Southeast Professor Vaught pens 6th book – a part memoir – on UK basketball

November 29, 2022

MIDDLESBORO, Ky. – Veteran sportswriter Jamie H. Vaught, who is also a longtime professor at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College (SKCTC), has penned another entertaining book about the University of Kentucky basketball.

The title of Vaught’s 408-page hardcover is Forever Crazy About the Cats: An Improbable Journey of a Kentucky Sportswriter Overcoming Adversity. The book is also part memoir about Vaught’s long, adventurous career of covering UK basketball and football, while overcoming personal adversity — a devastating hearing loss since birth.

In addition to author's personal struggles and inspiring stories about his severe hearing impairment, the volume features fascinating and inside stories about the Wildcats. The featured individuals include Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Dan Issel, Cawood Ledford, Tubby Smith, John Calipari, Paul “Bear” Bryant, Ray Correll, Blanton Collier, Fran Curci, Jerry Claiborne, (SKCTC president) Dr. Vic Adams, Mark Stoops, Maci Morris, Oscar Tshiebwe (and his high school coach Rick Mancino), among others.

Also featured is a former super recruit from Kentucky who almost played basketball for the Wildcats. In addition, the book includes an enjoyable chapter about Vaught’s childhood friend Roberto Clemente and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“This new book actually was written outside of my comfort zone. It wasn’t an easy project to do in discussing my severe hearing impairment, but I was encouraged to do this type of book,” Vaught commented. “It could be the best one that I have written, but I’ll let my faithful readers decide. One of the editors said he liked this book better than the last one I wrote even though Chasing the Cats book had very good reviews. I hope he’s right. We’ll see.”

Two well-known Kentucky personalities -- ex-Wildcat basketball star and current UK broadcaster Jack Givens, and retired Kentucky Supreme Court Justice and author Bill Cunningham -- wrote blurbs for the hardcover.

This is Vaught’s sixth book about UK athletics, mostly basketball. Vaught, a two-time UK graduate who once wrote columns for The Cats’ Pause for 13 years, has taught at SKCTC in Middlesboro since 1991. He teaches accounting and business and serves as an advisor for the campus newspaper, The Southeasterner.

Several book signings are being planned for various locations throughout Kentucky in the coming weeks and months. The first event is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 17 (10 a.m. – 12 noon) at the Middlesboro-Bell County Public Library in Middlesboro.

The newly-released book is now available online on Amazon.com. It is also expected to be available at selected outlets in Kentucky after the Christmas holidays.

 

Professor and author Jamie H. Vaught shows an advanced reader copy (ARC) of Forever Crazy About the Cats in his campus office in Middlesboro.

 

Book Cover of Jamie Vaught’s Forever Crazy About the Cats: An Improbable Journey of a Kentucky Sportswriter Overcoming Adversity.