UK’s Memorial Coliseum to Host Public Memorial for Mike Pratt
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky in conjunction with the UK Sports Network and the family of Mike Pratt will hold a public memorial service for Pratt who died in June. The service will be held inside of Memorial Coliseum on Aug. 5 beginning at 1 p.m. ET.
Fans wishing to attend should enter through the Memorial Coliseum entrances adjacent to Lexington Avenue beginning at Noon. Parking is available at the Joe Craft Center/Memorial Coliseum lot or at the Cornerstone parking garage for $2 per hour at the corner of Euclid Avenue and Limestone Drive.
The memorial is expected to feature guest speakers including teammates Dan Issel and Jimmy Dan Conner, UK head coach John Calipari, Pratt’s brother, Patrick, as well as Pratt’s stepdaughter Christina Stone. Pratt’s longtime partner on the UK Sports Network, Tom Leach, will serve as the master of ceremonies for the event.
Mike Pratt, a University of Kentucky Athletics Hall of Famer and UK Sports Network men’s basketball radio color analyst, died on June 16. He was 73.
Pratt (1967-70) was inducted into the UK Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009, the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame in 2010 and the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019. He was a second-team All-America selection in 1970 with the Wildcats and finished his career with 1,359 points and 718 rebounds.
A two-time first-team All-Southeastern Conference selection by the league’s coaches (1969, ‘70), Pratt was named an Academic All-American in 1970. He helped lead UK to three SEC championships and two Elite Eight appearances, finishing the regular season ranked No. 1 his senior season.
The 6-foot-4 forward averaged 16.8 points per game and 8.9 rebounds per outing in 81 career games played at UK. Pratt also amassed 29 double-doubles throughout his career.
His best performance came in a 102-100 win against Notre Dame in Freedom Hall on Dec. 27, 1969. Pratt poured in a career-high 42 points and added eight rebounds. He was a perfect 10 for 10 at the free-throw line.
Pratt and the Wildcats went 71-12 overall and 48-6 against league foes during his career and were ranked in the Associated Press top five for 33 weeks, including the duration of his senior season.
Pratt played two seasons with the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association and was later an assistant coach on UNC Charlotte’s 1977 Final Four Team, before becoming head coach of the 49ers in 1978.
Since the 2001-02 season, Pratt has been courtside for every Kentucky men’s basketball game as the UK Sports Network’s radio color analyst alongside play-by-play announcer Tom Leach.
Pratt has been on the call for 558 wins, highlighted by the 2012 National Championship victory. The Wildcats have also claimed the SEC regular-season title eight times, the SEC Tournament crown eight times, and advanced to four Final Fours and nine Elite Eights with Pratt on the radio team.
He is survived by his wife Marcia Pratt, brother Patrick Pratt and his wife Andrea, daughter Tamaryn Pratt and her husband Jonas Tanenbaum, son Christopher Pratt and his wife Amy, and stepchildren Christina Stone and her husband Tyler, Andy Schultz and his wife Kaelin, Tim Schutz and his wife Sarah, as well as 11 grandchildren.
The family is asking for donations to be sent to Kentuckiana Friends of V in Pratt’s honor.
