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The University of Kentucky basketball coaching legend was in town as a keynote speaker for a coaching clinic. Ray Javenkoski, a young coach at the time, knew a good opportunity when he saw it.
"The other coaches went to play golf, and I thought I'd rather sit on the bench with Adolph," Javenkoski said. "We sat there watching them tee off and talked basketball."
It was there that Rupp explained to Javenkoski, now a La Crosse resident, a 1-3-1 zone defense that Javenkoski later used during a coaching career at Elcho and Mount Horeb high schools and at UW-Oshkosh.
"He drew it on a golf card for me," said Javenkoski, who guesses that he probably still has the card packed away somewhere in his house. "He showed me just what they used at Kentucky."
It's been more than 40 years since Javenkoski stopped coaching basketball, but his love of the game has led to an annual trip to Madison for the WIAA state boys basketball tournament for more than 50 years.
Just before Milwaukee Vincent and Racine Case tipped off in a state quarterfinal on Thursday afternoon, there was Javenkoski, 77, and his party sitting where they always sit: Section 110, Row P, Seats 7-10.
When Javenkoski walked through the front door of the Kohl Center, he was officially attending his 55th consecutive tournament.
The reason as to why he comes back is a simple one.
"One word," he said with a huge smile on his face. "Basketball."
Yes, the sport has been in the blood of "Ray J." (his preferred nickname) since he was a boy in Three Lakes, Wis.
He played basketball and baseball for the Bluejays, leading the Northern Lakes Conference in scoring as a junior and again as a senior.
Upon getting his first coaching job at Elcho in time for the 1950-51 season, Javenkoski took his team to the tournament following its elimination in an earlier round.
The coach and his players watched Wisconsin Rapids beat Wausau 64-55 for the title in the open-format system the WIAA used from 1916 to 1971.
"The school board allowed me to take the whole basketball team, and we were put up in the Colonial Motel in Middleton," he said. "We did that for four years until I left there."
He's been in his seat for at least one day of the tournament every year since.
His seats for the tournament when it was held at the University of Wisconsin Fieldhouse (it moved to the Kohl Center in 1998) were purchased from Johnny Kotz, an All-American who led the Badgers to an NCAA basketball title in 1941.
The two met after Javenkoski moved to Mount Horeb. They quickly found a bond after realizing they were born just 17 miles apart — Javenkoski in Three Lakes and Kotz in Rhinelander.
After coaching football, basketball and baseball at Elcho from 1950-54 and basketball and track at Mount Horeb, Javenkoski served as assistant basketball coach at UW-Oshkosh from 1959-60.
A new career path took him into the insurance game, and brought with it a move from Oshkosh to La Crosse for a job with State Farm Insurance.
But while he stopped coaching in 1960, basketball has remained an important part of his life. He spent last weekend following the Onalaska boys team in sectional play.
His grandson, J.J. Jansky, was the Hilltoppers point guard, and Javenkoski was there for the thrill of a semifinal victory over Clintonville in Stevens Point and the heartbreak of a buzzer-beating defeat at the hands of Maple Northwestern during the championship game in Marshfield.
Javenkoski has already arranged for a way for people to know just how important basketball is to him long after he's gone.
"My wife (Jeannie) and I just bought our tombstones for Oak Grove Cemetary," he said. "We put the engraving on it, and on my side, below my name, there's a little basketball on it.
"It was my idea, and I had to talk her into it, but it's on there."
You wouldn't expect anything less from someone who still refused to miss the tournament after having a stroke and temporarily losing his sight in 1981.
"I was totally blind," he said. "Within a year, I got a little bit (back). The next year, I got up to about 60 percent, and that's where it stopped."
Javenkoski said he still doesn't see everything he should, but he is comforted that his family is always there to make sure he is OK.
The athletic focus in his life as a retiree is golf, which he plays three times each week.
"I have to play with people who know where I hit," he said. "But if I start beating them, they'll say, ‘Your ball went in the woods,' but instead it's right down the middle."
His sense of humor shines through, but so does his passion for basketball. He doesn't attend the entire tournament anymore, cutting his viewing from three days to one about 10 years ago.
He counts a championship day during the 1969 tournament as the one that stands out more than any other he's seen.
That's when Beloit Memorial's Lamont Weaver hit a 55-foot shot at the buzzer to force overtime against Neenah. Weaver's Purple Knights eventually won 80-79 in double-overtime.
"That's right up there with the best of them," Javenkoski said.
Maybe he'll see something to top that this weekend. Maybe he won't. The bottom line is he's where he wants to be at his favorite time of year.
As a bonus, he was in a good mood before he even showed up on Thursday.
"(Wednesday) was a big day for me," Javenkoski explained. "The average age for men in the United States is 77.6.
"I surpassed it (Wednesday). I'm 77.6 and one day … and I still have my hair."
And he still has basketball in March, which he might value even more.
Todd Sommerfeldt can be reached at (608) 791-8208 or at todd.sommerfeldt@lee.net
