Kentucky vs. West Virginia
Kentucky and West Virginia have 19 meetings on file, the first in 1939; Kentucky leads the series 11–7–1 in the games on file. Over the last 10 meetings it’s Kentucky 5–4, and West Virginia has won the last 2. Share
- Kentucky wins
- 11
- West Virginia wins
- 7
- Ties
- 1
- Earliest on file
- 1939
- Longest streak
- 4 Kentucky
- Current streak
- 2 West Virginia
- Last 10 meetings
- Kentucky 5–4
- Most recent
- 1983
The series at a glance
| ’0 | ’1 | ’2 | ’3 | ’4 | ’5 | ’6 | ’7 | ’8 | ’9 | W–L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1930s | 1–0 | ||||||||||
| 1940s | 5–2 | ||||||||||
| 1960s | 3–2–1 | ||||||||||
| 1970s | 2–2 | ||||||||||
| 1980s | 0–1 |
- Average margin
- 10.2 points; 8 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
- At Kentucky
- 8–2 Kentucky’s record at home
- At West Virginia
- 4–3–1 West Virginia’s record at home
- Neutral sites
- 0–1 Kentucky first
- Shutouts
- 2
Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.
Games that tell the story
- Kentucky’s biggest win1944: Kentucky 40, West Virginia 9by 31 points
- West Virginia’s biggest win1974: West Virginia 16, Kentucky 3by 13 points
- Upset1968: Kentucky 35, West Virginia 16Kentucky had a 28% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset1979: West Virginia 10, Kentucky 6West Virginia had a 33% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
Coach against coach
| Years | Kentucky | Series | West Virginia |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1940–1942 | A.D. Kirwan | 1–2 | Bill Kern |
| 1966–1968 | Charley Bradshaw | 2–0–1 | Jim Carlen |
| 1976–1979 | Fran Curci | 2–1 | Frank Cignetti |
Head-coach pairings with three or more meetings on file, the series read from Kentucky’s side (Kirwan 1–2 against Kern). A season split between coaches goes to the one credited with the game.
Both programs through the years
Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.
Stars of the series
Named most valuable
| Jeff Hostetler West Virginia | 1983 |
Most valuable: as the games’ Wikipedia articles name them (CC BY-SA).
From the newspapers
1940 · Evening star, Nov 17, 1940
1944 · The Daily Alaska empire, Nov 20, 1944
1946 · The Wilmington morning star, North Carolina, Nov 17, 1946
Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.
Every game
Every game is listed as played on the field.