Jack Parkinson Biography

Jack Parkinson

outstanding Kentucky basketball player who played under the legendary Adolph Rupp and earned All-American honors in 1946; left Kentucky for an 11–month stint in the Army before returning as a substitute two years later; Parkinson then was a pitcher-manager for a Middlesboro semipro baseball team; later played with two basketball teams — the Whiskered Wizards and the Toledo Mercurys; a member of both the Delaware County Athletic Hall of Fame and Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame; turned down a contract with the Cincinnati Reds to play for Kentucky; of complications from a brain tumor