Old railings on second floor where once were the balcony seats and where our Hall of Fame displays will be along the walls have been removed and replaced with new, higher, safer railings. 

An electrically operated chairlift to that 2nd floor was ordered a couple of weeks ago and should arrive in the coming days. Possibly a day is required for its installation. 

All three of the huge heat/ air conditioning units and venting are completed. The front porch has been poured with concrete. It has a ramp and steps are being added as we speak here. 

An insulated roof is completed. 

The complete gym has been insulated with blow in insulation in the walls. 

We are pleased with the progress. There will be other things to do, of course. Crawl before we walk. Walk before we run.

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This complete article was up with three or four “likes” last evening but disappeared, so here it is again.

The 1952 Betsy Layne High School basketball team is shown.Their star had to be the willowy 6’4″ Grady Wallace. Wallace would go on to Pikeville College for a couple of years before transferring to play for the South Carolina Gamecocks where he would become an All ACC selection in 1956 and again in 1957 as well as a consensus All American 2nd Team selection in 1957 when he led the NCAA in scoring. South Carolina was in the ACC at the time.

A sign along US 23 in Stanville (Floyd County) proudly proclaims the fact that it was his hometown (it also has been mine for twenty some years).
Betsy Layne won the eight team 58th District Tournament with a 46-44 victory over Martin. They then defeated Phelps in the Regional Tournament before facing Oil Springs and Bob Daniels in the semifinals. They fell to Oil Springs 56-51.

Oil Springs’ star had to be Bob Daniels. Daniels went on to star in basketball as well as baseball at Western Ky University. He was drafted in the NBA(Cincinnati Royals) but did not play.
In the mid 1960’s he became an assistant coach to Guy Strong (another great from our area) at Kentucky Wesleyan, a Division ll school, where they won a National Championship in 1966. Daniels became the school’s head coach and guided the Panthers to two consecutive national championships in 1968 (28-3) and 1969 (25-5). He was selected as Coach of The Year in 1971.
For more on his great story here is the link to the article we posted on June 15, 2016. Just click it and read or cut and paste it into your browser : https://www.facebook.com/…/bob-daniels-who…/468671846673725/

We sincerely hope you enjoyed our first attempt at PHOTO FRIDAY. We tried to spotlight at least one team from each of our four region area. We may do this again.You may have noticed we had three players who would put our area on the national stage at one time or another in Don Wallen as National High School Coach of The Year as well as the two mentioned in this article.We think you will agree that our area never has run short on prominence in sports

The post PHOTO FRIDAY Photo #8 first appeared on Mountain Sports Hall of Fame.

Photos posted throughout the day

A future national coach of the year played on this team

The post PHOTO FRIDAY Photo #7 first appeared on Mountain Sports Hall of Fame.

Photos posted throughout the day

Another gym. Most old gyms were wooden. Some gyms were built in stone or brick. 
Just wondering how welcome Prestonsburg new gym was at completion around 1958

The post PHOTO FRIDAY Photo #2 first appeared on Mountain Sports Hall of Fame.

Photos posted throughout the day

We begin with a gym gem. This is known locally as “The Dome” It is in Betsy Layne and was replaced this past season with a new facility.The Dome replaced an old wooden gym that had burned.

The post Photo Friday Photo #1 first appeared on Mountain Sports Hall of Fame.

Did you know our area gave rise to a member of an NCAA championship team, won eight individual NCAA championship events-two as a freshman- and won a gold medal. There’s more. Lots more. Let’s look from the beginning.

Megan Neyer was born in Ashland, KY, in 1962 but moved to Mission Viejo, California to further her athletic training, after spending 16 years in Ashland.

According to Wikipedia, the 6′ 2″ Neyer won the US Olympic trials in both springboard and platform diving in 1980, but did not participate in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow because of the boycott. She did receive a Congressional Gold Medal instead, as part of 461 athletes who were deprived of the Olympic opportunity that year.

She attended the University of Florida on scholarship, competing in the NCAA for four seasons. 1982, 1982, 1984 and 1986. As a freshman at UF she won two individual NCAA championships in women’s one meter springboard and three meter springboard events. Four months later she won the gold medal in the women’s springboard competition at the World Aquatics Championships in Ecuador.

Individually she won a record eight NCAA diving championships, sweeping the one-meter and three-meter springboard events in all four years of college diving, and was recognized as an All-American eight times. In July 1984, she placed third in the U.S. Olympic Trials and failed to make the U.S. Olympic team, which came as a crushing emotional blow to her.[5After the Olympic trials, she took eighteen months off from competitive diving. She returned to the University of Florida for her senior season in 1986, winning the NCAA championships in the one-meter and three-meter springboard events again. She was also recognized as an Academic All-American in 1983 and 1986, and graduated from Florida with a 3.5 cumulative gradepoint average and a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1986. She remains the all-time winningest collegiate diver, male or female, in NCAA history.

Between 1981 and 1988, Neyer won fifteen national springboard diving championships—eight outdoor events and seven in the indoor events. In 1987, she won the U.S. national championship in the indoor three-meter springboard event and the outdoor one-meter springboard, and the three-meter springboard silver medal in the 1987 Pan American Games. She won her fifteenth and final U.S. national championship in 1988, and retired from competition diving following the 1988 Olympic Trials after failing to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team. 

Neyer was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a “Gator Great” in 1996, and the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1997.In 2006, she was named the NCAA’s Most Outstanding Diver of the Last Quarter Century. 

In a June 1988 New York Times article, she openly discussed her private battle with bulimia from 1981 to 1984 After she retired from competitive diving in 1988, Neyer returned to graduate school at the University of Florida on an NCAA post-graduate scholarship to complete her master’s degree in sports psychology in 1990 and her doctorate in counseling in 1994. Neyer was honored as a University of Florida Alumna of Outstanding Achievement in 1997. She currently is the principal of Total Performance Systems, Inc., and works as a performance counselor for elite athletes and business executives in Atlanta.

In May, 2017, Ashland named part of the old 13th Street that is closest to the YMCA after Megan.

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Hazard had a 2nd Team All State basketball player in 1952 in Dick Keffer. Keffer helped take the Bulldogs to the 14th Region finals before bowing to Hindman 54-52.Hindman was tough as nails in 1952 and finished in third place in the State Tournament thanks to the consolation game in those days.

Homer Lee Osborne coached the 1951-52 Hazard Bulldogs to a 20-12 season in 1951-52, his last of a six year stint as coach for the team. His record at the school was 135-55.

Dick Keffer was an integral part of the transition time in high school basketball from low scoring games and set shots. That transition probably began in the lat 1940. His one hand jumpshots thrilled many in the Hazard stands and in later years at Louisville.

Researching Keffer : It is very hard to locate much about Dick Keffer’s high school prowess on the internet but a two game set with Whitesburg in the 1951-52 season tells how exciting the times were.

In one game during January, 1952, we found Hazard losing at Whitesburg to a great Yellowjackets team 56-55. The kind of game we all appreciate watching. Remember the article on Whitesburg’s Jimmy Tolliver last year? Well, the Yellowjacket was high point man this night with 22 while the visiting Keffer had 21. What a game it must have been. 

But on February 05 later in the season Hazard got its revenge on its new home court, Memorial Gym, as the Bulldogs pulled out a 75-65 victory. Again it was a much anticipated matchup between Tolliver and Keffer. Tolliver had the most points again with 30 of his Yellowjackets’ 65 points and Keffer had 21 for Hazard, tying his teammate Quilen as high man for the Bulldogs. The Tolliver-Keffer matchups filled the stands each time they met. What a time for high school basketball it was. 

The 6ft. guard Keffer went on to play at the University of Louisville. Where he later would be joined by former Hazard teammate, Roscoe Shackleford. By Christmas of 1954 Keffer was listed as 10th in the country in free throw shooting. By senior night in late February, 1956, Keffer was listed as averaging 5.6 ppg for Coach Peck Hickman at Louisville. In different newspaper articles over the course of his UL career it was found Keffer was a top substitute and in various games was outstanding on defense while in others it was a deadly outside shot that gave zone defenses trouble.

In March, 1956 the UL team defeated favorite Dayton to capture the NIT crown. Crowds greeted them at the airport making it a special time in the lives of UL players, especially in Dick Keffer’s life as it was his last collegiate game.

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A great player for Wheelwright, the first in its great basketball history to ever make the All State 1st Team, was Jeff Riley. Riley accomplished that feat in his senior season of 1977. 

Steadily thru his high school career, Riley’s stats climbed before exploding in his senior season of 1976-77.

As a freshman Riley scored 11 ppg. As a sophomore that average went up to 17 ppg. As a junior it climbed to 21.4 and he was an All State Honorable Mention selection as he led the Trojans to a 20-6 record and falling in the District Tournament 60-58 to eventual 15th Region champions Betsy Layne.

Riley was second in state scoring in his senior season with a 28.1 avg, scoring 898 points in 32 games. That average came not from just putting up a lot of shots as we witness a lot of times. Efficiency is the word describing Riley’s approach, especially as a senior when he hit 55% of his attempts from the floor.

Riley set a school record with 50 points in a game against Elkhorn City and twice hit for 48 against Menifee County and Whitesburg.
Scoring wasn’t all the talented Riley was noted for. As a senior he averaged 12 rebounds and six assists. He was also a great student. Based on a four point system he had a GPA of 3.9.

Riley led his Trojan teammates to a 24-8 record that senior season, teaming with All State Honorable Mention teammate Dewey Jamerson to take the Trojans to the Regional semifinals. After defeating Paintsville 71-58 in the opening round they took it to eventual Regional champs Virgie before falling 56-54.

He was selected to the All State 1st Team at Wheelwright in 1977, making him the first All State 1st Team player in school history. That was quite an accomplishment as you know if you have followed our posts over the years. 

Riley was coached by Frankie Francis, who we have discovered helped lots of players in the area get scholarships to further their basketball careers. Francis said Riley had all the tools. “He’s a great perimeter shooter who uses the glass well. He handles the ball exceptionally well and he’s a great passer.”

Prestonsburg’s former star who played at Ole Miss, Fred Setser, was coaching Prestonsburg High School at the time. Setser had played against some of the best the area had ever offered as well as being one himself. He stated his thought s on Riley “ He is one of the best basketball players ever developed in eastern Kentucky. He’s big, he’s quick, he’s smart and an excellent shooter… He can go one on one with any high school kid in the state.”

Riley received several offers but chose to play at Georgia Tech. He played in ten games there in his first season before transferring to Morehead. He later became an assistant at UK.

The post Jeff Riley first appeared on Mountain Sports Hall of Fame.

In a February 07, 2009 article in the Ashland Independent, Mark Maynard tells us that JC Kennard of the early 1940’s great Ashland Tomcats football teams not only was a runner and passer but also a punter. In a couple of articles by Maynard in that newspaper we found some bits of info about who could have been the real superman in disguise.

In 1942 the Ashland Tomcats football team completed an unbeaten season and were unofficially termed “State Champs”. Ashland 70, Russell 0: This victory capped a 10-0 season and a claim on the state championship. A fabulous backfield that included J.C. Kennard, Doc Rice and Spencer Heaton dominated play. But the game that may have decided the state’s best came the previous week when the Tomcats won 7-6 at Manual.

With Doc Rice gone in 1943 Kennard and the Tomcats again worked out of a single wing formation with Kennard either running it or passing it, though he was not the quarterback. The QB was used mainly as the lead blocker. Ashland ended the 1943 season at 9-2-1.

For some who are unfamiliar with the single wing offense here is how it is described “Traditionally, the single-wing was an offensive formation that featured a core of four backs including a tailback, a fullback, a quarterback (blocking back), and a wingback. Linemen were set “unbalanced”, or simply put, there were two linemen on one side and four on the other side of the center.”

In a game vs. Ironton in 1943 Kennard ran the ball 34 of the first 35 running plays. He battered his way for yardage taking two and three men to bring him down. He would also score four touchdowns in that 33-0 win. His official yardage was not included in the stats but Kennard estimated he had around 250 yards. He played about three quarters in that game.

That is not all. The Tomcats, coached by Preacher Roberts, came back to play Catlettsburg the very next evening, something unheard of these days. The result was a 39-0 win for the Tomcats. Men of steel? Kennard played about two quarters in that game. Hey!! Even Clark Kent got tired once in a while.

From his obituary in February, 2015.: “He was an outstanding All American/All Southern football player both at the high school (Ashland TomCats) and college levels. JC attended Duke University, Hampden Sydney, University of Virginia and graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1948. He was a member of the Bear Bryant Football Boys, Phi Sigma Kappa, and the Thomas Jefferson Society. “ He was honored as Sportsman of the Year (1994) by the Ashland Elks,( a great honor in the area) and was a US Navy veteran.

Does athletic ability run in the genes? Who really knows. But consider this: A first cousin of Kennard is a guy we posted on a couple of times- Mike” The Missile” Minix of Paintsville,

MVP in the All American Bowl in 1961 was a first cousin to Kennard, which makes Mike Minix Jr., a star athlete on Paintsville’s great basketball teams of the John Pelphrey/Joey Couch era, as well as an All State baseballer, a first cousin, once removed.And, oh yeah, Let’s mention this- Kentucky’s Miss Basketball of 2010 was Sarah Beth Barnette who was a first cousin two times removed. Athleticism in the blood.

Big Sandy blood!!

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