Dewey Duff
The year 1948 saw Garrett High School in Floyd County make a huge turnaround in postseason play. Consider this: The Black Devils in the 58th District Tournament defeated the 1947 Regional champion Wayland Wasps 53-49. To be fair, Wayland had lost a great two time All State player to graduation. They bested Maytown 51-49 in double overtime. But against Prestonsburg in the championship game they just could not pull off the win and fell to the Blackcats 52-38. Garrett’s captain, Dewey Duff, made the All District Tourney team.
In Regional Tournament play it seems they got it together a bit more. They doubled the score on Oil Springs in their opener, 68-34. They next faced off once again with Prestonsburg, this time with a completely different outcome. After losing the District championship by 14 the Black Devils leveled the Black Cats 55-35 in the semifinal round, a 34 point turnaround from the last time they squared off. Duff once again was chosen to the All Tournament team.
In a battle of devils in the State Tournament it just wasn’t meant to be for Garrett as the Black Devils fell in the opening round to the Shelbyville Red Devils 58-50. They were out rebounded and Shelbyville had several putbacks and tip ins. They did outscore Shelbyville in the second and fourth quarters but the margins were not enough to do the job.
Duff was an All-State Honorable Mention selection that senior season of 1948.
When one looks at the great players of the 15th Region of 1948 some teams placed some big names out there. Pikeville had a 3rd Team All State player in Buddy Johnson as well as a young All State Honorable Mention player that season in Dickie Prater. Paintsville had two All State Honorable Mention selections in Dave Daniel and Jim Butler. Meade Memorial had two Honorable Mention selections that season in Ivan Butcher and Junior White. Inez had Arnold Harmon, Gene Cain and Clarence Mills, and Hellier had two Hellcats make Honorable Mention in Leon Johnson and Jim Hopson. Several teams in the 15th had one player listed as Honorable Mention. They were Howard “Rusty” Yates of Oil Springs (remember him winning two tournaments at Oil Springs on the same night as a coach?) Chris Prater of Salyersville and Cannel City’s Junior Lacy were also All State Honorable Mention selections that season. But it was the boys of Garrett, with just one Honorable Mention selection that represented the Region in the State.
Garrett would not return to the State Tournament until 1963.
Dewey Duff served in Germany in the Army after WWII. He later moved to Michigan City, Indiana where he was the plant manager for Indiana Industrial Plating for 37 years and owned D and D Buffing for 15 years. Mr. Duff passed away on April 20 of this year.
