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Bill Keightley, the longtime equipment manager for the University of Kentucky men's basketball team -- known throughout the college basketball world as "Mr. Wildcat" -- died last night in Cincinnati. He was 81.
Keightley died from internal bleeding caused by a previously undiagnosed tumor on his spine.
Doctors believe the internal bleeding began yesterday afternoon while Keightley was attending the Cincinnati Reds' season opener, according to a UK news release. He was taken to University Hospital, where doctors were unable to stop the bleeding, according to Dr. Pete Muskat, clinical director of trauma services.
Keightley died at 7:45 p.m., with his family and members of the UK coaching staff with him at the hospital.
He worked under six coaches -- Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Eddie Sutton, Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith and current coach Billy Gillispie -- during 48 seasons on the Wildcats' bench.
"For many Kentuckians, and, indeed, for much of the country, Bill Keightley was not only the face of UK Wildcat basketball but the University of Kentucky itself," UK President Lee Todd said in a release. "In his five decades with the university, Mr. Keightley represented UK and the Big Blue Nation with class, with devotion and with an abiding love for our players and fans. He was as much a part of the basketball program as any player or coach."
In 1997, UK retired a jersey in Keightley's honor. Along with the late Cawood Ledford, the Cats' longtime play-by-play radio announcer, Keightley is the only non-player or coach to have a jersey retired at Rupp Arena.
Keightley was an inaugural member of UK's Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005, alongside the likes of Rupp, Ralph Beard, Bear Bryant and Jamal Mashburn.
"Never would I have ever dreamed in my wildest imagination that I would have been in the University of Kentucky Hall of Fame with all of these great athletes," Keightley said then.
Last May, Keightley was also enshrined into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, less for his achievements on the basketball court -- he was an honorable-mention All-State player for Kavanaugh High School in Lawrenceburg -- than for his fame as right-hand man to UK's basketball coaches.
"This is one of the saddest days of my life," Gillispie, who was at the Cincinnati hospital, said in a release. "I commented earlier today that at the age of 81, he's become one of my very best friends, and the person I was talking to said, 'That's what makes him so great, because everyone feels he's their best friend.' And that's because he was so genuine and so caring about others.
"He influenced each of us on a daily basis, and he was a great example of someone who loved his university more than anything. Obviously, he's in a better place, but the void he leaves for all of us, and especially his family, is going to be a difficult situation. Our hearts go out to his family and the millions of Wildcats fans who he loved so much."

UK mourns 'Mr. Wildcat' Bill Keightley | courier-journal | The Courier-Journal