Kentucky Hall of Fame inductee Doug Flynn with veteran sportscaster Dick Gabriel.
Doug Flynn played on World Series championship teams with the Cincinnati Reds in 1975 and 1976. He won a Gold Glove at second base with the New York Mets in 1980. He played Major League Baseball from 1975 to 1985.
So how did he react when he found out he was going into the University of Kentucky Athletics Hall of Fame.
“I had no words and still don’t have any words,” Flynn said on WPBK-FM. “When I came home and told my wife (Olga) about my conversation with (UK athletics director) Mitch Barnhart and that they were putting me into the UK Hall of Fame. She said, ‘What did you say?’ Then she looked at me and said, ‘Why?’ I told her I really didn’t know.”
Flynn attended Bryan Station High School in Lexington where he started in baseball, basketball and football.
“I was so good in those three sports that I had zero scholarship offers. I wasn’t that great of a player,” Flynn said. “In basketball, I could handle the ball and play defense. In baseball, I was pretty sure-handed in the field. In football, I played quarterback but we had Frank LeMaster at fullback and I would just hand the ball off to him. I was just surrounded by good players.
“I told people I was going to Army or Navy. Not to play ball, but to join the Army or Navy. Then I got a call from coach (Joe) Hall and he said him and Dick Parsons wanted me to come to the University of Kentucky and play basketball and baseball.”
Problem was Flynn thought it was a prank call from one of his friends.
“I told coach Hall I was waiting on his call because I just got off the phone with (UCLA coach) John Wooden,” Flynn laughed and said.
Hall was Adolph Rupp’s top basketball assistant. Parsons was also on the UK basketball staff along with being the head baseball coach.
Flynn found out the call was real and that the UK freshman class did not have a point guard to go with Jim Andrews, Larry Stamper and other players.
“I got to start every game at point guard. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. We scrimmaged against the varsity that had Dan Issel and Mike Pratt and was the No. 1 team in the nation. I was 5-foot-8, 147 pounds but I learned how to compete,” Flynn said.
However, he was not a star at Kentucky in either sport.
“I had nine at-bats at Kentucky because a couple of players in front of me were very good. I was having to bide my time and learn the game,” Flynn said. “When my freshman season was over, I was asked to move on and understood why.”
However, friends encouraged him to attend a Cincinnati Reds tryout. That led to another tryout and then a third one that got him a contract offer to start his pro career.
After retiring from Major League Baseball, Flynn has spent about 20 years as an analyst for televised UK games working with Lexington sports personality Dick Gabriel and has also been a frequent part of UK baseball broadcasts.
He was overwhelmed to be part of the 2025 UK Athletics Hall of Fame Class that also includes Abbey Cheek-Ramsey (softball), Makayla Epps (women’s basketball), Sonia Hahn (women’s tennis), Josh Hines-Allen (football) and Karl-Anthony Towns (men’s basketball).
“I am sure there are people who worked as hard or harder than I did. I was lucky I was always being encouraged by friends or family,” Flynn said. “Dad (Bobby Flynn) told me once that he did not know where my sports career would take me but always keep learning all you can. If you get to a point in time you are not good enough (to keep playing), somebody will tell you. That’s why I was always playing softball or basketball or whatever I could do to compete.”
Flynn, who has now worked for Central Bank in Lexington for 28 years, has always been a Kentucky fan. He remembers listening to UK games on the radio and keeping his own scorebook at home for players like Cotton Nash, Dicky Parsons, Larry Parsifal and others.
“I still remember on my 15th birthday that my dad said to come home,” Flynn said. “I got there and having dinner at my house was (UK basketball star) Larry Conley. That was my birthday present. I just grew up loving Kentucky and that’s why I don’t know if there is ever a bigger honor that I could receive than going into the UK Hall of Fame.”
