About Inductee

All four were third graders. They were playing 2-on-2 basketball at Huntsvilles East Clinton Elementary School one afternoon in 1952. Larry Ivy and Billy Stephens were on one side and Phillip Pickett and "Jedge" Daniel on the other. Suddenly, as sometimes happens with spirited 9-year-old boys, an old-fashioned playground brawl broke out between Ivy and Pickett. Larry Ivy still chuckles as he recalls that long-ago schoolboy skirmish. "I guess it was over a foul, or something," he said. "I learned one thing that day never tangle with Phil Pickett." And he never did, ever again. In fact, the two young combatants quickly patched up their differences and became best friends for the rest of elementary school, junior high and high school. "Phil had more influence on who I became than anybody else," says Ivy. "He was the hardest, most dedicated worker Ive ever known." Pickett, whom former Huntsville High coach Clem Gryska called "the toughest kid I ever coached," was a 127-pound starting linebacker as a sophomore. A 3-year letterman for the Crimson Panthers, he later played on Coach Charlie Bradshaws first team at the University of Kentucky, nicknamed the "Thin 30" because the Wildcats started preseason practice with 145 players and finished the season with 30. Pickett was one of the 30. He stayed for the duration, winning four letters and becoming one of Bradshaws all-time favorites. For his part, Ivy was a 3-sport letterman at Huntsville High from 1959-61, went on to earn two degrees at the University of Alabama, worked briefly for the Alabama athletic department, then was hired in 1968 by the University of Kentucky, becoming the youngest Director of Student Housing in the nation at the age of 25. He was named an assistant athletic director in 1976, overseeing the UK Athletic Associations fiscal affairs, and when C. M. Newton was named athletic director in 1989, he promoted Ivy to Associate AD. A defining moment in Ivys career came at the 1995 NCAA Convention when he was recognized as the NCAA Business Manager of the Year by the College Athletic Business Managers of America, the groups highest honor. He eventually worked his way all the way to the top rung of the athletic department, serving as Kentuckys Director of Athletics for two years following Newtons retirement in 2000. Ivy retired in 2002 after a 33-year career at Kentucky. Through all the time from high school to their later years, the Ivy-Pickett friendship continued until fate intervened. When Ivy first came to Lexington, Pickett was just across town, teaching and coaching at Bryan Station High School in a position he held for 25 years. But while on a fishing trip to Guntersville in 1991, Phillip Pickett died of a massive heart attack. He was just 48 years old. In 2001, he was posthumously inducted into the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame. Fifteen years later, his friend Larry Ivy joins him tonight in that select fraternity. Ivy, the son of Jack and Gladys Ivy, was inspired by Pickett and many others throughout his life in sports. It began with his parents. Then there were the coaches. "Almost anyone from Huntsville who started their athletic career in the early 50s went through football, basketball and baseball programs run by B. J. Allison and Buttermilk Johnson at the YMCA," said Ivy. "At Huntsville Junior High, Ben Berry coached all three sports, and at Huntsville High, Clem Gryska, Charlie Hopper and Bob Warden were mentors to many outstanding athletes." Among the most influential men in his athletic administration career were Paul Bryant at Alabama and Adolph Rupp, Cliff Hagan and C.M. Newton at Kentucky. Bryant and Rupp were the two most famous coaches of their era. Hagan, a former All-America player at Kentucky, went on to stardom in the NBA and later became UKs athletic director. Newton, who also played basketball at Kentucky, coached basketball at Alabama and later Vanderbilt, and eventually became the AD at Kentucky. After his tenure at Kentucky ended, Ivy became President and CEO of Three Papas, LTC, a new company affiliated with Louisville-based Papa Johns Pizza. Three Papas opened up the Russian market to Papa Johns. Ivy made nearly 20 extended trips to Russia and helped build several pizza stores in Moscow and St. Petersburg. "We sold the business after four years," he said. "But it was a great experience and fun while it lasted." Ivy and his wife, Dorene, retired to Milledgeville, Ga., where his stepson Rob Manchester, who was a 4-year football letterman at Kentucky from 1992-95, is the assistant head football coach and defensive coordinator at Georgia Military College.