The Memphis-Louisville Rivalry is BACK | Gary Parrish Show

The Memphis-Louisville Rivalry is BACK | Gary Parrish Show

We got a fun development connected to the University of Memphis on Thursday afternoon. Specifically, that Penny Hardway and the Tigers have reached an agreement on a six-year deal with Pat Kelsey and the University of Louisville. It’s a rivalry renewed. Big Bennett, are you old enough to remember the Memphis Louisville rivalry? On a scale of 1 to seven, how much do you hate Pervvis Ellison? Uh, okay. So, do I remember it? Yes. So it’s I was born in ‘ 86. So it was a little after, you know, the when it really started and became huge in the like early mid 80s. Like I’m a little bit after that, but like I grew up hating Louisville because of that. You know what I mean? You were born in the same year where the biggest enemy in my own personal life was never nervous Pervvis Ellison. Yeah. So you were born and I was hating Pervis on the moment you were born. I was probably sitting around somewhere going I hate Ellison so much. Like I probably hated, you know, Francisco Garcia more. Um, but no, I mean it carried over for a long long time. Like there was still even in like the early 2000s, as as recent as the early 2000s, like we hated Louisville. I grew up hating Louisville. Yeah. I grew up hating Louisville. I love that you mentioned Francisco Garcia. One of my favorite stories that just pops into my head anytime I hear the words Francisco Garcia. We are I’m the Memphis Beat Rider. Memphis, Louisville at Freedom Hall. This is a time where Memphis wasn’t chartering every flight. So, we were like literally at the Louisville airport waiting to board a Delta flight back home. And I’m I’m just sitting with the Memphis basketball team. It feels like it was a Saturday afternoon game and we were flying home on like a Saturday night and I’m just sitting in the air. Imagine just sitting in the airport but you’re sitting with Antonio Burks. after a Memphis game. Favorite Tiger ever. One of my favorite Tigers ever. Tiger. I love Antonio Burks. Like like like I would love to see him and just give him a hug. I love Antonio Burks. So I’m sitting with Antonio Burks and he had gotten a technical foul during the game for a back and forth with Francisco Garcia. He clearly gotten into it with Francisco Garcia, but it wasn’t clear what it was about. And it resulted in technical fouls. Maybe double technicals. I’m not sure. But I’m sitting there in the airport with their Antonio Burks and I said, “So, hey, what happened with you and Francisco Garcia when the technicals and all that stuff?” And he’s like, “Off the record.” I said, “Yeah, off the record, whatever.” We’re sitting in the airport. He’s like, “Uh, I called him a bitch.” That’ll do it. And I said, “Why did you call him a bitch?” I said, “Why did you call him a bitch?” I swear to God, this is what Antonio Burke said. “Because he’s a bitch.” I felt the same. Bennett knows how Bennett knows Bennett knows how Antonio Burks felt in that moment. Francisco Garcia was kind of a Oh wow. He had tendencies. This is the rivalry Memphians of my age group like quite literally grew up with. Memphis Louisville, Midsouth Coliseum, Freedom Hall, Dana Kirk, Denny Crumb, Keith Lee, Pervvis Ellison. The two programs have played 90 90 games. and been colleagues in four different conferences. Missouri Valley, Metro, that’s where that’s where I was brought into it for real. CUSA and the AAC, but they haven’t been in the same league since 2014. They haven’t played since 2017, but that’s going to change this upcoming season. Tigers and Cardinals going to meet at the Yum Center on December 13th, 2025 and then they will play at FedEx Forum in the following year and the dates and locations of the subsequent four games will be determined at a later date. Okay. But this is what we know. Memphis and Louisville are going to play each other annually for the next six years. Can you dig it? I love it. I mean, it just goes back to what we’ve kind of been talking about recently and, you know, we brought up uh Rick Barnes comments when their big orange caravan was in town about not doing the um Tennessee Memphis series like that. You know, I think in this new era of college sports and these big leagues and these big brands and we’re we tend to not think about the fans as much. Um, and this is for the fans. Like, this is this is what it’s all about. like it’s why I say why I bang the drum about why that Memphis Tennessee series should be played. Um and this is very similar like there is a lot of passion there. The old heads are going to love this game. Um and you know with playing a series of six games, you’ve really got a chance to bring back some of those feelings. um you know, you’ve got a chance to to rebuild this rivalry and then the hope is is that it goes so great over these next six seasons that they say, “Well, how can we not play this?” You know, this is this is one of the great rivalries in college basketball. I hope so. Yeah, I hope so. It is something that I grew up with. And it doesn’t mean that things can’t change, but it is fun to have that to to to reminisce about. And everybody who grew up in this area of a certain age is going to have a Memphis Louisville memory. Like if you’re even older than I, you might be able to go all the way back to 1971 when Fred Horton famously like throws a chair during a game. And if you’re a little younger, I think you’d probably remember this. Yeah, this is the one. the 2005 Conference USA Championship game on a Saturday morning inside FedEx Forum. Darius Washington misses the two free throws. That was still to this day, I believe the hardest sports thing I’ve ever watched in person. Mhm. That doesn’t include devastating injury or serious medical scare. Like if you’ve ever watched a basketball player have a cardiac arrest on a court or something crazy like that, then yeah, young man missing free throws is not that big of a deal. But if you can take all the devastating injury, scary medical stuff off the table and just be like, you just felt sick for a person under these very specific set of circumstances. I don’t know that I’ve ever still to this day experienced something in person as painful to watch non-injury, non-medical scare category, as Darius Washington missing those free throws. I re I mean, I can remember it vividly. I wasn’t at the game. Me and my dad were watching it and like when he felt his knees, I’m pretty sure I fell to my knees like it was just devastating because they um they had not had a great year. Um they were fighting to get in the NCAA tournament. It was a championship game. Craziest year. Yeah, it was a wild wild season, but you have this moment and you know during that time Memphis basketball’s huge in the city in 2005, right? like it’s it’s it’s massive and you have this moment where you’re there and you get a chance to beat your arch rival to get into the NCAA tournament and to lose it like that. Yeah, it’s one of the worst uh worst sporting memories I I can I I’ve ever had. Yeah. The Gary Paris Show live weekdays at 10:00

GP and Bennett react to the news that Memphis and Louisville will officially meet again on the basketball court. One of the best rivalries in college basketball is officially BACK starting in 2025.

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