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Originally Posted by ukvols  I heard that Rupp went to the university president and told him the campus wasn't big enough for two hugely successful coaches, so Bear was let go. |
Bryant was not let go. He left on his own. There's no doubt that 2 larger than life personalities on the same campus might have caused friction, but the fact is that they were close friends to the death.
The cigarette lighter/Cadillac story is fiction. Bryant left UK 3 years before Rupp received a Cadillac- a gift from boosters to honor his 25 years of service to UK.
Primarily,
A change in UKAA policy handcuffed Bear's recruiting, stating that he could only recruit 5 out-of-state players every year- which essentially would hamstring his ability to recruit effectively. Most agree that this was a knee-jerk reaction to the basketball scandals of the time, and the UKAA felt that "scaling back athletics" would be beneficial to the athletic culture at UK. I wouldn't blame Bryant for leaving for that reason alone. Kentucky never produced more than a handful of D1-caliber recruits every year.
Then there persists the stories that Bear was a skirt chaser in Lexington, and that he chased the wrong skirt, wife of a politician....