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.

Oh, Kentucky

The governor, on the radio in northeastern Kentucky: "Where do you draw the line? ... What I do think is appropriate is to call down any racism, any bigotry, to call it out for the heinous stance that it is, regardless of what corner it comes from. It doesn’t matter if it comes from a white supremacist; it doesn’t matter if it comes from an anarchist; it doesn’t matter if it comes from Black Lives Matter person; wherever hatred and bigotry comes from, it should be called out. It should be scorned and shut down. There should be no tolerance of it in society."

Unanimous in Lexington.

An online petition is calling for the removal of a Confederate statue in Paducah and the renaming of a school. https://t.co/Rl5hX1obdP

— WKMS (@wkms) August 15, 2017

Meanwhile, in Hoptown, ...

McCracken County commissioner Bill Bartleman brokers a compromise on the flea-market fireworks show around the eclipse in Paducah.

Meanwhile, at Ferrell's, ...

Broadband for all in Graves County--even Symsonia and Water Valley.

Good jobs news from Campbellsville.

Hiring in Horse Cave (pressman trainee/$9.50 per hour).

Kentucky (probably) for sale (from New Mexico) ...

Oh, Kentucky

Incredible view over Nolin River Lake this evening. Thanks to Chris Houchin for the photo! 🚁 pic.twitter.com/Y44xFko59j

— wxornotBG® (@wxornotBG) July 18, 2017

Only 42 tickets for the ZZ Top show in Paducah were still available, and that was as of yesterday morning.

Russellville's Emancipation Proclamation parade is Aug. 5.

Graves County isn't taking any chances, eclipsewise.

Winchester has a new magazine; Prestonsburg, two new trails, and Leonard Oak, a new park. (And welcome to the HP, Leonard Oak!)

An Arjay landmark of more than 40 years is no more.

Business First details Louisville's 25 highest-paying jobs.

Good jobs news from Murray.

The Freakin' Weekend (1971)

RED! WHITE! RED! WHITE! RED! WHITE!

DORIS DAY!

There's rock-solid TV throughout this upcoming week of 1971, in fact ...

Plus, the KHSAA basketball tournament starts Wednesday ...

In the First Region tournament at Murray State, it was Carlisle County over Cuba, Murray over Paducah Saint Mary's, Paducah Tilghman over Fulton County and Symsonia over Benton in the first round; Carlisle over Murray (73-72) and Tilghman over Symsonia in the semis, and Carlisle over Tilghman (68-62) in the championship. The Comets of Bardwell are 34-3!

Eight teams left

Quick question:  When was the last time the First Region won at least one game in the State Tournament for three years in a row?

Answer:   1951-53.  Cuba reached the final in 1951 and 1952, and then Tilghman reached the final in 1953.  But last night, Calloway County upset Knott Co. Central, meaning that we have a Jackson Purchase team in the quarter-finals for the third year in a row.


Quick question:  When was the last time that Regions 1, 2, 3, and 4 -- the four westernmost regions -- all advanced to the quarterfinals of the State Tournament?

Answer: 1960.  To give you a sense of how long ago that was, check out these scores:

Symsonia 69, Meade Memorial 60
Hopkinsville Crispus Attucks 64. Clinton Co. 62
Owensboro 77, Lincoln Institute 75
Beaver Dam 61, LaRue Co. 56

That's right:  three of the four Western Kentucky schools that went to the quarter-finals in 1960 no longer exist.

So live it up, Western Kentucky!  We don't get too many chances like this one.  Plus, the four Western Kentucky teams will be playing each other, so our end of the Commonwealth will have two teams in the semi-finals.  That hasn't happened since Tilghman and Henderson County reached the semi-finals in 1999.

Our gain is Appalachia's pain.  The 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th regions have all been eliminated prior to the quarter-finals.  This is the first time that's happened since 1989.

OK, here are the scores from yesterday:

(1) Lou. Ballard 83, Johnson Cent. 69
Boyle Co. 60, Lex. Catholic 59
Bowling Green 86, Elliott Co. 44
Calloway Co. 73, (4) Knott Co. Cent. 68 (2 OT)

And that sets up the following quarter-finals today (all times Central):

11 A.M:  (7) Owensboro (28-4) v. (8) Hopkinsville (27-5)
12:30 P.M:  (9) Cov. Catholic (30-5) v. Lou. Doss (27-6)
5:30 P.M.:  (1) Lou. Ballard (32-2) v. Boyle Co. (27-6)
7 P.M.:  Bowling Green (29-5) v. Calloway Co. (30-3)

Oh, Kentucky

Hey, Kentucky made 60 Minutes last night!

Shutdown watch.

Here is a WKDZ/WHVO story and some pictures from a big butterfly release in Oak Grove last week.

Lake Barkley State Resort Park--100 of its picnic tables, the deck around Windows by the Water Dining Room and the chef's home--have undergone a sprucing, thanks to a bunch of student volunteers, also reports WKDZ/WHVO.

Hazard's monthly poetry series is celebrating its one-year anniversary.

Seventy-nine percent of the state's heroin arrests transpire in Kenton County?

50,000 words in 30 days?

Who was the last Kentuckian on the U.S. Supreme Court?

Here's a picture of the post office in Symsonia.

Oh, Kentucky

A Louisville entrepreneur has left the Hooters game, and that could lead to one of the restaurants opening in Elizabethtown.

In the wake of bad jobs news in and around Middlesboro, Cooperative Christian Ministry's food-assistance program is struggling to keep pace.

A Christine soldier's story.

A Symsonia volunteer firefighter on Wednesday was called to fight a blaze at his own home.

Good jobs news from Gray and Louisville.

Glasgow rising.

A year later, these pictures of the Eggners Ferry Bridge still shake me up.

Watch what you flush in Morehead, bub.

The man who championed Big Bird in the Commonwealth is hailed.

So, too, is the man (from Mayfield) who pioneered Murray State hoops in the Purchase: "While Rupp and Diddle’s teams dazzled the media, Cutchin was not as flashy, coaching hard-working, defensive-minded teams. Cutchin’s stout personality served as the base on which the program was built. It is a culture which still permeates the program today." (The writer makes a good point. As a member of the media, I probably would've been naively dazzled by the 21-13 record that Coach Diddle's teams amassed against Coach Cutchin's teams, 1925-41, and failed to respect how hard-working and defensive-minded the Racers were.)

Oh, Kentucky

One of the all-time great Tweets, from Paducah's WQQR 94.7 FM: "CONGRATS to Eric Reid of Symsonia! He just won a copy of the Scorpions new album 'Comeblack'." The Twitter desk today also is following football-signee news out of Kentucky (here are Courier-Journal Jody Demling's top 30 college-football prospects from in state) and Rex Chapman movie recommendations.

"Very likely the first person from Hardin County ever to play in a Super Bowl."

During a news conference announcing the Country Music Highway Road to Fame, Olive Hill's Tom T. Hall appears to have successfully dodged all questions about Heath's stunning upset of West Carter in the first round of last week's Touchstone Energy All "A" Classic boys' basketball tournament.

Indeed, a skunk visited our garage just three nights ago.

A message from Maysville to real legislature.

First Jerry's and now this.

Now is the time for all good ...

"KY 900 is one of the few roads equally inviting in both directions. I let the sun dictate my choices. West in the morning, East in the afternoon. Either way, it is a day trip to recharge the spirit."

Oh, Kentucky

Over-under on how many months before they go back to checking all items against receipt: 4.5.

The noisiest place on Earth.

Webster County Sharks.

I love love stories.

"Just a little old place like this, we don't really need all that council and all that ... It's just something to argue about."

Happy belated birthday to the expertly named WKDZ.

Among the Twitter overnights: PPat gives an enthusiastic thumbs-up to Insidious and Tiger's run excites Office Kevin.

One pitfall of the distributed biz model overtaking newspapers.

"Our region has enough detractors out in the world. We do not need to join them."

This news encouarges The Heath Post Kentucky Bureau to give Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman a try, after all.