AP News, November 30th, 2007
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Ralph Beard
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Ralph Beard, an All-American guard for Kentucky in the 1940s and a key figure in one of college basketball's biggest betting scandals, died Thursday. He was 79.
Beard, who helped the Wildcats win national championships in 1948 and 1949 under coach Adolph Rupp, died of heart failure at his home after a series of illnesses in recent years, his son said.
A speedy, 5-foot-10 guard, Beard was among Rupp's famed "Fab Five," along with Alex Groza, Wallace "Wah Wah" Jones, Cliff Barker and Kenny Rollins.
The Wildcats finished 36-3 in 1948, beating Baylor 77-59 for the national title. The following summer, Rupp and the five starters teamed with the AAU champion Phillips Oilers to win the Olympic gold medal in London, then won another NCAA championship.
Beard was the school's first four-time All-SEC selection, and finished with 1,517 points, currently 14th on Kentucky's scoring list.
He played in the NBA's first All-Star game in 1951. Less than a year later, his career was over. Before the start of the 1952 season, Beard and Groza were among several players involved in a point-shaving scandal that rocked college basketball. They received suspended sentences, but were banned for life from the NBA.
Beard admitted to taking $700 from gamblers, but said he never shaved points.
Former coach Joe B. Hall, who played for Rupp in 1949 and later replaced him, said Beard's style on the court transcends the changes in the game.
Beard was born in Hardinsburg, then moved to Louisville to attend high school, said his daughter-in-law, Tina Beard.
After his pro career ended, Beard returned to Louisville and went to work at Gould's Pharmaceuticals as a salesman and later as general manager, she said.
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Henry Hyde
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Rep. Henry Hyde, the Illinois Republican who steered the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton and championed government restrictions on the funding of abortions, died Thursday. He was 83.
The death was announced by House Minority Leader John Boehner's office on Capitol Hill. He died just weeks after President Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a ceremony that he was too ill to attend.
Hyde, who retired in January, underwent open-heart surgery in July. He died in his sleep early Thursday at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, said hospital spokeswoman Mary Ann Schultz.
The "Hyde Amendment" banning federal funds for abortions became a fixture in the annual spending debate; Hyde also was a leader in passing the ban on so-called partial birth abortions.
As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, he led House efforts to impeach Clinton in 1998 for allegedly lying about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and in 1999 was the chief House manager in the unsuccessful bid to win a Senate conviction.
Hyde's own reputation was tarnished when an online magazine revealed he'd had an affair with a married woman some 30 years before, when he was in his early 40s. Hyde brushed it off as a "youthful indiscretion."
The congressman was among 12 former directors and officers of the Clyde Federal Savings and Loan of North Riverside, Ill., sued by federal regulators after the institution's 1990 failure, which cost taxpayers an estimated $68 million.
Hyde, who had left the S&L's board in 1984, insisted he did nothing wrong and was the only director who refused to contribute to an $850,000 settlement of the lawsuit.
Hyde was born in Chicago on April 18, 1924. After serving in the Navy from 1944 to 1946, seeing combat in the Philippines, he graduated from Georgetown University in 1947 and returned to Chicago to earn a law degree from Loyola in 1949.
He worked as a Chicago trial lawyer before winning a seat in the Illinois House in 1966 and then in the U.S. House in 1974.
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Tommy Kron
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Tommy Kron, a starter on Kentucky's "Rupp's Runts" team in the 1960s, died Thursday at home after a battle with cancer, the school announced. He was 64.
Coach Adolph Rupp's Runts, depicted in the 2006 film "Glory Road," reached the NCAA national championship game in 1966 but lost to Texas Western. Kron also helped lead the team to Southeastern Conference championships in 1964 and '66 and was a two-time All-SEC player.
Kron was drafted 24th in the 1966 NBA Draft by the St. Louis Hawks. He played three seasons in the NBA and one in the ABA.
The Tell City, Ind., native lived in Louisville.
