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Remembering UK Football Legend Jerry Claiborne....
 Jerry Claiborne and assistant Bill Glaser during Kentucky's 17-12 win over the Vols in Knoxville in 1984. Photo by Jamie H. Vaught |  Claiborne yells instructions during Kentucky's 17-12 victory over Tennessee in Knoxville in 1982. Photo by Jamie H. Vaught |
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 Jerry Claiborne chats with UK President Dr. David Roselle in 1989. Photo by Jamie H. Vaught |  Jerry Claiborne at a post-game press conference. Photo by Jamie H. Vaught |
 Jerry Claiborne at a post-game press conference. Photo by Jamie H. Vaught |  A rainy Saturday afternoon at Commonwealth Stadium during the 1980s. Photo by Jamie H. Vaught |
 UK's Vic Adams (92), a three-year starter, played for Jerry Claiborne. Photo Credit: UK Media Relations |  Jerry Claiborne during a Kentucky-Vanderbilt contest in Nashville. Photo by Jamie H. Vaught |
 Jerry Claiborne gives instructions during the 1984 Kentucky-Tennessee matchup in Knoxville. The Cats won 17-12 and later went to the Hall of Fame Bowl in Birmingham. Photo by Jamie H. Vaught |  Claiborne's former UK standout, Vic Adams (right), posed with Troy Welch and Walt Green at a college function in Middlesboro, Ky., several years ago. Photo by Jamie H. Vaught |
 Jerry Claiborne at Commonwealth Stadium Photo Credit: UK Media Relations |  Jerry Claiborne and Tennessee's Johnny Majors in a post-game handshake. It's believed this photo was taken in 1989. If that's the case, it would turned out to be Claiborne's last game of his long coaching career with UT winning 31-10 in Lexington. The Cats finished the year with a 6-5 mark. Photo by Jamie H. Vaught |
Jerry Claiborne was the head football coach at UK for eight years, leading the Wildcats to two bowls and four non-losing seasons during the 1980s. A man well-known for his integrity and good moral values, Claiborne also led Kentucky to a national academic title in winning the 1989 CFA Academic Achievement Award for having the highest graduation rate among his student athletes.
Before coming to Kentucky in 1982, Claiborne had a very successful head coaching stint at Maryland where he guided Terrapins to seven bowl appearances in 10 years. He was a former Bear Bryant disciple as a player at UK and as an assistant at Kentucky, Texas A&M and Alabama.
Retiring after the 1989 campaign, Claiborne finished his remarkable head coaching career with 179 victories, good for fourth place among active major college coaches at the time (behind legends Bo Schembechler, Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden). Claiborne was inducted into College Football Hall of Fame in 2000.
Former UK standout Vic Adams, who played for Claiborne, has written a nice tribute to his college coach, who passed away 14 years ago at the age of 72. Click here for Adams' column in KySportsStyle, which was first posted in October 2014.