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Sports Paintings

During his leather era Wendell painted a small 4x6 image of Roger Maris on cowhide as an experiment. Then in 1969 he painted a 12x18 inch image of Adolph Rupp about to write "5^th NCAA Championship" on a basketball while John Wooden and Lou Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul Jabar) stood behind looking on. The caption for the painting reads "Why Do I Think There’s Someone Looking Over My Shoulders?" UCLA, of course, went on to win the NCAA Championship that year. Over the years the leather aged such that some forty years after the painting, Rupp's skin appears almost identical with that of Lou Alcinor's! Thus, the leather equalized everyone, even Rupp!

Among the sports figures Wendell made paintings of were the following:

Roger Maris	1962	baseball player for NY Yankees
UK basketball team	1968	grouped together thinking of Alcindor
Rupp with Wooden & Alcindor	1969
Ky Colonels Basketball program cover	1973	KY vs Indiana
Secretariat painting	1973	Triple Crown winner; Jockey Ron Turcotte
Bill Walton	1974
Steve Cauthen (bio portrait list also)	1977	Jockey on Affirmed; triple crown winner 1978
Joe Hall & UK NCAA Champs	1978	UK defeated Duke - Jack Givens, et al.
Denny Crum & UL NCAA Champs	1980	UL defeated UCLA - Darrel Griffith, et al.
Joe Hall & UK 80-81 team	1981
Denny Crum & UL 80-81 team	1981
Louisville Redbirds promo poster	1982
Bobby Knight & IU NCAA Champs	1984	IU defeated UNC -Isaiah Thomas, et al.
Louisville Redbirds poster	1984
Joe Hall & UK 1983-84 team	1984	"Final Four in '84"; lost to G'town
Eddie Sutton & UK 1985-86 team	1986
Denny Crum & UL NCAA Champs	1986	UL defeated Duke; Pervis Ellison, et al.
Chris Collinsworth		Cincinnati Bengals receiver
Rupp: Man in the Brown Suit

Wendell had to get special permission to do the Secretariat painting from the photograph from the owners of the horse. He was able to sell several of these through the Kentucky Derby Museum and one one signing session at the museum. He has several hundred of these prints made and gave most away. When David and Stacy Arnett had a reception at the Derby Museum in 2002 after their wedding, we gave away most of the rest as "party favors." I'm writing these notes May 4, 2013, having witnessed yet another Derby where Orb won, but once again didn't break Secretariat's record of 1 min 59 and 2/5 seconds set in May 1973.

Wendell was an avid University of Kentucky fan and listened to all the basketball games. When UK won the NCAA Championship in 1978, Wendell produced a painting which Wood Hannah of Framehouse Gallery had made into limited edition prints. Wendell had a signing session with Joe Hall in one promo venture. When the University of Louisville basketball team with Darrell Griffith, et al looked like they were going to be Champions in 1980, Wendell made a preliminary painting of Denny Crum surrounded by the players. He made this painting before they defeated UCLA for the championship and later painted in the championship banner after they won. In the pre-championship painting most of the players were sporting "Afros" but as they entered into the tournament, they cut their hair short, so, when Wendell added in the championship banner, he also had to paint over the "Afros" and give the players shorter hair. He made several hundred prints of these, and sold several but most were given away. In 1984 Indiana won the championship, and Wendell did a poster of Bobby Knight and the team surroundikng him. He made several hundred prints of this poster and even met Bobby Knight and had him sign the original, but about this time the NCAA ruled against such posters, so most were given away. Nevertheless, he continued to make posters for several more teams later, but never made more prints after 1984.

Wendell did a couple of posters for the Louisville Red Birds baseball team and enjoyed working with A. Ray Smith. On one occasion the Red Birds had a poster night during which time Wendell sat at a table and signed posters for any who wanted them.

Sports Paintings Slide Show:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59496800@N04/sets/72157632563412066/show/