Calipari gifted Coach K a bottle of Pappy. "I need some bourbon right now to be honest with you."
In celebration of Coach K’s last season, the three other head coaches in the Champions Classic teamed up to give Duke’s coach a parting gift from Kentucky, Kansas, and Michigan State. It was a bottle of 23-year Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, one of the hardest-to-find bourbons in the wild.
John Calipari acquired the bourbon per Bill Self’s suggestion, and together the three coaches were to split the tab. They did not split the tab, Calipari said after the game, because Self and Tom Izzo have yet to pay up.
“They didn’t chip in, just so you know,” Calipari noted. (A bottle of 23 year goes for $2,000+ on the secondary market, if you can even find one to purchase.)
Top 10
- 1Breaking
Dylan Raiola injury
Nebraska QB will play vs. USC
- 2
Elko pokes at Kiffin
A&M coach jokes over kick times
- 3New
SEC changes course
Alcohol sales at SEC Championship Game
- 4
Bryce Underwood
Michigan prepared to offer No. 1 recruit $10.5M over 4 years
- 5Trending
Dan Lanning
Oregon coach getting NFL buzz
“When we gave it to him, it was, if you don’t drink bourbon, and I knew he didn’t; but if you don’t drink bourbon, you save this and when I retire you give it back to me,” Calipari continued. “He came up to me prior to the game and said, ‘My daughter saw this and said, ‘You can’t get this!’ And I knew he didn’t know.”
Calipari joked that Coach K probably would’ve poured it out.
“I would’ve done the same,” he said, “but now I live in Kentucky so I know what bourbon is… “I need some bourbon right now to be honest with you.”
Discuss This Article
Comments have moved.
Join the conversation and talk about this article and all things Kentucky Sports in the new KSR Message Board.
KSBoard