Joe B. Hall

Joe Beasman Hall (November 30, 1928 – January 15, 2022) was an American college basketball coach. He played one year of varsity basketball at the University of Kentucky before transferring to Sewanee: The University of the South, where he completed his playing eligibility but did not graduate. After Sewanee, Hall toured with the Harlem Globetrotters and later returned to Kentucky to finish his undergraduate studies, graduating in 1955.

Hall coached at Central Missouri State College (now the University of Central Missouri) and Regis University before returning to Kentucky in 1965 as an assistant under Adolph Rupp. When Rupp reached the mandatory retirement age of 70, Hall was selected as the program's new head coach on April 1, 1972. Upon taking the job, he made clear that he would recruit black players, of whom there had been only three in the program's history to that point. He also hired the program's first black assistant coach, Leonard Hamilton.

Hall served as head coach at Kentucky from 1972 to 1985, leading the Wildcats to a national championship in 1978. He died on January 15, 2022, at the age of 93.