Wednesday night, there will be a ceremony during half-time of the Miss State/Kentucky game to honor Kentucky's 1996 National Championship team. They will be presented with NCAA Championship rings, which they never received (besides the ones the NCAA presents them) until now.
I'm not real sure why this team never received championship rings, but the important thing is, they are now thanks in large part to John Calipari.
The first 10,000 fans to arrive at Rupp Wednesday night will receive a commemorative poster honoring the team. All of the members that are attending will be signing the posters and other items at the Kentucky Proud Market in the Lexington Center before the game.
The members expected to attended are:
Derek Anderson
Jeff Sheppard
Tony Delk
Antoine Walker
Walter McCarty
Ron Mercer
Anthony Epps
Wayne Turn
Jared Prickett
Oliver Simmons
and Jason Latherm
The ones not able to attend will receive their rings individually
It's great to see these guys finally get the recognition they deserve, they were one of the greatest teams ever assembled and deserved to be treated as such.
Derek Anderson told UKathletics.com that "It's showing what the program's giving back to us," Anderson said. "Usually you give so much to a program and they forget about you. When your program remembers you and gives you a blessing like this, it's just like winning. It's like actually coming home from winning a championship. It'll be like coming back to Rupp Arena when we won and seeing 24,000 people celebrating with us again."
He went on to say, "It's the greatest thing ever," Anderson said. "You've given so much of your time and your life, everything to your program, and to have them give some of it back, you can't say enough about that. There's no price tag, there's no winning percentage, there's nothing you can cherish more than that."
Anderson, who has stayed connected with the program especially since the arrival of John Calipari, made a 6 hour drive from Atlanta to Lexington to talk to Nerlens Noel about his injury he suffered during at game at Florida. He has a little experience with such an injury considering that was what cut his college career short.
As I said before, I'm not entirely sure why these guys never received a Championship ring from the university, but the fact of the matter is, they are now... And it's about damn time.
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