Fade of August.

American Pharoah won the Haskell Invitational in front of largest television audience for horse racing in 13 years.

Tiger Woods missed another cut. … Major League Baseball races are starting to heat up. … OVC favorite Eastern Kentucky opens college football season September 3.

And, John Calipari got his name into news cycles three days running last week.

I gotta tell ya, when Worth Repeating Department gears up for Year-In-Review, my vote is in the bank. The following classic belongs on one of those dazzling propaganda walls at Craft Center.

Exchange between ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser and Jason Whitlock last week.

Kornheiser: “I loved Calipari until today. I love him 10 times more now because he’s established that he is a gangster. He thrives in it. He wants to be in it. He’s at the alpha dog school in Kentucky. He’s the alpha dog coach and he’s, he’s Sonny Corleone.” (The Godfather)

Whitlock: “You’re giving (Calipari) credit for what he’s supposed to do. He’s at Kentucky. He’s got the best program. He’s been doing this for years and now you want to give him extra credit because he’s bragging about what he’s supposed to do when you’re at Kentucky?”

Kornheiser “loves Calipari 10 times more now” because Pardon The Interruption keeps Kentucky’s coach on its future guests list.

Whitlock’s assessment? Spot on.

What’s this hubbub about? A radio report from columnist Gary Parrish said that three years ago Calipari accosted Iowa coach Fran McCaffery who allegedly had told coaching pals that UK’s coach is a cheat.

Confrontation in Las Vegas, Calipari didn’t only scold or threaten to assault McCaffery, he told Iowa’s coach any time he believed he had locked up a recruit, “… if I decide I want him at Kentucky, I’m getting him.” (paraphrased)

Hunch here is, Kornheiser’s Sonny Corleone characterization for Calipari will be received as highest compliment for any recruiting season for the man who coached No. 1 UK to a number three finish last season.

‘THREE-AND-DONE’

Trae Young is a high school hoops prodigy at Norman North High School in Oklahoma. The father Rayford and son have been advised he should transfer to a prep school, play better competition. Advised by whom? John Calipari.

A local sports editor wrote: “Isn’t it nice to know that the king of one-and-done at the collegiate level seeks to be the impetus behind a prep kid going three-and-done at his hometown high school.

“Isn’t it nice to know that in an age of college athletics as a billion-dollar business, Calipari and his pin-striped suit are unaffected by all of it, that for all of his kiss-the-ring self-importance in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, all the Wildcat coach really wants to do is give a rising high school junior some sound advice.”

EKU STOCK SPIKE?

Eastern Kentucky’s stock as favorite to win the Ohio Valley Conference may have sky-rocketed this week. Running back Adam Lane’s transfer from Florida became official and the 5-7 224-pounder who was MVP in last year’s Birmingham Bowl joins a Colonels’ team that finished 9-4 a season ago thanks in part to OVC player of the year, running back Dy’Shawn Mobley, a transfer from Kentucky.

JIM INGLE

Another mostly uncelebrated (under appreciated?) contributors to greatness of University of Kentucky basketball and football passed on last week. Jim Ingle was 83.

Public address announcer at basketball and football games for 20 seasons beginning in 1968, Ingle was the best.

He was to in-house audiences what Cawood Ledford was to radio listeners. Solid, dependable with emphasis on fairness to players on both teams.

Ingle’s base-toned player introductions – some called it the-voice-of-god – heightened the experience in Memorial Coliseum, then Rupp Arena. When a visiting player made a basket, Ingle’s report gave it equal importance. Good journalism.

“That was very intentional,” son Jay Ingle told the Lexington Herald-Leader. “He wanted to make sure he was very neutral. He didn’t want to be a cheerleader.”

By 1988 neutral was out of style. UK’s marketing and profit-making strategy surrendered to NBA glitz. Ingle was let go in favor of Era of the Screamer.

Ingle epitaph? Because he was best at what he did, his name belongs on a UK registry for a Golden Era, alongside Bill Keightly, Russell Rice, Claude Sullivan, Cawood Ledford and more.

NUMBER 24

Jamal Mashburn. Most recognizable player from Kentucky’s Unforgettables team in 1992. Leading scorer and twice All-American, sophomore and junior. The kid they called Monster Mash remains iconic to Wildcat fans.

Ah but, Mashburn threw up an air ball last week.

On subject of NCAA D-I affiliates cashing in on video games featuring player images and sale of jersey with name and numbers, Mashburn told the Lexington Herald-Leader, “even if it doesn’t have my name on the back it’s still 24. It implies it’s your jersey.”

Not so fast. Mashburn was not first at UK to bring distinction to number 24, and likely won’t be last. For some 24 brings to mind All-American Johnny Cox, leading scorer on the NCAA title winning Fiddlin’ Five in 1958. His 24 was retired. By 1962 guard Larry Pursiful made the number popular and he wore it to All-SEC honors.

And so it goes.

You can reach me at bob.Watkins24@aol.com