Requiem for Morehead State

The program's all-time scorer is Ricky Minard, who totaled 2,381 in four seasons, 2001-04. But the best Eagle scorer ever would be Dan Swartz, who totaled 1,925 in three seasons, 1953-56 (before freshman NCAA eligibility). He averaged 27.5 per game during his career--including 28.6 as a senior. Both are Morehead State records.

I've literally never heard of either of these guys.

In 1963, Harold Sergent made All-America and earned Ohio Valley Conference player of the year.

I've never heard of this guy.

During the 1983-84 season, Morehead State at one point won 12 straight games en route to a 25-6 finish, including an OVC tournament championship. Coach Wayne Martin was named OVC coach of the year (for the second time in three seasons). Earl Harrison and Jeff Tipton were named All-OVC, and Pate Clements was named to the conference's all-freshman team. Morehead went to the NCAA tournament, beat North Carolina A&T by one and then bowed to Louisville, 72-59.

In the winter of 1983-84, I pretty much did nothing but watch college basketball once the NFL season was over. I still wasn't old enough to have a driver's licence, and I never went on one of those dates where a parent drove me and some girl to a movie or whatever. OK? The point is that I did nothing but watch television, and usually I watched sports.

And I've never heard of any of these guys.

Rooting for the Eagles last night as they put up a decent fight against top-seeded Louisville before losing 74-54 in the first round of the NCAA tournament, I realized just how little I knew about Morehead State basketball. Not only did I grow up near Murray, one of the OVC hotbeds, I also attended Western and wrote about basketball for the college and local newspapers in Bowling Green. Then, even after moving to Washington, D.C., and Cary, N.C., I made probably a dozen or more I-64 pitstops in Morehead, at one of the exit restaurants, the university cafeteria or the downtown Mr. Gatti's. I might've even gotten my haircut once in Morehead. Still, I knew next to nothing about the Eagles--except that, for some reason, Morehead State Guy Minnifield spelled his name differently than UK Dirk and U of L Frank and that Kyle Macy coached the Eagles for some seasons recently.

In 1993, before heading out on a trip around to each of Kentucky's 120 counties, I sent out postcards to all of the local tourism offices asking for information. I got back this handwritten note back from the Rowan County clerk:

"... As to history, that is a long, drawn-out affair. If you have some extra time here you might go to the public library here. They can fill you in on that. Our famous sports sons are Joe Magrane who went to school here, played ball, etc. He now pitches for St. Louis Cards. Steve Hamilton is now director of athletics at MSU. He was one of Morehead's best baseball players, pitcher, in the NCAA, also basketball NBA All-American. I'm not a sports person. I may have things turned around. He also coached MSU baseball for several years. Another 'son' is Phil Simms, star quarterback for N.Y. Giants. We also have a TV personality who fills in for Paul Harvey. Tom Martin, I think, is the name he goes by on the air."

In any event, last night I found the Morehead State men's basketball media guide and came up to speed. Before this season, Morehead State was 12-27 all-time against Louisville, 72-93 against Eastern Kentucky, 51-102 against Murray State, 31-72 against Western and 0-8 against UK. On the other hand, the Eagles were 27-4 against Berea. And Morehead has been bad news south of the border: 26-25 against Tennessee State, 21-12 against Tennessee-Martin, 51-49 against Middle Tennessee State and 66-61 against Tennessee Tech.

Morehead State's first season of men's basketball was 1929-30. The Eagles opened with a 25-37 loss to Sue Bennett College but finished 9-3.

Still thinking about the Eagles this morning, Virginia and I got out Basketball, The Dream Game in Kentucky to see what Dave Kindred had written about Morehead State back in 1976 (it's fun that Virginia, 8 weeks old Monday, is still little enough to enjoy any book that is being shown and read to her):

"Only those with iron will and strong heart survive in the Ohio Valley Conference. With Western, Eastern, Murray State and Morehead State as members from the beginning in 1948, the OVC became basketball's Hatfield-McCoy number. To confess admiration for an opponent was to risk confinement in a dark place. Maybe in some places basketball was a game. In Bowling Green, Richmond, Morehead and Murray, it was, in the words of the former Murray State coach Cal Luther, 'an emotional binge.' Luther said, "I've often wondered what an enterprising fellow could steal during one of our home games. The whole city police force attends the games, along with half of the state police. I'm aware of this because most of them call me for tickets and I oblige where I can because it never hurts to be friends with the law.' Life in the OVC, Luther decided after 14 seasons, was 'pure hell.'

"Adron Doran, then president of Morehead State and husband of Mignon, who played the organ at home games in a roller-rinkinsh, 5,000-seat arena, once stalked an official on the court during a game. (A photographer made pictures of the happening; Doran caused the film to be confiscated and exposed.) Struck in the face by thrown ice, Western Kentucky athletic director Johnny Oldham, Diddle's successor as coach, said he wasn't going back to Morehead anymore. Why? 'Because I've been there,' Oldham said.

"... In 1952 Morehead State and Tennessee Tech and Tennessee Tech began a game at 8:15 p.m. It ended at 10:45. In legend this was 'The Night the Clock Stood Still.' The Tennessee Tech timepiece was suffering a bad case of the slows, and the teams played 60 minutes of basketball, not 40. Eight Morehead players fouled out, leaving only four on the court. Resourceful coach Ellis Johnson, the old Ashland flash of '28 and UK All-America, peeled off his sports coat, undid his tie and ran to the scorer's table, where he pounded his fist and announced, 'Coach Johnson in for Morehead!' Recountings that value color over truth had Johnson dashing up and down the court with the players the last minute and 40 seconds. The next year, on arrival at Tennessee Tech, Johnson used the arena microphone to ask all spectators to 'please synchronize your watches.' That was Johnson's last year in the OVC.

"On a foundation laid by Ellis Johnson in a 15-year coaching job (176 victories, 158 losses), Morehead State came to rank second to Western Kentucky in number of OVC championships won or shared. Bobby Laughlin's teams won four championships in 12 seasons. Bob Wright added one and Bill Harrell won two before getting into trouble with Adron Doran. With some important OVC games coming up, Harrell left his top six players at home when Morehead went to Illinois State for a non-conference game. Illinois State cried fraud, embarrassed Morehead nationally--the affair was entitled 'The Missing Six'--and Doran didn't resist when Harrell said he would resign. Morehead shared the league championship that year. Crazy league."[1]

Basketball, The Dream Game in Kentucky is a great book.

[1] Kindred, Dave Basketball, The Dream Game in Kentucky (Louisville: Data Courier, 1976) 124-126.

RED! ... WHITE! ... RED! ... WHITE! ... RED! ...

Despite a late injury to its fantastic point guard and a blatant attempt by the officials to keep Illinois competitive late, Western Kentucky upended the higher-seeded Illini last night and advanced to the second round of the men's NCAA basketball tournament. The Associated Press is referring to this as an upset, as WKU was the 12th seed and Illinois the fifth, but the Hilltoppers were obviously the better team from the start.

WKU has to be the all-time leader in NCAA-tournament appearances under different coaches. Ed Diddle, John Oldham, Jim Richards, Gene Keady, Clem Haskins, Murray Arnold, Ralph Willard, Matt Kilcullen, Dennis Felton, Darrin Horn and now Ken McDonald--10 coaches--have each taken the Hilltoppers to the tournament. Rah.

Also:

-- $4 million in federal stimulus funds will pay for the Green River Intra-County Transit System--serving Daviess, Hancock, Henderson, McLean, Ohio, Union and Webster counties--to buy seven hybrid buses and expand its administrative offices and garage.

-- The boys' Sweet Sixteen high-school basketball state tournament has reached the quarterfinals, and my friend Stephen handicaps today's four games thusly: Grayson County (26-6) and West Jessamine (27-8) "should have fun playing each other, and one school will get a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the state semi-finals. ... The championship of Louisville. The second game features the two Louisville teams, Central (17-14) and Eastern (31-2). These are two of the legendary programs of the KHSAA ... Last year, Lexington Catholic (26-7) and Covington Holmes (33-2) met in the state semi-finals, with Holmes winning 57-50. Holmes then lost in the finals to Mason County and Darius Miller. Now they're back. ... The two best teams to come out of the mountains in years, Shelby Valley (31-4) from Pikeville and Elliott County (30-2) from Sandy Hook. Rupp will be a complete madhouse for this game. There were over 21,000 people there last night to watch Shelby Valley and Elliott County play their first-round games, and there should be even more tonight."

-- Madisonville's newspaper, The Messenger, puts a poll question on its front page every day, and readers can vote at http://www.the-messenger.com/. Yesterday's question was, Will Billy Gillispie be coaching UK next season? The results published today: Yes 48 percent, No 52 percent.

-- Martin County's unemployment rate held steady from January 2008 to January 2009, according to the Kentucky Office of Employment and Training. It was the only of Kentucky's 120 counties to not see an uptick in unemployment over the last 12 months.

Need to know

What do we need to know about a county? Here's the start of a list:

• Population
• Seat of government
• Life expectancy
• State championships in high-school sports
• Notable natives
• Local radio stations
• Public library locations and hours
• Sports facilities
• Web addresses for local news
• Good places to eat
• Parks-and-rec opportunities
• Signature events
• School performance
• Formation
• Key historical events
• Religious makeup
• Demographic makeup
• Where the richest people live
• Where the poorest people live
• Hospitals

503 new jobs, Sweet Sixteen, two planned libraries, one free tree per person and five points short

• The U.S. Department of Labor is committing more than $5 million to create 503 temporary jobs across 93 Kentucky counties to help with storm cleanup.
• The boys' Sweet Sixteen high-school basketball tournament is happening, and the 30-2 Elliott County Lions of Sandy Hook got some Hoosiers love in USA Today.
• Carter County is getting its first public library, in Olive Hill, and a branch is planned for Grayson.
• Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park near Dawson Springs will celebrate Arbor Day with a tree give-away.
• UK finished second in the NCAA rifle championships, with 4,638 points to West Virginia's 4,643.

Marching, indeed

• In the first round of the NIT last night, UK started clobbering Nevada-Las Vegas, then started getting clobbered themselves and, finally, sort of clobbered UNLV to advance. It was a great night. The game was played in old Memorial Coliseum because Rupp Arena is occupied with the boys' Sweet Sixteen state high-school basketball tournament. Memorial looked great, as did happy- and healthy-looking Joe B. Hall and Kenny Walker, whom ESPN cameras flashed briefly in the second half. Finally, if Patrick Patterson ends up going to the NBA after this season, this might've been the high-character, remarkable performance I'll think of when I think of his UK career. In conclusion: Rah.
• The state has rolled out a web site for tracking how federal stimulas bucks are spent here, www.kentuckyatwork.ky.gov.
• Pineville-born "Preston the Magician and Hypnotist" will be posthumously awarded the Kentucky Star for artistic achievement.
• Siemer Milling Co. is expanding its plant in Hopkinsville. The company says it processes wheat flour used in cookies, pretzels and other tasty treats, as well as in plywood.
• WKU's new Energy Policy "is comprehensive in scope and is intended to guide the university in responsible use of energy through personal conservation, responsible purchasing, efficiency in building design and management, transportation and education and awareness," university president Gary Ransdell said in a release.

Here's what this blog is about

So we went to Henderson on March 13, and, other than snapping this flat, lifeless, overexposed photograph of Jefferson Street (where the D.C. homeless dude had once lived), I didn’t do any too much reporting. We got a late start, mostly because, before leaving Madisonville, we got interested in watching the University of Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball team lose to Louisiana State in the second round of the Southeastern Conference tournament.

UK played closely with LSU in the first half, while Rachel fed Virginia. We finally got on the road north with about 12 minutes to go in the game, but the Wildcats were clearly fading. By the time we were leaving U.S. 41 for the four-lane Pennyrile Parkway at Hanson, the teams were merely negotiating the final margin (which turned out to be a merciful nine points, 67-58). Kentucky plays Nevada-Las Vegas in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament tonight, but, for many of its followers, this team’s season is done. And the focus now has turned to whether the UK careers of its two best players, Jodie Meeks and Patrick Patterson, and its head coach, Billy Gillispie, are, too.

Before leaving the house, during a commercial break in Raycom’s telecast of the LSU game, I hustled some gear out to our Honda Element for the afternoon away. I cleared some soft-drink cans from the drink holders in the cab. As is so often the case, it turned out that Rachel was not finished with her lukewarm, flat soda—there were maybe two swallows left in the bottom of the can. She asked about its whereabouts even before we had backed all of the way out of the driveway, and the silence was icy after I responded that I’d already recycled the can.

So—the things we do for love—before getting on the parkway at Hanson, I veered into a barbecue joint and fetched Rach a fresh Coke. In the gravel parking lot, a photographer was posing two high-school lovers against the roughhewn wood siding of the barbecue joint for a rustic portrait. Inside, a TV in the corner of the dining area blared the last couple brutal minutes of UK’s loss. One woman assembled barbecue sandwiches and worked the cash register; another took and schlepped orders. Two 35-year-old men—one in a UK cap—and a boy sat at one table. What bothered me is that none of these individuals seemed bothered. I made eye contact with the UK-capped dude and shook my head in an offering of commiseration sharing; alas, I think he thought I was passing judgment on his jittery son’s raucousness.

Rachel and I talked a bit about this on the 31-mile drive to Henderson.

“I used to get really upset when UK lost,” she said. “I’d be down the whole next day. The year that they lost to Marquette … I almost felt embarrassed the next day.”

Marquette beat UK, 74-66, on March 20, 2008, in the first round of the NCAA tournament last season and upset top-ranked Kentucky, 83-69, in the second round March 29, 2003, but Rach was referring to March 20, 1994, when Marquette upset third-ranked Kentucky, 76-53, in the second round. (Wow … in looking up these dates, I learned that Marquette beat Kentucky, 81-74, in the NCAA tournament on March 13, 1969, and in a consolation game, 91-74, on March 20, 1971, too. I really hate Marquette.)

I recalled that I had experienced a similar feeling when UK lost to Alabama-Birmingham.

Alabama-Birmingham beat UK, 76-75, on March 21, 2004, in the NCAA second round, but I was referring to March 15, 1981, when Alabama-Birmingham upset UK, 69-62, in the Mideast Regional. (By the way, Alabama-Birmingham’s media relations made an effort a few years ago to get folks to start calling the school “Alabama-Birmingham,” and instead use “UAB,” or “The University of Alabama at Birmingham,” or just “Birmingham.” That’s completely understandable, but, sorry, just out of spite, I’m still using the hyphen. I really hate Alabama-Birmingham.)

The emotional tightrope of being such a rabid UK fan was at least one of the three most intense feelings of my boyhood, and I came to believe it was the single-most useless and destructive. It was rivaled in intensity only by, one, a series of unrequited romantic notions (but these always seemed and still seem entirely normal and necessary) and, two, my love of the Miami Dolphins (but this has always and still feels more baleful than desperate—and, anyway, covered in another blog altogether).

Why did I care so much? All rooting for UK so passionately seemed to do was make me more severe, more judgmental and more out of touch with the cool, well-adjusted crowd I grew up around—the ones who actually went roller-skating, went to parties and concerts, went out on dates, the people who went places.

So when I went away to college—not to UK but to Western Kentucky University—I decided to quit caring and invest myself in alternative concerns. I would care, instead, about alternative things: alternative teams (the WKU Lady Topper basketball team), alternative music (literally, the Replacements), alternative pursuits (journalism). In truth, I never did quit caring; in fact, I developed a passionately caring hatred of UK men’s basketball and its tradition—all of which seemed confirmed by the late ‘80s “KENTUCKY’S SHAME” debacle.

But why would I care so much now?

“I would give two reasons,” my friend, former-Kentuckian Stephen, explained in an e-mail from his home in Northern Virginia. “First, basketball should be very special to anyone who really loves Kentucky. In my opinion, basketball is the best thing about Kentucky. All the other major attributes of Kentucky life are things that Kentuckians either share with other Southerners (fundamentalist religion, the rural lifestyle, Bluegrass music) or belong almost exclusively to the rich (horse racing, an appreciation for good bourbon, politics). Only basketball belongs exclusively to the average people of the Commonwealth. It is perfectly suited to the weather—December to February are dreadful months in Kentucky weather-wise, and basketball gives you something to think about. It is perfectly suited to the demographics—basketball is the ultimate game for small towns and local neighborhoods, the one sport that poor kids can teach themselves and play by themselves. And it is perfectly suited to Kentuckians' love of controversy, argument, conspiracy theory and the radio. So basketball in Kentucky is not like basketball anywhere else.

“Second,” smart Stephen continued, “healthy and normal people (like you and your family) are sensitive to the demands of tradition. We Kentuckians have been left a great tradition of basketball success by the generations who went before us, and we hate the thought of letting that tradition lapse. Kentucky has been winning games and championships for a long time, and it would be heartbreaking to see that all come to an end. One reason, I believe, that modern British thought is so dominated by cynicism and sarcasm is that sensitive British people realize, at some level, that they lost the power and prestige in the world that had belonged to their ancestors. That is a devastating burden to carry, and it's not surprising that their response is to retreat into bitterness.

“So I think it's great that you care. In fact, I think it would be sad and unhealthy if you didn't care. Anyway, here's a video to cheer you up.”

Stephen was right. That did cheer me up.

There was a time when I believed that Kentucky’s superconcern for the UK men’s basketball team was at the heart of basically every ill in this state. If people didn’t care so much about the Wildcats, the schools would get better. If people didn’t care so much about UK, there’d be more and better jobs, and more Kentuckians would feel more at home here, etc.

I no longer remember the stepping stones within that logic. I think I was wrong.

Kentucky—not that you should have noticed when I left then, not that you should care now—I’m back. I’m rooting for the whole state. I’m rooting for UK tonight against UNLV. I’m rooting for all of the Kentucky teams in the men’s NCAA, women’s NCAA and WNIT. I’m rooting for schools, jobs and hospitality. I’m rooting for Greenville, and I’m rooting for Henderson. I really love this whole state, and that’s what this blog is about.