of surgery at the UofL School of Medicine.

The Bulleit Distilling Company was created in 1987 so Tom Bulleit could revive his great-great grandfather’s (Augustus Bulleit) bourbon legacy. Prior to that first batch, Bulleit Bourbon had not been in production since 1860. Tom Bulleit is a graduate of the University of Louisville School of Law and his banner is located on South Third Street, between West Market and West Main streets.

Another UofL law graduate, Tori Murden McClure, appears on a banner on the Kentucky Exposition Center. In 1999, McClure became the first woman and American to row solo across the Atlanta Ocean. She also holds the distinction of being the first woman and American to travel over land to the geographic South Pole, skiing 750 miles from the ice shelf to the Pole. McClure has served as the president of Spalding University since 2010.

Though not a UofL graduate, Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis has a strong connection to the institution nonetheless, having donated his entire personal library and correspondence to the law school, which was named after him in 1997. After his death in 1941, his last remains, and later the remains of his wife Alice Goldmark Brandeis, were buried beneath the law school’s classical portico. Brandeis’ banner hangs on the Chase Bank building downtown.

In 2016, New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton, who received a BA in English from UofL in 1961, was honored with a banner on the Springhill Suites/Fairfield Inn hotels on East Jefferson Street. Grafton received the Distinguished Alumni Award from UofL in 1993 and the Alumna of the Year Award in 1997. Grafton’s work is published in 28 countries and 26 languages and all of the books in her Alphabet Series are international bestsellers. Grafton passed away in December 2017.

The banner honoring Patrick Hughes is draped on the side of the OK Storage Building on East Broadway at Barrett Avenue. Hughes was born without eyes and with arms and legs that can never fully extend, but that didn’t stop him from studying piano and trumpet as a child. In 2006, at the suggestion of marching band director Dr. Greg Byrne, Hughes joined the UofL marching band and played trumpet while his father pushed him in his wheelchair. Hughes graduated from UofL magna cum laude with a Spanish major, and later wrote the book “I Am Potential,” which was turned into a movie in 2015.��

Actress Jennifer Lawrence has been snapped by the paparazzi on a few occasions wearing her UofL gear. Though she didn’t attend the school, she is an ardent supporter, lending her voice to UofL’s ACC entrance video in 2014, donating money toward arts grants that benefit UofL programs and more.

Lisa Harrison’s banner hangs on her alma mater – Southern High School. The basketball star, who played for the University of Tennessee from 1989 to 1993 and later in the WNBA until 2005, joined UofL’s athletic department after her playing career to serve as an outreach coordinator.

Speaking of putting Louisville on the basketball map, Darrell Griffith, UofL’s all-time leading scorer, is honored on the Watterson City Building along 1-264 East. The player, known as “Dr. Dunkenstein,” helped deliver UofL’s first NCAA men’s basketball championship in 1980. He went on to play for the Utah Jazz, was named the NBA’s Rookie of the Year in 1981, and was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014.

Griffith’s UofL coach, Denny Crum, is also honored with a Hometown Heroes banner, located on the Marriott Courtyard building across from the KFC Yum! Center. Crum led the Cardinals to 23 NCAA tournament appearances during his 30-year career, including the 1980 championship. Crum was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1994.��

The Hometown Heroes program is slated to end, but at least three more murals are in the works before that happens. These tentative banners include the late Enid Yandell, a sculptress whose work has appeared on the Belknap campus, and the late artist Julius Friedman, who received a graphic design degree from UofL. The remaining banners are expected to be put into place by the end of the year. More information on the program, including how the banners are made, is .

Best known as the site of legendary basketball pick-up games, the 53-year-old facility served as home to the UofL men’s and women’s basketball teams, swim team and other sports. It also was home to countless physical education classes and intramural sports competitions.

Crawford is being taken down to make way for a new academic classroom building. Interior work will begin Monday, Aug. 8, with demolition of the building scheduled for later this month.

The open house featured a ceremony that included remarks from former coaches and players, a team photo of many basketball players from 1962 to 2001, and a ceremonial cutting of the nets. It also featured the presentation of an engraved starting block for former swim coach Rick Hill.

Hall of Fame basketball coach Denny Crum addressed the crowd and signed autographs throughout the day.

“I would like you to know how much the players and I, in particular, appreciate all of you being here to share this with us,” Crum said.

Dozens of visitors lined up to purchase pieces of the Crawford Gym floor. Crawford’s scoreboards, basketball goals and swimming platforms also are being sold at auction. All proceeds will support the Denny Crum Scholarship Fund, which provides support for incoming students.

The fund “is to help kids go to college,” Crum said. “That’s what we do here. This is a university, and that’s the way it should be.”

. Watch video from the event below:��

And, of course, it has been home to the faculty/staff for decades.

Now the historic structure, built in 1963, is coming down to make way for a new academic building – and the university invites fans to help send it out in style.

UofL will hold an open house at Crawford Gym for former players and fans from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4. Activities will include an 11 a.m. event in which Hall of Fame Coach Denny Crum and several former players will share memories of their days in Crawford. The open house is free and open to the public.

In addition, the university invites the community to share their memories of Crawford Gym in the comments section at . The university will collect the memories through Aug. 7, at which time the comments will be delivered to the University Archives.

Fans can also own a piece of Crawford Gym in one of two ways. The university will sell a limited number of 8-by-10-inch pieces of the Crawford Gym floor for $50 apiece. Go to for more details. Scoreboards, bleachers, goals and other items will be part of an online auction July 26 through Aug. 5. The auction site, which will go live on July 26, will be at: .

Net proceeds will benefit activities that support the Denny Crum Scholarship Foundation.