Breathitt County Sports - Then & Now

By Casey Morton - 1981

Until the 1920's there was little or no organized sports in Breathitt County schools. The beginnings of basketball probably were introduced by the teachers of the mission schools such as Riverside and Highland and by returning travelers and soldiers of World War I. The "coaches" were full time teachers who were willing to give their time to the activity and some were almost as raw and unlearned in the sport as the subjects they were to coach. The interscholastic games were played on outdoor courts, often built by the boys. Sometimes the height and firmness of the goals were so different that there was much advantage in the goal your team drew or chose by coin toss. The basketballs were sown together with outseams large enough to do damage to fingers when the seams hit them. During the first years there were few established rules of eligibility and no state association to enforce them. Interscholastic competition grew rapidly and offered chances for many of the youngsters to visit new places. Highland, Riverside, Jackson, and Breathitt High were leading rivals and may have begun the sport in that chronological order. As the county high school grew, rivalry between city and county high schools grew and became so strong that school authorities deemed it best to discontinue that competition in the 1950's.

With the move of Breathitt High to Jackson, Breathitt began to dominate the sport. Some of their stars came back to coach Breathitt. When District, Regional, and State Tournaments were begun, Breathitt High, under coaches Fairce Woods and Jack Stanford, was able to reach the State Tournament. Breathitt was defeated by a last-second, center-court shot by a Dunbar High player as their high point in the State competition.

At about the same time Lees Collegiate Institute (Lees Junior College) began the sport. There was no such thing as aid for college players then, but there were instances of ambitious coaches and citizens enticing better players to "move" into their district or college. With the coming of Athletic Conferences and high school associations, such practices greatly declined. Scores in high school and college games were much lower in early years because of the center jump after each goal and the limited style of shooting permitted. Some readers may remember such terms as "standing guard" and "standing forward" as well as "crip" and "set shot." If any games ended with scores in the teens.

Lees was able to reach the finals of the Kentucky Junior College Conference in 1948 After that year, Lees was in the cellar of conference standings for a number of years and a fast succession of coaches. With the 1960's came a rise in the fortunes of Lees Basketball and they have often been a contender in state and regional competition since. Lees teams have been State Junior College Champions twice and runner-up in one year.

Girls basketball was played in the late 1920's and early thirties by both Lees and surrounding high schools. The girls' competition was hampered by rules which prohibited movement from back to front court by the players. Another hindrance to popularity of girls' basketball was the social attitude that the game was too strenuous for girls. Still another factor in the demise of girls' basketball was the cumbersome and unattractive style of uniforms in which girls were forced to play. These reasons, as well as the economic conditions of the 1930's and wartime restrictions of the 1940's led to dropping of girls' athletics from high schools and Lees College until the 1970's.

Baseball was played at Lees College in the 1920's. Their competition was the state junior colleges like Sue Bennett, Ashland, and Cumberland, as well as Transylvania, Berea freshmen, Mayo Vocational School, and area high schools. The Great Depression of the 1930's caused the dropping of Lees baseball as a sport which was resumed in the 1960's for a couple of years under Coach Jack Hissom. In the 1970's baseball was begun by most of the state and area high schools and promises to hold interest of students and spectators alike. Likewise, Breathitt and Jackson, in the 1940's and early 1950's, enjoyed some prominence and pleasure as a member of the Bluegrass semi-pro league in which players like Jeff (?) Mayes, James Maloney, Tommy Whisman, Hillard Combs, "Worm" Maloney, and others participated.

There has been little interest in track in this area in the past, but recently Riverside, Jackson, and Breathitt High have made some effort in that endeavor and it may become prominent in at least some of the schools in the near future.

Lees College had a football team in the late 1920's and early 1930's. Jackson High also participated in football. Neither of the above achieved any notoriety with one exception.

Xavier Defeats Lees College 132 to 0 was the sports headline in a Cincinnati paper in l927. This great debaucle has become a legend increased by each telling. It seems that the Xavier coach wanted an opponent for an open date in his schedule and while visiting A sporting goods store was shown an order for uniforms by Lees College. He was surprised by the size of the uniforms ordered by Lees and decided to try scheduling a game with them. The coach of Lees was interested and the game was arranged.

One source says that when the Lees team arrived for the game, the Xavier coach saw that the Lees team (actually containing some Jackson High students) would be no match for his Xavier. The Lees team had only five players who had played football and only two had mere than a year's experience. He suggested to the Lees coach that he would "take it easy" and play his third string. Mountain people are reputed to dislike any semblance of charity and the Lees coach was no exception. He is reputed to have replied, "Play your best team."

In seeing the sights of Cincinnati, some of the Lees youngsters had toe many sips of mountain courage builder" and were less than top condition. They had never seen such a crowd at a ball game. The Xavier "warm-up" drills impressed the country boys by their precision as well as size and number of the squad. Xavier scored the first and most every time they had possession, which was well ever 75% of the time. The star Lees backfield runner (really a Jackson High student) got away for a good gain and was hit so hard by two Xavier backfield men that he had three broken ribs. When a plane would fly over, the Lees players would stop in the huddle and stare at the sky.

Lees players, after one running attempt, would ask the quarterback not to call their numbers. Some faked injuries to get out of the game. In the latter part of the game, Xavier would purposely fumble, but few, if any, of these were recovered by Lees. A former Jackson photographer was at the game and took many excellent photographs of the action and mailed them to Riffle Drugstore where they were on display until stolen or taken from the bulletin board and are not available at present. However, the game was witnessed by Frank Riffle. Arnold Strong, Robert Hatton, and James Earl Goff were some who played and are still alive.

The boys did not quit football, but coaches were more careful of scheduling. With the coming of the Depression, football was dropped and has not been resumed at Lees College.

Breathitt High School introduced football in 1973. They played area second teams and won few, if any, games the first year. They improved each year and,with the coming of Dudley Hilton as coach, have become a power to be reckoned with in their conference. In 1980 they lost only one game. The public is very much behind the program.

If the present economic recession doesn't cause a restriction of sports activity in schools, many feel that education will be better for having them and colleges will have more players from Eastern Kentucky.