| 1962Kentucky Wildcats football | |
|---|---|
 Kentucky's "Thin Thirty" starting line-up, September 22, 1962 | |
| Conference | Southeastern Conference |
| Record | 3–5–2 (2–3–1 SEC) |
| Head coach |
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| Home stadium | McLean Stadium |
Seasons | |
| Conf. | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Team | W | L | T | W | L | T | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. 3Ole Miss $ | 6 | – | 0 | – | 0 | 10 | – | 0 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. 5Alabama | 6 | – | 1 | – | 0 | 10 | – | 1 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. 7LSU | 5 | – | 1 | – | 0 | 9 | – | 1 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Georgia Tech | 5 | – | 2 | – | 0 | 7 | – | 3 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Florida | 4 | – | 2 | – | 0 | 7 | – | 4 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Auburn | 4 | – | 3 | – | 0 | 6 | – | 3 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Georgia | 2 | – | 3 | – | 1 | 3 | – | 4 | – | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kentucky | 2 | – | 3 | – | 1 | 3 | – | 5 | – | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mississippi State | 2 | – | 5 | – | 0 | 3 | – | 6 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tennessee | 2 | – | 6 | – | 0 | 4 | – | 6 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vanderbilt | 1 | – | 6 | – | 0 | 1 | – | 9 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tulane | 0 | – | 7 | – | 0 | 0 | – | 10 | – | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The1962 Kentucky Wildcats football team represented theUniversity of Kentucky in theSoutheastern Conference during the1962 NCAA University Division football season.[1] Coached byCharlie Bradshaw, aBear Bryant disciple, the team was thinned by his brutal methods from 88 players to just 30. The team was thus known as theThin Thirty.[2] While the team's record was just 3–5–2, it did include a dramatic victory in the season finale againstTennessee in Knoxville, 12–10. The winning margin was provided by a field goal byClarkie Mayfield, one of the heroes of the game, who later died in theBeverly Hills Supper Club fire on May 28, 1977.[3]
Players on the Kentucky team includedTom Hutchinson,Dale Lindsey, andHerschel Turner, all of whom later played in theNFL.Bob Kosid and Junior Hawthorne later played in theCFL. Two assistant coaches on the 1962 Kentucky staff,Leeman Bennett andChuck Knox, later had success as NFL head coaches. AssistantsHomer Rice (Cincinnati Bengals, University of Cincinnati and Rice University),Bud Moore (Kansas University) andDave Hart (University of Pittsburgh) were all later head coaches. Lindsey went on to become a successful NFL assistant coach, working with theChicago Bears.
| Date | Opponent | Site | Result | Attendance | Source | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 22 | Florida State* | T 0–0 | 34,000 | [4] | |||
| September 29 | at No. 7Ole Miss | L 0–14 | 42,000 | [5] | |||
| October 6 | Auburn |
| L 6–16 | 33,500 | [6] | ||
| October 12 | atDetroit* | W 27–8 | 14,548 | [7] | |||
| October 20 | No. 4LSU |
| L 0–7 | 37,000 | [8] | ||
| October 27 | atGeorgia | T 7–7 | 32,000 | [9] | |||
| November 2 | atMiami (FL)* | L 17–25 | 43,614 | [10] | |||
| November 10 | Vanderbilt |
| W 7–0 | 26,000 | [11] | ||
| November 17 | Xavier* |
| L 9–14 | 20,000 | [12] | ||
| November 24 | atTennessee | W 12–10 | 34,172 | [13] | |||
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The 1962 Kentucky football team is the subject of a book,The Thin Thirty, by Shannon Ragland, published in August, 2007. The focus of the book is the '62 roster of players under first-year coach Charlie Bradshaw—a Bear Bryant disciple—who ended up thinning the team from 88 to 30 players via his brutal conditioning tactics and exploitation of players. It places this in the backdrop of racial and economic tensions of the South and its impact on several players.[14]
The book asserts that several members of the 1962 team became involved in a gay sex scandal involving actorRock Hudson, and that a crucial game was fixed that year.[15] It then finished by following up with what happened to the players afterward.[14]
The Thin Thirty received reviews in several publications, including theVoice-Tribune, theCharleston Post & Courier, theLouisville Courier-Journal and by Professor Weldon Johnson, the author ofChokehold.[16][17]
Jon Johnston fromCornNation praises the research and epilogue, but finds the back story at 100-pages was long, the writing was redundant at times, and the assertion of the Xavier game being fixed without evidence "damages the credibility" of the book.[14]