Saturday, March 31, 2012 will go down in sports history.
to advance to the NCAA championship game.
Although the championship game will be at stake,
I guarantee after tip-off, the only thought at stake will be the
Bluegrass State rivals going neck-to-neck
to show who is the better team,
Cards or Cats.
It is a Kentucky tradition
for these teams to jockey up and show their
unbridled spirit at the beginning of every basketball season.
Now, in all their Kentucky Pride,
they will face off for the championship title.
It is difficult to understand
the Kentucky Pride if you did not grow up in Kentucky.
Kentucky is basketball country.
Your blood either bleeds red or bleeds blue.
{I'm a U of L alum; mine bleeds red.}
To break it down - city folks are U of L fans
and everybody else is a U of K fan.
Kentucky is known not just for basketball, but for bluegrass,
horse farms and bourbon. It is steeped in history. And
we've turned out some pretty famous people also -
Muhammad Ali, Diane Sawyer, Colonel Sanders,
Oscar-Nominated Actors - George Clooney, Johnny Depp {birthplace},
Tom Cruise {lived there for a few high school years} and Jennifer Lawrence.
The 'Happy Birthday' song originated in Louisville.
{It was 'Good Morning To You' before it became Happy Birthday.}
Several movies have been made about it -
Cameron Crowe's {his father was raised there} Elizabethtown
and Secretariat. And let's not forget the Louisville Slugger baseball bat.
President Abraham Lincoln was born there.
President Zachary Taylor was a resident in which
US Army Training Camp,
Camp Zachary Taylor was established.
Author F. Scott Fitzgerald trained at Camp Zachary Taylor.
Fitzgerald took inspiration from Louisville for his book, The Great Gatsby.
His character, Daisy Buchanan, was from Louisville and
Louisville's Seelbach Hotel was the wedding site
of a Great Gatsby couple.
{see house below for more F. Scott Fitzgerald trivia}
Thomas Edison moved to Louisville at 19.
He worked the Associated Press bureau news wire for
Western Union. He was
later fired for spilling sulfuric acid, from an
experiment gone bad, on the
floor which leaked onto his boss's desk on the floor below.
Some of Louisville's most famous characters
are the horses who run in the Derby.
I am not into horse-racing {for ethical reasons}, but you
cannot deny the Kentucky Spirit in this
beautiful horse country.
Go Cards!
2427 Cherokee Parkway
It is rumored that F. Scott Fitzgerald socialized at this Cherokee Park house.
His character Jay Gatsby courted Daisy Buchanan in this
historic section of Louisville.
There was even speculation that Baz Luhrmann would film scenes of
The Great Gatsby remake here.
Cherokee Triangle
Cherokee Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted
who also designed many parks including NYC's Central Park.
