Brown: Louisville basketball greats ask fans to honor Denny Crum by supporting Kenny Payne

University of Louisville great Darrell Griffith revealed Monday during Denny Crum's celebration of life at the KFC Yum! Center that he nearly held a press conference last basketball season to address fans.

In Griffith's view, respecting the memory of the Hall of Fame coach, who died last week at the age of 86, includes celebrating and supporting former U of L player and current men's basketball head coach Kenny Payne.

Griffith, a Louisville native who played for Crum at U of L from 1976-1980, said the crowd of about 3,000 at the memorial resembled the half-empty arena that greeted the first-year head coach and his Cardinals' team for most of their home games during last season's 4-28 debacle.

And that was unacceptable to Griffith, who said he imagined how that must have looked to Crum.

“If you want to celebrate coach Crum’s life, if you want to make him smile,” said Griffith, who led the Cards to their first national championship in 1980, “then next year let’s get back to the way we were when we filled this arena night in and night out.”

'One of us’: Louisville community comes together to remember Hall of Fame coach Denny Crum

Watch the replay: See full funeral service for former Louisville basketball coach Denny Crum

Griffith said one of Crum’s proudest moments as a coach was seeing his former player, Payne, hired as U of L's head coach in March, 2022. It was a sentiment later echoed by Crum’s wife, Susan Sweeney Crum, the last of five speakers at the memorial.

Payne said he didn’t know the former players who spoke were going to mention him in their speeches and admitted he was a little “embarrassed.”

“It’s the elephant in the room,” said Payne, who played at U of L from 1985-89. “For me, I hate to say it like this, it’s bigger than me. So when you find people that are saying not good things about Kenny Payne or whatever, it goes against the fiber of what this is built on. And the reality of it is, you need everybody that’s true Cardinals' fans, that loved Denny Crum, to love me so that I could help bring back what he did. That’s what this is about. That’s why I came here.”

Billy Thompson Jr., who played for the Cards from 1982-86, likened Crum to a coaching father figure who passed on knowledge knowing one day he was going to be gone. Payne is like the son who is in place to continue the legacy.

“We’re celebrating the legacy, the memorial of Denny Crum,” said Thompson, who now serves as the senior pastor of a church he founded in Florida. “And my prayer is going to be that thing that God put on Denny, on (UCLA coach John) Wooden, that it would come on Kenny.”

C.L. Brown: Denny Crum elevated Louisville basketball and made it OK for Cardinals to dream big

More from C.L. Brown: Louisville basketball’s top-5 class strong sign of what's to come under Kenny Payne

Thompson said Payne holds the same values of togetherness and family that made Crum’s teams so cohesive. Then he implored U of L fans to rally behind Payne as they once did Crum.

“Coach had the best fans behind him and we’re going to need those same fans to continue to speak up and stand up for Kenny Payne,” Thompson said.

Junior Bridgeman, who played from 1972-75, said there was something special about playing for U of L because Crum developed a culture within the program that brought together different generations of players.

Players from Crum’s first season that reached the 1972 Final Four, like Jim Price, were there on Monday and players from his final team from the 1999-2000 season, like Luke Whitehead and Ellis Myles, also were in attendance.

Even Peyton Siva and Jerry Smith — two players who didn’t play for Crum — were among the 200 or so former players and managers who attended the dinner reception and memorial.

“When we see somebody that might have played 10-15 years after us, there’s still a connection,” Bridgeman said. "We lost that today. But Kenny Payne is gonna bring that back; I’m not worried.”

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @CLBrownHoops.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Denny Crum memorial: Louisville greats ask fans to support Kenny Payne