1962 Kentucky Wildcats football team

The 1962 Kentucky Wildcats football team represented the University of Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference during the 1962 NCAA University Division football season. Coached by Charlie Bradshaw, a Bear Bryant disciple, the team was thinned by his brutal methods from 88 players to just 30. The team was thus known as the Thin Thirty. While the team's record was just 3–5–2, it did include a dramatic victory in the season finale against Tennessee in Knoxville, 12–10. The winning margin was provided by a field goal by Clarkie Mayfield, one of the heroes of the game, who later died in the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire on May 28, 1977.

Players on the Kentucky team included Tom Hutchinson, Dale Lindsey, and Herschel Turner, all of whom later played in the NFL. Bob Kosid and Junior Hawthorne later played in the CFL. Two assistant coaches on the 1962 Kentucky staff, Leeman Bennett and Chuck Knox, later had success as NFL head coaches. Assistants Homer Rice (Cincinnati Bengals, University of Cincinnati and Rice University), Bud Moore (Kansas University) and Dave Hart (University of Pittsburgh) were all later head coaches. Lindsey went on to become a successful NFL assistant coach, working with the Chicago Bears.

Schedule

Book

The 1962 Kentucky football team is the subject of a book, The Thin Thirty, by Shannon Ragland, published in August, 2007. The focus of the book is the '62 roster of players under first-year coach Charlie Bradshaw—a Bear Bryant disciple—who ended up thinning the team from 88 to 30 players via his brutal conditioning tactics and exploitation of players.