Ben Chandler has certainly made his mark on Kentucky politics and he's also the grandson of former MLB commissioner A.B. 'Happy' Chandler. On this episode of the WUKY SportsPage the current executive director of the non-profit Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky talks with Keith Elkins about his own introduction to the game, the opportunity to meet some of baseball’s greatest players and personalities, and his grandfather’s significant term as commissioner. And he is still very proud of a 3-for-3 performance in a Congressional baseball game.

Dorian Hairston was a hard-hitting outfielder for the University of Kentucky from 2013-16, batting .318 in SEC games in his junior year, and starting 31 games in his senior season. He also received numerous academic and community service honors during his time as a Wildcat. Now, he’s making his mark as a poet. His first book, “Pretend the Ball is Named Jim Crow,” published earlier this year, uses a collection of his poems to tell the story of baseball great Josh Gibson. With his poetry, Hairston gives voice to Gibson, his children, and his baseball connections such as fellow Hall of Famer Satchel Paige and Pittsburgh Crawfords manager Hooks Tinker, who is credited with discovering Gibson at an industrial league game in 1927. The poems address baseball accomplishments, life in the Negro Leagues, race issues, and tragedies in the life of Gibson, who became a widower at age 18 when his wife died giving birth to their twin children. Gibson himself died at the age of 35 in 1947, just three months before Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers.Some of this interview covers adult themes - parental discretion is advised.

Jack (Goose) Givens is among the most popular athletes ever to wear Kentucky’s blue and white. He led the Wildcats to the 1978 NCAA basketball championship, scoring 41 points against Duke in the final game. He earned All-American and multiple All-SEC honors while at UK. He is third on the all-time scoring list for UK men’s basketball with 2,038 points, behind only Dan Issel and Kenny Walker. Givens went on to play professionally in the NBA, and in Italy, Belgium and Japan. He has had a long and successful broadcasting career in college and professional basketball, and just completed his second season as the analyst for UK radio broadcasts, teaming with play-by-play announcer Tom Leach. Givens recently released a book about his life, They Call Me Goose, co-written with Doug Brunk.

For a second time, Alan Stein has brought the Legends to Lexington. The minor league baseball team opened play as a Houston Astros affiliate in 2001, following years of effort and planning led by Alan. He stepped away from the team in 2011. Now, after a year of being called the Lexington CounterClocks, the Legends are back in 2024. Alan is part of a new ownership group that has brought back the old nickname, and hopes to bring back the fan base with some new ideas as well as some familiar favorites. This conversation covers the recent developments that resulted in the “Legendary” comeback.

Marc Logan was a star running back at Kentucky in the mid-1980s. He was an outstanding rusher, receiver, and kick returner. A graduate of Bryan Station High School, he also had great success as a sprinter, including a win over Willie Gault, a 1980 U.S. Olympic qualifier and a star receiver at Tennessee and in the NFL. After much extra work to improve as a receiver, Logan led the Wildcats in receptions in his sophomore, junior and senior seasons. He was the Most Valuable Player in the Hall of Fame Bowl as Kentucky defeated Wisconsin following the 1984 season. He went on to an 11-year career in the NFL with Cincinnati, Miami, San Francisco and Washington, and was a part of two Super Bowl teams, including the champion 49ers in Super Bowl XXIX. He is a member of the Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Lexington African-American Sports Hall of Fame. In this interview, he talks about favoring track over football before college, his accomplishments at UK, his Super Bowl teams, some of his NFL teammates, including Jerry Rice, Steve Young, Dan Marino and Boomer Esiason, and how a surprise call from coach Don Shula led to his signing with the Dolphins.

Derrick Ramsey had an outstanding career as an athlete, and has continued to make his mark in business, athletics administration, and government service at the state cabinet level. He is a member of the UK Athletics Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame. As the UK quarterback, he led the Wildcats to the Peach Bowl in 1976 and a 10-1 season in 1977. He went on to a nine-year career in the NFL, including a Super Bowl championship with the Oakland Raiders, and another Super Bowl appearance with the New England Patriots. He has served as Kentucky’s Secretary of the Labor Cabinet, Secretary of the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet and before that, Deputy Secretary of Commerce. He also has served on the UK Board of Trustees. He tells his story in a book titled “They Call Me Mr. Secretary” written with Dr. John Huang. Derrick’s start in the small town of Hastings, Florida, his UK and NFL careers, including his interactions with John Madden and Al Davis, are covered in this conversation, as are his longtime friendship with his high school and UK teammate Art Still, his relationship with coach Fran Curci and more.

Dave Kindred has been a columnist for the Louisville Courier-Journal, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal Constitution, National Sports Daily, Sporting News, and Golf Digest. He has won three of the sportswriting profession’s most prestigious honors: The Red Smith Award, the PEN America ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing, and the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sports Writing. He won the Curt Gowdy Award presented for excellence in writing by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He is a member of the National Sports Media Hall of Fame and the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.He has covered Super Bowls, World Series, Olympic Games, the Masters, heavyweight championship fights, and many other major sporting events all over the world. During his time with the Courier-Journal, he got to know and cover Muhammad Ali, and continued to do so for 50 years. Now, after retiring from newspapers, he has found a new direction in his career that has turned into an important chapter of his personal life as well. He is back in his native central Illinois, writing about the games of a high school girls basketball team, the Morton High School Lady Potters. That started as a way to stay active in sports writing, but has gone far beyond that. His connection to the team and the community has been a great source of support for him during difficult personal times, including the loss of his wife, his mother and a grandson all within a few years. He talks about that in this podcast, and tells the story (also featured on CBS' 60 Minutes), in detail in his latest book, “My Home Team: A Sportswriter’s Life and the Redemptive Power of Small-Town Girls Basketball.”

Marty Brennaman was the play-by-play broadcaster for the Cincinnati Reds for 46 seasons, from 1974 through 2019. He was named baseball’s Ford Frick Award winner in 2000, making him a member of the broadcasters’ wing of the baseball Hall of Fame. He is best known for his long tenure in Cincinnati, but he was also a prominent college basketball broadcaster. His assignments included two seasons as the television voice of the University of Kentucky Wildcats, 1986-87 and 1987-88. He broadcast NCAA tournament games for 17 years.Before joining the Reds, he called the games of the Triple-A Tidewater Tides. He was also the voice of Virginia Tech football, and of the Virginia Squires of the American Basketball Association. He was the Virginia Tech broadcaster when the Hokies played Kentucky at the first game at Commonwealth Stadium in 1973. In March of 1992, he called the Kentucky-Duke regional final for NCAA radio.

Dick Parsons was recently inducted into the University of Kentucky Athletics Hall of Fame. He was a two-sport star at Kentucky. He played basketball for the Wildcats under Adolph Rupp, and was an All-American in baseball. He later returned to UK as head baseball coach for three seasons before joining the basketball staff on a full-time basis under Coach Joe B. Hall. He was on the coaching staff of the 1978 NCAA championship team. Parsons is a native Kentuckian from Harlan County, and is a member of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame. Parsons is Keith's guest this week on the WUKY SportsPage.

Leroy Byrd, listed at five-feet-five, but as he says, “no more than five-three,” played basketball for the University of Kentucky and UNLV after finishing a high school career in which he earned state and regional honors while leading Bryan Station to the Sweet Sixteen. He later played professionally for the Harlem Magicians and in the World Basketball League. Known as “Baby Magic,” Byrd contributed to his team’s offense with scoring and assists and disrupted opponents with ball-hawking defense.In this interview, he talks about getting his start in basketball, his confidence and motivation to succeed, his high school and college coaches (Bobby Barlow at Bryan Station, Jerry Tarkanian at UNLV, Joe B. Hall and Eddie Sutton at Kentucky), and some of his keys to success in a tall player’s sport.Byrd will be inducted into the Lexington African-American Sports Hall of Fame September 23rd.