Friday, March 19, 1999
Well-heeled glued to TVs
All eyes on UK game
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HEBRON — Hebron Deposit Bank President Mickey Conner is going to a small dinner party tonight at the Fort Thomas home of Bob and Nancy Cooper.
If a TV isn't tuned in to the UK game at 10:15 p.m., he won't be staying for desert.
“If they don't have the Kentucky game on the television, I'm going home to watch it,” laughed Mr. Conner, a 1960 University of Kentucky graduate and a self-described diehard Wildcats fan.
They may not paint their faces, crowd into noisy sports bars or camp out all night for tickets, but plenty of Northern Kentucky's business and political elite bleed blue when it comes to University of Kentucky basketball.
Whether they'll be at social functions, at home with friends, on vacation or out of town on business, they don't intend to miss tonight's NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 game between the defending champion Wildcats and the upstart Miami RedHawks.
Mr. Conner said his friend Mr. Cooper, a partner in the Cincinnati investment firm of Seasongood & Mayer and the immediate past chairman of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, isn't throwing the small party just to watch the game.
“But I sure hope they turn it on, because I'm not going to miss it,” he said.
Some well-heeled, well-known fans plan to be in St. Louis for tonight's game, like Gov. Paul Patton, a University of Kentucky graduate.
Huntington National Bank Regional President Merwin Grayson Jr. of Crescent Springs had planned to catch the game at his second home on an island off the South Carolina coast.
“But now it looks like I'm going to be able to get a plane into St. Louis, so I'm going to the game,” said Mr. Grayson, a member of the UK board of regents who has watched the 'Cats play in the NCAA championship game in each of his three years on the board.
“I have to keep my record alive of going to championship games, so hopefully we can handle Cinderella,” Mr. Grayson said of Miami, a team that was not expected to go as far as UK in the tournament.
Campbell County Commissioner Dave Otto and his wife, Beth, plan to take the game in at their condo in Longboat Key, Fla., where they are spending the weekend.
“We're both big UK fans,” said Mr. Otto, the owner of Otto Printing and Entertainment Graphics in Dayton, Ky. “I like the underdog story about Miami. That makes it interesting. But I still want UK to win.”
Farther inland is where Oldenberg Brewing Co. President David Heid-
rich will watch the game.
“I'll be in Orlando on business at the Oldenberg restaurant we just opened down in Florida last fall,” Mr. Heidrich said. “I'll probably be there late, so I'll just watch the game in the bar.”
Some haunts of the power crowd — Covington's Metropolitan Club and the clubhouse at the Triple Crown Country Club in Richwood — aren't planning parties for the game, leaving many to just watch it at home.
“I'm going to have some neighbors over to watch the game, but nothing too big or fancy,” said R.C. Durr, a road contractor and banker from Richwood. “That suites me just fine. It's just too much of a hassle to go somewhere just to watch a basketball game.”
U.S. Rep. Ken Lucas, a UK grad and also of Richwood, will be home from Washington today and plans to watch the game at home with his family, said spokesman John Lapp.
The UK game will be one of three games watched tonight at the Edgewood home of builder and developer Paul Hemmer Jr., president of Paul Hemmer Construction Co.
“We're going to watch UK, but we're also going to watch the Purdue game,” he said. “I went there, and our son, Adam, is a student at Purdue.
“But we're also going to watch the Michigan State game. That's where my wife, Mary, went, so we can't miss that one.”
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