Celebrate National Championship Monday with highlights of Kentucky's runs

Tonight, the 2025 National Champion will be crowned. Sadly, it won’t be Kentucky, as the Cats headed home after the Sweet 16, but now that Duke is out of the running, we can enjoy a stress-free Championship Monday. Florida and Houston will face off at 8:50 p.m. ET in San Antonio, with the Gators hoping to win their first title since going back-to-back in 2006 and 2007 and the Cougars looking to cut down the nets for the first time ever.

Kentucky has had that honor eight times since the NCAA Tournament began in 1939. Add in the Cats’ runner-up finishes, and we’ve had 12 Championship Mondays in program history. As we count down until tipoff, let’s look back at each of them, both happy and sad.

1948: Kentucky 58, Baylor 42

The “Fabulous Five” of Ralph Beard, Wah Wah Jones, Alex Groza, Kenny Rollins, and Cliff Barke led Kentucky to its first national championship and a 36-3 record. Groza and Beard combined for 26 points, and the Cats held the Bears to just 16 points in the first half. Baylor wouldn’t get closer than 11 points in the second half. It was a decisive victory for the Cats in Madison Square Garden, with Groza earning MVP honors.

That wasn’t the end for the 1947-48 team. The Cats went on to represent the United States at the Olympics that summer in London, England, winning a gold medal with Adolph Rupp.

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1949: Kentucky 46, Oklahoma A&M 36

Most of the Fab Five ran it back the next season and took Kentucky back to the title game. Led by Alex Groza, Ralph Beard, and Wah Wah Jones, the Cats went undefeated in SEC play and won the regular season and conference tournament titles. Groza scored 25 of Kentucky’s 46 points vs. Oklahoma A&M in the NCAA championship game in Seattle, winning Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors. Kentucky became just the second program to win back-to-back titles since the tournament started in 1939.

No video footage of this game exists, as far as I can tell, but there is an audio recording of Claude Sullivan’s call for WSGS.

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1951: Kentucky 68, Kansas State 58

The 1950-51 season was Kentucky’s first in the newly built Memorial Coliseum. A new cast of stars led the Cats to their third national title in four years despite being plagued by illness throughout the season. Vanderbilt upset Kentucky in the SEC Tournament finals, but the Cats bounced back by beating Louisville to open the NCAA Tournament a few weeks later.

Kentucky had only six healthy players in the title game, with Cliff Hagan sparking the Cats’ run to cut Kansas State’s lead to two at halftime despite having a throat infection. Hagan and seven-foot center Bill Spivey dominated the second half to give Kentucky the ten-point win in Minneapolis. Spivey won Most Outstanding Player after totaling a game-high 22 points and 21 rebounds.

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1958: Kentucky 84, Seattle 72

The Fiddling Five joined Kentucky Basketball lore, a nickname they earned from Adolph Rupp for how they played around and through their mistakes. The 1957-58 Cats weren’t as consistent as their predecessors, losing six games and yoyoing in the rankings, but they found their stride at the right time.

At a sold-out Freedom Hall, Kentucky battled back from an 11-point first-half deficit to beat Seattle to win the program’s fourth national championship. Don Mills’ three gave Kentucky the lead with six minutes to go, and Johnny Cox hit a jumper less than a minute later to get the momentum rolling. Kentucky pulled away to a 12-point win, an incredible accomplishment for a squad that didn’t have a single player on the All-SEC team. In his final game in a Kentucky uniform, Vernon Hatton led all scorers with 30 points, followed by Seattle legend Elgin Baylor, who had 25.

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1966: Texas Western 72, Kentucky 65

History will remember this game as the first title game featuring an all-white starting five (Kentucky) vs. an all-black starting five (Texas Western). Rupp’s Runts came into the tournament ranked No. 1 in the country with just one loss. Texas Western was No. 2, also with just one loss. The Cats were a 6.5-point favorite but couldn’t overcome a bad shooting night, connecting on just 38.6% of their shots. Louie Dampier and Pat Riley both had 19 points in the 72-65 loss.

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1975: UCLA 92, Kentucky 85

Joe B. Hall’s Super Kittens advanced to the Final Four with a win over Indiana, ending the Hoosiers’ undefeated season and avenging the 20-point loss during the regular season. Freshman Jack Givens led Kentucky to an upset over Syracuse in the semifinals with 24 points, but the fairy tale story came to an end in the championship game vs. UCLA.

The day before the game, John Wooden announced he was retiring, giving the Bruins even more fuel. Kentucky stayed with UCLA for most of the game, cutting the Bruins’ lead to one point with six minutes left, but ultimately, UCLA held on for the 92-85 win and their 10th national championship. At the time, it was the second-highest scoring NCAA title game ever. Senior Kevin Grevey led all scorers with 34 points, bringing his career total to 1,801, which ranked second in program history behind Dan Issel.

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1978: Kentucky 94, Duke 88

You know the hero in this one. Jack Givens scored 41 points, three shy of the record in a championship game, to led the Cats to their fifth title, the first in 20 years. Twenty-three of those 41 points came in the first half to give Kentucky a 45-38 lead at intermission. He finished 18-27 from the field and 5-8 from the free-throw line, adding in eight rebounds and three assists en route to Most Outstanding Player honors.

Highlights:

Complete game:

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1996: Kentucky 76, Syracuse 67

Tony Delk tied a championship game record with seven 3-pointers, and Kentucky held off a late Syracuse rally to claim the program’s sixth national championship in the Meadowlands. The Cats were up by 13 in the second half, but the Orangemen narrowed the lead to two with just under five minutes left. From there, Walter McCarty tipped in a Tony Delk miss to push the lead back to four, and Derek Anderson’s three extended it to seven. Kentucky held Syracuse to only one basket in the final 3:23.

Delk was named Most Outstanding Player and was joined on the Final Four All-Tournament Team by freshman Ron Mercer, who scored a career-high 20 points on 8-12 shooting from the field, including 3-4 from 3-point range. Mark Pope, the team captain, also made some big plays down the stretch, hitting a jumper with three minutes to go to extend Kentucky’s lead to seven and two free throws to seal the win with a minute to go.

Highlights:

Complete game:

“One Shining Moment”:

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1997: Arizona 84, Kentucky 79 (OT)

A year later, the Cats would not be so lucky. Kentucky came back to force overtime thanks to a three by Anthony Epps with 12.1 seconds left and held Arizona without a field goal in overtime, but the other Wildcats made 10 of 14 free throws in OT to escape with the win. Arizona’s Miles Simon was 14-17 from the free-throw line en route to 30 points and Most Outstanding Player honors. Scott Padgett led Kentucky with 17 points but made only 5-16 from the floor and fouled out. Ron Mercer was held to 13 points after averaging 17 in Kentucky’s previous tournament victories.

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1998: Kentucky 78, Utah 69

The Comeback Cats did it again, rallying from a 41-31 halftime deficit to win the program’s seventh national championship at the Alamodome. Rick Majerus’ squad owned the boards 24-6 in the first half, but Heshimu Evans came off the bench and scored seven straight to spark Kentucky’s comeback in the second half. Jeff Sheppard’s baseline jumper with just under five minutes left gave Kentucky a 65-64 lead, and Utah missed 11 straight field goals down the stretch.

Sheppard finished with 16 points (7-14 FG) and was named Most Outstanding Player. Scott Padgett, who had a team-high 17 points, was also named to the Final Four All-Tournament Team.

Highlights:

Complete Game:

“One Shining Moment”:

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2012: Kentucky 67, Kansas 59

Doron Lamb led Kentucky in scoring with 22 points, including back-to-back threes to put the Cats up by 16 with ten minutes to go. Kansas came back to cut the lead to five with 1:37 left, but the Cats hit five straight free throws to put the program’s eighth national championship on ice.

Anthony Davis made only one field goal but made up for it with 16 rebounds and six blocks en route to Most Outstanding Player honors. He was joined by Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Doron Lamb on the Final Four All-Tournament Team.

Highlights:

Complete Game:

“One Shining Moment”:

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2014: UConn 60, Kentucky 54

Once again, Kentucky’s magical run was ended by UConn. This time, Shabazz Napier played the villain, scoring 22 points to lead the Huskies to the title. Kentucky never led but cut the deficit to one with eight minutes left. Aaron Harrison had a look from beyond the arc to give Kentucky the lead but missed. That was pretty much it. Eleven missed free throws certainly didn’t help.

I can’t end on that note, so here is James Young’s dunk that would have gone down in history had the Cats won.