Louisville Legends: Honor Denny Crum by Supporting Kenny Payne

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The University of Louisville said goodbye to a legend earlier this week.

On Monday, thousands gathered at Southeast Christian Church for the visitation and funeral of former Cardinals men's basketball head coach Denny Crum, who passed away last Tuesday at the age of 86. Later in the day, just as many flocked to the KFC Yum! Center for a celebration of the Hall of Fame coach's life.

The Celebration of Life featured several speakers, a few of whom were former players from Crum's Louisville teams in the 1970's and 1980's. Those former players - Billy Thompson, Junior Bridgeman and Darrell Griffith - believe that the best way to honor Crum and the legacy that he built is to support current men's basketball head coach Kenny Payne.

"Tonight, we're celebrating the legacy, the memorial, of Denny Crum," Thompson said, who spoke first at the event and played for Louisville from 1982-86. "My prayer is going to be that thing that God put in Denny on, on (John) Wooden, that it would come on Kenny. ... He's about all of us winning together, and that's the spirit that we had when Coach (Crum) was here leading us. That's the spirit that has always been here. And guess what? We had the best fans. Coach had the best fans behind him, and we're going to need those same fans to continue to speak up, and stand up, for Kenny Payne."

Griffith, who played under Crum from 1976-80, is the leading scorer in program history and helped them win their first championship as a senior, went a step further. He revealed that he wanted to hold a press conference during this past season to address the fans about declining attendance amidst a tumultuous season, and even went as far to say he was "disappointed" with the overall support.

"If you want to be true Louisville fans, you got to ride and die with them, through good and bad times," he said, which then prompted a standing ovation from the crowd in attendance. "One of coach's proudest moments was when Kenny got the job. ... He had one of his disciples that was going to fall into his footsteps, knowing that his program was in good hands. But as fans, we got to believe that. We got to believe that. If you want to celebrate coach Crum's life, if you want to make him smile, then next year, let's get back to the way that we were when we filled up this arena night in and night out."

Payne, who played under Crum from 1985-1989, was hired by UofL in March of 2022 following the mutual separation with former head coach Chris Mack. Under his first season at the helm, Louisville experienced arguably their worst season in the 109-year history of the program in 2022-23, going just 4-28

Attendance, as you can imagine, plummeted as the season went on. The average announced attendance for the season was around 12,496 fans per game, which was only 56.5 percent of the KFC Yum! Center's capacity of 22,090. But anyone who attended a game - particularly in the latter half of the season - could see that the announced attendance, which goes by tickets sold and not tickets scanned, was far higher than the actual attendance.

Bridgeman, who played at UofL from 1971-75 and spoke in between Thompson and Griffith at the Celebration of Life, believes that Payne is the right guy to bring Louisville back to prominence.

“When we see somebody that might have played 10-15 years after us, there’s still a connection,” he said. "We lost that today. But Kenny Payne is gonna bring that back; I’m not worried.”

Despite losing seven players to the transfer portal, including leading scorer El Ellis, Payne and his staff have done a good job at bringing in new talent. Louisville is welcoming in five-star prospects Dennis Evans, and Trentyn Flowers, four-star prospects Kaleb Glenn and Curtis Williams Jr., and JUCO transfer Koron Davis as part of their 2023 class. Former Illinois guard Skyy Clark, former Miami forward Danilo Jovanovich and former USC guard/forward Tre White are also transferring in. Only Mike James, J.J. Traynor, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and Emmanuel Okorafor are returning.

Payne, who also spoke at the Celebration of Life, admittedly didn't expect the trio of former players to vouch for him during the event. That being said, he also shared their sentiment.

"For me, I hate to say it like this, it’s bigger than me," he said. "So when you find people that are saying not good things about Kenny Payne or whatever, it goes against the fiber of what this is built on. And the reality of it is, you need everybody that’s true Cardinals' fans, that loved Denny Crum, to love me so that I could help bring back what he did. That’s what this is about. That’s why I came here.”

(Photo of Darrell Griffith: Pat McDonogh / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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