Writers are terrified by AI (artificial intelligence), which can write its own stories, paint in the style of the masters, etc. I asked AI to “write a 600-word essay linking Denny Crum, Joe B. Hall, Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton in the voice of Hunter S. Thompson” to see how far it’s come. Sports fans will quickly find factual errors, such as Crum and Hall being teammates at the University of Kentucky (the AI must’ve been smokin’ some of Thompson’s dope), but hopefully, you can see why writers, including those striking in Hollywood, are scared. While it should have mentioned Hunter swilling Chivas Regal and Wild Turkey, here is what AI produced:
As I sit in my Kentucky abode, my mind wanders to the great men who have graced this state with their presence. And what a quartet I stumbled upon—Denny Crum, Joe B. Hall, Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton. Four names may appear disjointed, but upon closer inspection, they reveal a web of connections that are uniquely Kentucky. Let’s start with the basketball coaches. Crum, who led Louisville to two national championships, spent his early days playing for Adolph Rupp at UK. As many of you know, Rupp is a basketball legend in his own right, having won four national championships during his storied UK tenure. But his influence on Crum set the stage for the latter’s future successes. And then there’s Hall, who took over from Rupp as the head coach of the Wildcats and led them to a national championship in 1978. Hall was not only a great coach but also a great player, having played alongside Crum at UK. Both influenced by Rupp, these two would leave their indelible marks on the basketball world.
But what about the other two? How do they fit into this story?
Well, let me tell you about Boone, the legendary pioneer known for his Kentucky explorations. You may not know Boone’s great-grandson, J. Winston Coleman Jr., was a UK professor and wrote a book about Boone’s life and legacy. This historical legacy runs deep in Kentucky. Finally, we have Kenton, the frontiersman, and soldier who played a crucial role in Kentucky’s early history. Kenton and Boone were buds, and Kenton helped Boone escape from a nefarious group of Native Americans who had captured him. These connections make Kentucky unique, showing how our history intertwines with our present, creating a quilt of fascinating and inspiring stories.
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For fun, I asked AI to build a story about me and writer Ed McClanahan, who died in 2021. In its first attempt, it concocted a tale about us being old friends (true) and how we developed the plan for Kentucky Monthly (false) during an annual fishing trip to Lake Cumberland (not true). I rephrased my request, and its second attempt was more factual, but I became a 2016 Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame inductee (untrue, unless the invitation was lost in the mail). AI strung together random facts well, but the accuracy was sketchy. A reader unfamiliar with the topic could easily see it as factual.
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Here’s what I do know about the Crum, who died at 86 on May 9. In 1986, I worked in the background of UofL’s NCAA Championship run as an intern in the sports information office. I spoke to “Coach” once—maybe twice. “Coach” was Crum, who was at the height of his Hall of Fame career. When Milt Wagner sank two free throws to beat Memphis State in the Metro Conference Championship, my job was to pull cables off the floor so the camera operators wouldn’t trip.
In 2017, 31 years later, 16 years after his retirement and weeks after Crum’s 80th birthday, Tonya York Dees, a college classmate, and I ran into “Coach” in a pre-COVID buffet line. Not only did he call each of us by name, he shared memories of times we crossed paths, including a somewhat cloudy one (on my part) of a tailgate party in the old Cardinal Stadium parking lot.
It’s no wonder his players claim the connections they built with Crum were genuine. To many, he was a second father. He was known as “Cool Hand Luke” for his calm demeanor. To me, he’ll always be “Coach.”