re: Can an old timer give a history lesson of the LSU/Kentucky basketball series?

I think the "Coat Game" might have been 1979: LINK.

The regular season champs from 1977 to 1986 were always either LSU or Kentucky. The SEC Tourney didn't begin until 1979, and LSU won it in 1980, in between the two regular season titles in 1979 & 1981. The '86 & '87 teams were of course the famous NCAA Tourney teams.

1977 Kentucky, Tennessee No Tournament
1978 Kentucky No Tournament
1979 LSU Tennessee
1980 Kentucky LSU
1981 LSU Mississippi
1982 Kentucky, Tennessee Alabama
1983 Kentucky Georgia
1984 Kentucky Kentucky
1985 LSU Auburn
1986 Kentucky Kentucky


EDIT: There's also a good place to look up year-by-year results for UK basketball at LINK.

The '78 Cats went 30-2 and won a NC, losing only on the road to Bama & LSU.

The '79 Cats weren't that good and lost both games to LSU.

The '80 Cats went 29-6, and lost to LSU at home, and also in the NCAA Tourney.

The '81 Cats went 22-6, and lost to LSU on the road.

They split again for a couple of years, and then UK swept in '84, and then split in '85, and then UK swept in '86, except not really, because LSU beat UK in the NCAA Tourney to punch their ticket to the Final Four.

Then in '87 LSU swept, beating the crap out of UK in Rupp 76-41.

By that time, UK basketball was no longer what it once was, and then LSU had an off year in '88, and then Chris Jackson came to town in '89 and made LSU basketball get insanely popular with the fans.