Meet the Colonel

The cholesterol king of Kentucky

Seems fewer and fewer people recognize this fellow.

In 1972-73 I was one of the band directors at the University of Kentucky and one of my duties was the pep band for the basketball games.  It was great fun.  All kinds of people showed up for those games in old Memorial Coliseum (before Rupp Arena).  Governor Ford came regularly as did those who could afford to get tickets (you had to be a member of the Kentucky 100 back then to get the great seats - which means that you gave them 100 of your first born kids or something like that).  Then there were season ticket holders who just renewed yearly and had been doing so for half a century or something like that.  People willed season tickets and there was more than one divorce in which season tickets were the sticking point in negotiations.

Anyway, I was sitting there watching the pregame warm ups and this fellow appears right in front of me. Wanted to lead the band in "My Old Kentucky Home" which we played after the games when Keywood Ledford signed off on WHAS radio. Sure sure I said not even realizing who he was. He showed up afterward and I thought he was joking. No joke. WLEX TV was there too to film him as was his publicity folks etc. as he was back for a promotional tour.  I surrendered my baton, the band played, the Colonel (Harland Sanders) "conducted", we got oodles of coupons and I had met "the man".