LEXINGTON - There are people on both sides of the fence when it comes to University of Kentucky basketball.

There are people who love the Wildcats, of course, and people who hate them. There are people who loved Adolph Rupp and those who didn't. Same with Joe B. Hall, Rick Pitino and all the players through the years of UK's storied basketball history.

But Bill Keightley was a rare exception to that rule.

In my 49 years I have never heard anyone voice one negative word about Keightley, who passed away Monday night at the University of Cincinnati hospital from internal bleeding caused by a previously undiagnosed tumor on his spine.

Keightley was 81.

It's simply not possible to voice the magnitude of this loss to Kentucky basketball fans. If UK had a Mount Rushmore of basketball, Keightley's face would be there, probably first and foremost. He sat on the UK bench for 48 seasons, alongside coaches Rupp, Hall, Eddie Sutton, Pitino, Tubby Smith and this past season, Billy Gillispie.

Keightley handled a job far more demanding than most of us would know (my favorite memory of Keightley was running into him in the laundry room at the Maui Westin in 1997 around midnight. He was washing the UK uniforms during the Maui Invitational. I was so struck by how friendly and un-pretentious he was).

But more than any of the day-to-day chores that fit his job description, Keightley is mourned today because he always represented Kentucky with love and with class.

"Mr. Bill embodied the optimism and love of life that epitomizes all of Kentucky," UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart said Monday night. "He was one of those individuals who make everyone around them feel special. His love of Kentucky was evident in everything he did."

Memorial services for Keightley were still pending as of Monday night. He is survived by his wife, the former Hazel Robinson of Lawrenceburg, and his daughter, Karen, who works in the university's veterinary science department, and son-in-law Alden Marlowe.

Doctors believe the internal bleeding that killed Keightley began Monday afternoon while Keightley was attending the Cincinnati Reds season opener. He was taken to University Hospital in Cincinnati, where doctors at the trauma center were not able to stop the bleeding, according to Dr. Pete Muskat, clinical director of Trauma Services. He passed away at 7:45 p.m. with his family and members of the UK coaching staff with him.

Affectionately known as "Mr. Wildcat," Keightley had been associated with the Wildcats' basketball program since 1962. Keightley, who manned the "Bill Keightley Equipment Room" in Memorial Coliseum, was as much a fixture around UK basketball as the seven national championship trophies on display at the Joe Craft Center.

"This is one of the saddest days of my life," Gillispie said from Cincinnati on Monday night. "I commented earlier today that at the age of 81, he's become one of my very best friends, and the person I was talking to said, "that's what makes him so great, because everybody feels he's their best friend.' And that's because he was so genuine and so caring about others.

"He influenced each of us on a daily basis, and he was a great example of someone who loves his university more than anything," Gillispie added. "Obviously he's in a better place, but the void he leaves for all of us, and especially his family, is going to be a difficult situation. Our hearts go out to his family and the millions of Wildcats fans he loved so much."

In 1997, UK honored Keightley with a retired jersey in his honor. He joins veteran broadcaster Cawood Ledford as the only non-player or coach to have a jersey retired at UK. Keightley was also among 88 Wildcat greats inducted into the charter class of the UK Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005.

"I'm shook up," Hall said Monday night. "We had dinner together Friday night and he was in great spirits. It's hard to believe. He was a good friend to all of us. He was so close to all the coaches, players, managers and everyone who was associated with Kentucky basketball. It's a total shock."
Keightley was a graduate of Kavanaugh High School in Lawrenceburg. He was a retired U.S. Postal Service carrier and veteran of the Marine Corps in World War II.