A Personal Journey - By Mel McCane


From The Beginning

In August 1999 I was working as an independent research and training consultant. I had a month in between scheduled contracts. I had a few bucks in the bank at the time, some free time on my hands, and I pined for a different type of Internet Community than what I felt was then available to dislocated Cats fans like myself. For better or worse what I lacked then was the foggiest of understandings about the workings of a message board and what it took to start a Community of this kind. The best I knew then was other people who did know such important things as html, what a server was, how alien software works, what bandwidth is, and how computers talk to one another. I sought to create a Community of, by, and for UK sports fans that would organize around projects and programs that would support and perpetuate our UK Tradition.

Prior to and after its opening in February 1999 I had been following the news surrounding the U.K. Basketball Museum. I was aware that it had opened to rave reviews, and that it was deeply in debt. In late August I drove from Atlanta to meet with Mike Durham, who at the time, was its Executive Director. We chatted quite a while and I became painfully aware of the uphill battle that the Museum faced. Late in the afternoon Mike took me on a personal tour of the Museum. Just before its official closing for the day Mike was called away and I was the only visitor left as I stood amid the surround screen presentation of UK Basketball History.

At the conclusion of that presentation Jeff Shepperd reflects on his childhood days in Peachtree City, Georgia and how he dreamed of playing basketball for Kentucky. He relates how he envisioned himself as one of several UK legendary players when he practiced in his back yard and at the school gym. He tells how later felt when his own playing days were over and while driving down a rural Kentucky road he spotted a young boy playing basketball and donning his number 15 jersey. The first time that I ever cried tears of joy over Kentucky sports was upon watching Happy Chandler sing My Old Kentucky Home on seniors day in 1984. That moment marked the second time the Kentucky Basketball Tradition so moved me.

The following morning and early afternoon Mike and I continued to talk about ways that we might lend support for the museum. By the time I returned to Atlanta later in that evening, I harbored no illusions about WildcatFaithful saving the museum, but I was determined that we would give it our best shot. As if I needed any additional incentive, Mike told me that Cawood Ledford was Vice President of the Museums Board of Directors. He promised that he would do what he could to be sure I got the opportunity to meet him.

From the beginning, our vision for WildcatFaithful has been to provide an Internet presence for UK sports fans that was relatively unencumbered by commercialism and alternately committed to a cause we believed in. We sought to build a Community of common fans beholden only to ourselves and otherwise always in control of our own destiny.

When WildcatFaithful came on line in early September 1999 I promised our members that we would never charge a fee for participation, and that WildcatFaithful would never be sold to a commercial interest. We have not wavered from those guiding principles as we come to the end of our fourth continuous year.

Dont Start the Game Without Me

Between September 1999 and March 2002 I continued to reside in Atlanta. As one week passed to the next, and as the months gave way to just over two years, for all practical purposes Mel McCane and WildcatFaithful became one. I became virtually obsessed with maintaining WildcatFaithful spending no less than an average of eight to twelve hours a day with it. I all but abandoned my personal business career and dug into my personal savings.

In the spring of 2000 a small amalgamation of predominately southern college web sites known as the Alliance, was sold to Rivals.com. The Wildcat Lair was one of the sites that at the time was well established as the number one destination for UK football fans. With its unexpected closing the large majority of its participating members flocked to WildcatFaithful. From that time forward our membership has included an equal blending of both football and basketball fans. One of the most interesting discoveries for me has been that there are many UK fans who are rabid about UK football to the near exclusion of basketball.

Meanwhile our community began to come together both on the Internet and off. We found ourselves increasingly hosting various events such as tailgate gatherings before each home game, the spring Blue White games, and during Fan Appreciation days. To mark the location of the tailgates and other gatherings our members chipped in the fall of 2000 to purchase our WildcatFaithful banner. For the spring game in 2001 we had more than 40 members gather for the tailgate.

During the 2000 basketball season we began to gather at the museum before each home basketball game. Our members were present for every special event hosted by the museum between the time we came on line until late September 2000. The highlight came when more than 50 of our members attended the museums first birthday party in March 2000. We were treated to interacting with such notables as Ashley Judd, Coach Hall, Kenny Walker and others.

Due to extenuating circumstances brought on by Mike Durhams resigning from the museum, and UKAA assuming its the day to day management, the new Executive Director of the Basketball Museum chose to sever all ties with WildcatFaithful. It was during this period of time that we learned about the existence of the Cawood Ledford Scholarship Fund.

By mid August 2000 it had became apparent that we had far outgrown our contractual agreement for web hosting services and we were faced with a steep increase in price to continue on with Interland, our web host at the time. In early September and continuing on for the next couple of months, we began a relationship with URENet, and its President Mike Queenen. In December 2000 URE Net became our first WildcatFaithful Corporate Sponsor. They not only provided us with web hosting services but also devoted a considerable amount of time to giving our website a new face-lift in the fall of 2001.

In November 2000 we belatedly celebrated our first annual WildcatFaithful Birthday party at the Two Keys in Lexington just prior to Midnight Madness. We boasted of more than 1000 members during our first year and our administrative team had grown from six to 16. All but three of them were present for our gathering and they presented me with a plaque that I have treasured a great deal.

By early January 2001, it had become public knowledge that Cawood was being treated for lung cancer and at that time he was being hospitalized. We started a thread asking for our members to send him their good wishes and prayers. Within a matter of a few days more than 20 typed pages of messages from more than 120 of our members had accumulated. The outpouring of love, admiration, and respect was truly touching and it was fitting. Those messages comforted Cawood and brought a tear of joy into his life for an instant as he had done for us so many time over 39 years. He later wrote us the following¦

February 23, 2001

To our Wonderful Friends and Fans (Hello Everybody)

What pleasure and comfort Frances and I had reading all your wonderful postings to Wildcatfaithful.com! We read and re-read each and every word. We smiled at some of your messages, and we were touched by all of them. I cant tell you how much it means to me to know that the thousands of fans who listened to me call the games over those 39 years are still listening with their hearts. I always felt people had the choice to listen to me, they could have turned me off at any time. But through the years, the fans chose to keep on listening and for this I am grateful.

Thank you so very, very much for all your words of kindness, support and encouragement. From the bottom of my heart, Frances and I truly appreciate all the thoughts and prayers. Weve also enjoyed some wonderful memories while reading your notes.

I hope to see you at Commonwealth Stadium this fall and back in Rupp Arena as well.

May God Bless You.

With love,
Cawood Ledford


The next month Kentucky went to Nashville to play in the SEC Tournament and it was suggested to us that we might stage a pep rally to raise money to contribute to the Cawood Scholarship Trust Fund. The Trust had been established when Cawood retired to provide financial assistance to former scholarship athletes whose playing days had ended, but whose college degree had not been obtained. At the time Cawood was himself undergoing a very difficult period in his battle with lung cancer though few were aware of just how much he was suffering. I had been led to believe that his time with us was tenuous at best.

With a great deal of help and guidance from David Shelton, former National UK Alumni Club President, the pep rally was a tremendous success in many ways and on many different levels.

The WildcatFaithful administrative team came together and unleashed their creativity, focus, commitment, and time.

Our members rallied around the event by participating in planning chats, printing fliers, finding a location, making telephone calls, donating gifts, helping us to promote the event, and subsequently staging it. The larger UK community including representatives from the media helped promote it. Merchants contributed to it.


Many of our members met face to face for the first time. The Cats won the tournament, and we raised $1,700.00 for the Cawood Fund. A week later I drove to Lexington to deliver a large sized greeting card for Cawood to Kim Ramsey, Cawoods business agent. The card was an idea of one of our members. I counted 178 short messages on the card and each included the years they had listened to Cawood on the radio. I was later told that he got a lot of pleasure from the gesture of Big Blue kindness.

The pep rally represented a significant turning point for me in being involved with WildcatFaithful. It demonstrated we could come together, have a great time in doing so, and that we could simultaneously contribute to a worthy cause. While the dollar amount was largely symbolic it marked a tangible beginning. While Cawood rallied and ultimately returned to his native home of Cawood, he ultimately succumbed to the disease in early September 2001.


In August 2001 we hosted what has become one of my favorite memories of WCF when Coach Hall, Vernon Hatton, and Wah Jones joined Ed Smith, as Coach Adolph Rupp, in Lexington to celebrate what would have been Coach Rupps 100th birthday. The event attracted more than 120 UK fans and WildcatFaithful members.

A few days later a story appeared in the Herald Leader which read in part:

"It was like the University of Kentucky basketball team starting its season against Duke. Ed Smith's debut portraying legendary UK basketball coach Adolph Rupp for the Kentucky Humanities Council's Chautauqua Series was scheduled for a meeting of Wildcatfaithful.com, an internet community of UK sports fans.

Playing the revered coach at the downtown Radisson before a crowd of more than 50 (the actual crowd numbered 121), almost all wearing something royal blue with a K on it, was already intimidating.

But the group's president, Mel McCane, goosed the fear factor by inviting Rupp's successor, former assistant and player Joe B. Hall, along with former players Vernon Hatton and Wallace "Wah Wah'' Jones."

Hall, Jones, and Hatton sat along side of one another as Ed took center stage. I watched the men sit back with folded arms that alternately gave way to smiles, winks to one another, and nods of approval.

Later that evening 50 WCF members who had purchased a block of tickets for the Derek Anderson and UK Basketball True Champs game that benefited both organizations respectively.

Throughout 2001 our momentum continued to build through our various social gatherings and fund raising events. We designed and obtained approval from UKAA to produce our first official WCF tee shirt, and true to our mission donated just over 400.00 from the proceeds to the Cawood Fund, bringing out total to just over $2,100. We formalized our mission statement and our core values.

As the end of the year approached, I was faced with the sobering realization that we had reached the point where I either had to commit to our future, or bring it to a close. It had always been my intention to resume my professional life and while I did take on a few minor projects over the first couple of years, the demands of the website were substantial and by this time there appeared to be no turning back.

The Road Back To My Old Kentucky Home

Several events in December 2001 and January 2002 prompted me to consider moving to Lexington. A series of personal illnesses and the sudden passing of my father made me realize the importance of spending more time with my own family that resides principally in Northern Kentucky. Secondly, WildcatFaithful had by that time taken on an identity of its own and living in Atlanta I was unable to respond to people and events in a manner that was required. I had been talking to a company in Lexington who was in the development of a product that I felt was something I wanted to be a part of marketing and managing. As it was nearing completion there was a promise of future employment. Lastly, I realized that we had reached a crossroad and unless I was in Lexington WildcatFaithful would likely unravel. For all these reasons I moved back to Lexington from where I had left to go to Atlanta some 25 years earlier. In mid March 2002 I completed my move.

Shortly thereafter WCF was approached by the Insiders inquiring about our possible interest in joining forces with them as one of many college sports websites. I shared the information with our administrative team at the time and we were discussing it among ourselves. It has been and remains my personal style to share in all major decisions with our team. Some of our team at the time felt that a move to the Insiders was desirable for a number of reasons. We were faced with a growing community that was placing severe taxing on the server we were located on. Our website while much improved was still lacking in our ability to add new content on the fly. However, I was not enthusiastic about the move because doing so would have represented a total shift in the very principles that WildcatFaithful came into being. We would have been required to push paid memberships and develop premium content in exchange for web hosting services, and site development tools that would enable us to update the site on the fly. We would have also been forced into becoming a part of a legal suit being contemplated against the University of Kentucky for their policies on refusing to grant media credentials to Internet sites.

Ultimately the discussion about moving WildcatFaithful created a divide among our then administrative team. Some believed that this was the direction they wished to go, and they subsequently left WildcatFaithful in search of their own vision. Contrary to some public perceptions, there has never been any personal animosity because others have opted to move on in a direction of their own.

In the early summer we were introduced to Josh. Who is a senior computer science major at UK and skilled in Coldfusion programming, which is currently being used to develop the Faithful website. For the next several months and continuing to the present, Josh has refined and developed our website. We now have the ability to completely manage our website on the fly, and we have three new pages in various stages of development including one each for basketball, football, and our community.

In August of 2002 I experienced a series of hemorrhages that resulted in my being unable to get around, read my mail, drive a car, or otherwise attend to my personal needs. Corrective surgery was available but it came at a risk of loosing vision altogether. I was able to use a computer by using a magnifying glass but it was painfully arduous to do. As in so many times in the past, our administrative team came together and we prevailed once again. I might add that my personal circumstance was lightened considerably because of them as well.

In late November Mike Queenen and I had a long discussion about his sponsorship of WildcatFaithful. Mike related that while he had been happy to support WildcatFaithful, from a purely business standpoint precious few members had signed up for URE Internet Services and in effect he could no longer provide web hosting services without a cost. It should be noted that when Mike picked us up some 24 months earlier we had just over 1000 members and we required less than 25 gigabytes of bandwidth each month. In November of 2003 we had reached more than 5000 members and we were requiring between 75 and 100 gigabytes of transfer.

In December 2002 WildcatFaithful appealed to our members and supporters to help us raise funds to help pay our way with hosting costs and do a few more things. We received a total of approximately $2,100.00 from 73 individual contributors.

While my personal vision problems persisted throughout the basketball season, with an outpouring of support from our administrative team, and some very special members, we were able to host two pep rallies in New Orleans and Nashville respectively. While the turnout for our New Orleans rally was disappointing and our expenses quite high, the reverse was true in Nashville. As a result of that, and other small proceeds from other activities, we were able to donate and additional $2,100.00 to the Cawood Fund bringing our total contribution to just over $4,200.00.