Rest In Peace, John W. Allen (1934 - 2018)

So when the Cuba Cubs won the Kentucky High School Athletic Association boys' basketball championship in 1952, they advanced to the state tournament by beating the Wickliffe Blue Tigers, 54-42, in the final of the First Region tournament at Murray College. Per (indispensable) Bob Mays, here were the scores leading up to that championship:

-- Symsonia Rough Riders 42, Brewers Redmen 38 (quarterfinals)
-- Cuba 74, Clinton Central Red Devils 39
-- Wickliffe 62, Bandana 47
-- Bardwell Indians 71, Sharpe Green Devils 58
-- Cuba 61, Symsonia 34 (semifinals)
-- Wickliffe 74, Bardwell 62

Wickliffe's first-round win over Bandana followed a 63-55 win over the same team in the District 2 tournament championship at Paducah Tilghman High. This was the "(l)ast year for Bandana, Barlow-Kevil, Ballard County, Blandville and Wickliffe (highs, as) they became known as Ballard Memorial the next year," per (again) (really, super) Bob Mays.

One of the players on the Bandana team was John W. Allen, a boy originally from Guthrie, all the way over in Todd County. And he must've been pretty good, because then he went on to play three seasons for the Paducah Junior College Indians (including one for future trail-blazing Vanderbilt University coach Roy Skinner). He completed his degree at East Texas State Teachers College, and then he moved back home to western Kentucky and coached the Ballard Memorial Bombers (it appears he might've been an assistant coach). 

By 1957, things were coming together for the consolidated Bombers of Ballard County. The team failed to win even a single Second District tournament game in its first four seasons of existence. In 1957, however, it played Tilghman to triple overtime before losing, 67-65, in the district final, and advanced to the semifinals in the First Region. Things were looking up in La Center.

But life happens. Back when he was in Texas, John W. Allen had met a woman, Wanda Boyd. In 1957, they married, and, that fall, John W. Allen began a 35-year career of coaching and teaching in Texas high schools. He never moved back. Mr. and Mrs. Allen had children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Texas, and he embraced the new teams of his adopted home--the Dallas Cowboys, launched in 1960, and Texas Rangers, arriving in 1971--while staying true to his old-standby University of Kentucky Wildcats.

Mr. Allen died a week ago today. He was 83. Rest in peace.

HP Special Report: The Mustangs Are Going To State!

Heath won in 1923, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1933 ... Reidland won in 1940 ... Lone Oak won in 2005 ... and now McCracken County, in its first year as a consolidated high school, is headed to the KHSAA boys' Sweet Sixteen after winning the First Region, 43-41, in overtime over Marshall County, which won in 2012, 2011, 1995, 1989, 1988, 1987 and 1984 ... after North Marshall won in 1965, 1961 and 1959 ... Benton won in 1958 and 1943 ... Brewers won in 1948, 1947, 1946, 1944 ... Sharpe won in 1938 ... and Calvert City won in 1934 and 1933.

Oh, Kentucky

And the beat goes on.

Yes, Harrodsburg realizes, too.

Madisonville's barefoot "Boscoe" France is No. 1 in the nation.

I should point out that I prefer the disconcerting news about birds to that of snakes.

And then there are the deer.

Urgh.

Good jobs news from Elizabethtown. Eddyville, too? And Capital City?

"Capital City?" I'm pretty sure they must've meant Central City.

"U.S. Fuel Corporation?"

Hazard is hiring someone new to go to sleep to.

Boom time for Family Dollar.

Congrats to the Clement grads!

Kentucky's ACT scores are up.

So are Kentucky's exports.

The new Marshall County High School Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame class includes stars from the 1948 Brewers boys' basketball state champs and 1980 Lady Marshals' non-champs.

Courage in Munich, in Georgetown.

Rest in peace, Mr. Cooley, former Prestonsburg mayor and "a very helpful, top-of-the-line person."

The 7th District in 1975

In our continuing series on the 1975 basketball season in Western Kentucky, here are the scores from the Seventh District:

Earlington 66, South Hopkins 57

Madisonville 72, West Hopkins 64

Earlington 87, Dawson Springs 81

Madisonville 76, Earlington 66

This was the last year that the Earlington Yellow Jackets fielded a team. The next year, the 1967 State Champs disappeared into the West Hopkins Rebels and the South Hopkins Tomcats. After the 1995-96 school year, another redistricting left the Hopkins County School District with only two high schools: Madisonville-North Hopkins and Hopkins County Central.

Until the 1966-67 school year, Madisonville had a historically African-American school known as the Madisonville Rosenwald Tigers. My guess is that the school was named after this guy.

Until the 1964-65 school year, Earlington had a historically African-American school known as Earlington Million. Two years after the two Earlington schools were merged, they became the first team in the history of the Second Region to win the state championship.

After the 1961-62 school year, West Hopkins High School was formed from Charleston, Dalton, and Nebo High Schools, while Hanson High School was merged with Madisonville, which was re-named Madisonville-North Hopkins.

Although Dawson Springs was historically a member of this district, it played in the Hopkinsville district from 1960 to 1972. According to the invaluable information collected at KentuckySportsHistory.com, it was reported that in the 1959 Seventh District Tournament, a Madisonville Maroon fan poured a Coke on the head of Dawson Springs Coach George Perry, and Perry vowed never to play in that district again.

South Hopkins High School was formed from a merger between Mortons Gap and Nortonville after the 1954-55 school year.

So if anyone were inclined to make up an eight-team league for use in imaginary sports competition, he could do so with the eight high schools that used to belong to the Hopkins County School District: Charleston, Dalton, Earlington, Hanson, Madisonville, Mortons Gap, Nebo, and Nortonville.

And then the champion of that league could have a playoff against the champion of a league formed from the eight historic high schools in Graves County: Cuba, Fancy Farm, Farmington, Lowes, Mayfield, Sedalia, Symsonia, and Wingo.

Gone With the Wind

Here is a list of high schools that won the state basketball championship but no longer exist. I always wonder what happened to the trophies. Someone could write a good book about Kentucky by visiting these places and learning what happened to them. Since I am very familiar with the history of at least one more school that will be added to this list in a few years, this is all very poignant to me:

1927: Millersburg Military Institute (closed in 2003)
1930: Corinth (consolidated into Grant Co.)
1937: Midway (consolidated into Woodford Co.)
1938: Sharpe (consolidated into N. Marshall, which was later consolidated into Marshall Co.)
1939: Brooksville (consolidated into Bracken Co.)
1940: Hazel Green ("defunct", according to Wikipedia)
1941 & 1954: Inez (consolidated into Sheldon Clark)
1943: Hindman (consolidated into Knott Co. Central)
1946: Breckinridge Training (defunct)
1947: Maysville (absorbed into Mason Co.)
1948: Brewers (consolidated into S. Marshall, which was later consolidated into Marshall Co.)
1952: Cuba (consolidated into Sedalia, which was later consolidated into Graves Co.)
1956: Carr Creek (consolidated into Knott Co. Central)
1959: N. Marshall (consolidated into Marshall Co.)
1960: Lou. Flaget (closed in 1974)
1967: Earlington (consolidated into S. Hopkins, which was later consolidated into Hopkins Co. Cent.)
1982: Laurel Co. (split in 1992 into N. Laurel and S. Laurel)

"Dear GoHeath, I hope you don't mind that I'm simply adding these photographs directly to your interesting and evocative post. It doesn't appear that images can be added in comments, so here are some from a Mexican restaurant that has opened in a bank in Earlington. We most recently visited on the night that Murray State lost in the OVC tournament; we left before the game ended, but you could tell that the Racer fans were already nervous. Anyway, the story was told among customers in the place that night that the restaurant operators were granted the lease only if they agreed to keep intact and publicly accessible a wall signed by various locals (including several members of the '67 state champs) and visiting celebrities (such as Kenny "Sky" Walker). ...eric"