(LEX 18) — The greatest to ever do it is back in the Bluegrass. Kentucky men's basketball's all-time leading scorer, Dan Issel, stopped by the LEX News and BBN Tonight studio this week to chat with Keith Farmer and Maggie Davis ahead of the release of his new book: "Dan Issel: From Kentucky Wildcat to NBA Legend," which will be available beginning on Thursday, October 22.
"It was a great joy," Issel told Davis and Farmer during their conversation. "I met [co-author, Doug Brunk] in 2012 when he was doing his first book, "Wildcat Memories," and I've read the other ones... And so I knew it would be a quality project. When he approached me about doing it, I was all in."
Brunk is an award-winning journalist, who also wrote “Forty Minutes to Glory: Inside the Kentucky Wildcats’ 1978 Championship Season” and coauthored “They Call Me Goose: My Life in Kentucky Basketball and Beyond." He joined Issel in the studio, and described the process of writing this particular memoir as "tremendous."
"And as Dan said, it was nice to come full circle after 14 years," Brunk said. "It's a tremendous honor for someone to entrust you as a writer to help them tell their life story. It was really humbling."
To celebrate the publication of "Dan Issel: From Kentucky Wildcat to NBA Legend,” the University Press of Kentucky and the UK Alumni Association will host a special book launch event featuring Issel, Brunk and renowned sportscaster and Emmy Award winner Tom Hammond, who enjoyed a three-decade career with NBC Sports. The launch is 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, at the E.S. Good Barn Gorham Hall, 1451 University Drive in Lexington.
The evening will feature a moderated conversation among Issel, Brunk and Hammond, exploring the stories, challenges and triumphs that defined Issel’s extraordinary basketball journey. The program will be followed by a reception and book signing, giving attendees the opportunity to meet the authors.
Tickets to the event are $50 and include admission and one hardcover copy of the book.
The pair also plans to attend this year's Kentucky Book Festival, set for Saturday, November 7 at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington Green.
"For me, it's always a lot of fun because whenever you are in Kentucky and run into UK basketball fans, they all have a memory. They can remember as little boys and girls sitting around the table listening to Cawood [Ledford] on the radio," Issel said. "Maybe they're not old enough to remember when I played, but they have heard stories from their relatives, so it's always great to talk to people out there that are Kentucky fans."
For more on Kentucky basketball and all of the Wildcats, watch BBN Tonight weeknights at 7:30 p.m. ET on the official station for UK Athletics, LEX News.
