William “Zeb” Blankenship
William “Zeb” Blankenship garnered notice as an All State basketball player at Cumberland High School in Elkhorn City, KY. Later the school’s name was changed to Elkhorn City High School. He was a Third Team All State selection in 1944 along with teammate Bob Wright. Wright and Blankenship followed similar paths in life as athletes turned coaches turned education administrators.
That 1943-44 team finished the season at 36-3. They had won the 15th Regional Tournament that season and gone on to the State Tournament, held that year in Alumni Gym at the University of Kentucky. The Cougars had been 15th Regional champions the previous season but never advanced to the State Tournament because in the 1942-43 season there were sectional tournaments that pitted regional champs against one another before advancing to the State Tournament. This was possibly due to wartime fuel restrictions.
Elkhorn City won their first round game in that 1943-44 STate Tournament, defeating McHenry of the Fourth Region 48-40. McHenry had defeated Central City in their regional for their right to be there. Next up was the mighty Harlan Green Dragons, who featured one of the greatest athletes in Kentucky high school and college history in Wallace “Wah Wah” Jones. Jones that season was a First Team All State player and had two Second Team All Staters at his side in Carl Eagle and Earl Bradford. Harlan prevailed over Elkhorn City with a 37-27 win and went on to win the title.
The following season of 1944-45 found Elkhorn City once again heading to the Sweet Sixteen after barely escaping Garrett 48-46, defeating West Liberty 57-36, and besting Belfry in the Regional championship game 46-34. This time the Sweet Sixteen was held in the Louisville Armory so the trip was a bit longer than the previous year’s journey. This was before the Mountain Parkway and the Interstate Highway system.
The Cougars opened the tournament with a 39-31 victory over Valley, but as luck would have it, they faced off with Harlan again in the second round. The Cougars fell again at the hands of Wah Wah Jones and company, 49-36. Blankenship was named to the All Tournament team and was noticed by Adolph Rupp, who came to the dressing room and asked that he come to play at the University of Kentucky. Blankenship readily accepted the offer, but he had a medical concern that needed attention first.
He graduated in 1945, but before graduation Blankenship played in the 1945 Kentucky All Stars game against Indiana. He was on the same team as Wallace Jones in that series and not playing against him.
As mentioned, Zeb had a medical concern: a hernia. It kept him from being drafted into the military during the Second World War. Rupp recruited him for UK with the stipulation he must have the hernia repaired. Blankenship’s grandfather was a physician, one of the few in Pike County at the time, and he repaired the hernia. Zeb played one season at UK, after which the Army found out he had the hernia repaired and drafted him out of college. He missed the NIT game that season as he was called out for an Army physical.
Had it not been for Zeb being drafted into the military he would have played on the NCAA championship teams of 1948 and 1949. However, Blankenship was proud of his service, referring to his time in the military as a “higher calling.”
After service his grandfather talked to him about becoming a doctor and attending the University of Louisville as he had done. Zeb did this for one year, but decided that wasn’t what he wanted to do. He wanted to be a coach and get into education like his uncle Tilden Deskins had done in Pike County. Deskins had been a professional baseball player, then coached at a few schools before getting into teaching and eventually becoming superintendent of the Pike County school system.
So Zeb Blankenship went back to UK and got a degree.
Blankenship married in 1951. He first coached at Virgie for the 1952 and 1953 seasons, then went to Belfry for two seasons before moving on to Madison-Model, where he coached basketball from 1956-1961. He then coached the 1961 season at Mercer County, where his team went 18-5. For the ten years of coaching his record was 151-106. The question of whether he coached as well as he played is best left to observers of the time. His only two losing seasons were the first two at Virgie.
He then became a principal at Mercer County until 1967, when he went to Jessamine County.
Blankenship’s coaching career ended in 1964, when he coached Mercer county for one season.
He served three years on the board of the KHSAA, and was president of the organization for four years. Blankenship was principal at Jessamine County High School for a few years before moving on to the Jessamine County Board of Education, where he retired in 1983. He also served on the board of Bluegrass RECC.
Zeb Blankenship passed in 2012 at age 85.
