Larry Hall
It was as a basketball player at Martin High School that Larry Hall made his mark, first as an All State Honorable Mention player in his junior season of 1963-64 for the Purple Flash. As a senior he was recognized as a 1st Team All State Player. He was a B+ student so he had no academic holdbacks either.
Listed as 6’3 and 185 pounds, he was a really good rebounder, averaging 15 per game his senior season. A lot of those were offensive rebounds and put backs. On the defensive end he would rebound and head out to the other end, leading the fast break himself. He was deceptively quick, a force on the offensive end as well as at the backboard. Hall was a hard man to contain.
Offense is where he truly excelled. His senior season saw him sitting at 22 points per game, with 52% accuracy.
Martin won the 15th regional title in Hall’s senior season.
In that Regional Tournament Martin bested Meade Memorial 55-51, Belfry 66-49, and in the championship game defeated Morgan County 64-51. Martin lost to eventual state champion Breckenridge County, led by Butch Beard, in the opening round of the Sweet Sixteen (73-55).
The Martin Purple Flash finished their storybook 1964-65 season at 36-3.
Hall wasn’t a one man team in that season of glory. The Purple Flash was loaded with talent for Coach Denzil “Hoss” Halbert. This Regional championship team played mostly six very talented players: Johnny Mayo, Tommy Woods, David Mosley, Roy Conn, and the coach’s son, Steve Halbert.
Hall had no problems getting college coaches to contact him. He had offers from over 20 universities before deciding to continue his career at the University of Kentucky.
From the Kentucky Kernel, “Coach Adolph Rupp announced the signing of Hall and noted that he had ‘personally watched this young man in tournament play and came away impressed with the belief that he has all the qualifications necessary to play here at the University.’”
On the freshman team at UK Hall played with Meade Memorial’s Alvin Ratliff, who led the freshmen in most stats. After his freshman season Hall transferred to Morehead, but it isn’t known if he played sports there.
