By C. Ray Hall
The Courier-Journal

LEXINGTON, Ky. - More than two decades after coaching the University of Kentucky to the 1978 NCAA championship, Joe B. Hall has little more to complain about than this year's Wildcat loss to Marquette fudging up his bracket.

Hall wears contentment like a crown. As a basketball coach, he made a living in superheated environments, with thousands of critics watching every grimace, every strangling squeeze of his rolled-up game notes, every stomp of his shiny black loafers.

Now he inhabits more peaceful places, far from the maddening crowd. He's a sportsman and a spectator. Mention one of his passions - say, duck hunting - and he veers toward poetry.

"So many good things happen in a duck blind or a goose blind," he said. "When the ducks are circling, you're always excited with anticipation."

Hall, a Cynthiana native, has hunted ducks and geese from Kentucky to Oregon. But it's fishing that makes him go global. He has fished in Brazil, Panama, Belize and Costa Rica. He has gone to Venezuela eight times to fish for peacock bass, occasionally landing 20-pounders.

"The greatest fishing in the world is peacock bass," he said.

Hall retired in 1985, after 13 years as UK's head coach. Before that, he had been Adolph Rupp's assistant seven years. Before that, he coached at Denver's Regis College and Central Missouri. He was 56 when he retired, saying he didn't want to be an old coach.

With 297 victories, a national championship and three Final Four appearances at UK, he gave up basketball for banking.

Hall retired from banking about six years ago. Now every day is a weekend. He works out in the morning - walking about an hour with friends, then lifting weights.

The other day, after his workout and lunch, he headed over to watch UK's football practice. He is a dedicated spectator. University of Louisville softball fans see him at games, watching granddaughter Amy Summers play. Texans see him, watching grandson Jeff Derrickson catch for the Odessa College Wranglers.

For a generation of fans who recall him as a dyspeptic-looking figure working the UK sideline, this transformation must seem startling: Hall has become the grand old man of Kentucky sports.

He has weathered cancer surgery (in 1988) and a triple bypass (1998). And he's so comfortable with the idea of advanced age that, well, he advances his age.

"I tell everybody I'm 75," he said. "As soon I turned 74, I started saying I'm 75 so that when I get there it won't be too big a shock for me."