{"version":"1.0","provider_name":"The News Journal","provider_url":"https:\/\/qa.thenewsjournal.net","title":"Out & About KY Style: John Burr of Adair Co. &ndash; The News Journal","type":"rich","width":600,"height":338,"html":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"H6cwbVwvtI\"><a href=\"https:\/\/qa.thenewsjournal.net\/out-about-ky-style-john-burr-of-adair-co\/\">Out &#038; About KY Style: John Burr of Adair Co.<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/qa.thenewsjournal.net\/out-about-ky-style-john-burr-of-adair-co\/embed\/#?secret=H6cwbVwvtI\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" title=\"&#8220;Out &#038; About KY Style: John Burr of Adair Co.&#8221; &#8212; The News Journal\" data-secret=\"H6cwbVwvtI\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\/* <![CDATA[ *\/\n\/*! This file is auto-generated *\/\n!function(d,l){\"use strict\";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&\"undefined\"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!\/[^a-zA-Z0-9]\/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),c=new RegExp(\"^https?:$\",\"i\"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display=\"none\";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute(\"style\"),\"height\"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):\"link\"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute(\"src\")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener(\"message\",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll(\"iframe.wp-embedded-content\"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute(\"data-secret\"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+=\"#?secret=\"+t,e.setAttribute(\"data-secret\",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:\"ready\",secret:t},\"*\")},!1)))}(window,document);\n\/* ]]> *\/\n<\/script>\n","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/qa.thenewsjournal.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Gary-West-Guest-Columist.jpg","thumbnail_width":480,"thumbnail_height":473,"description":"I\u2019ve always enjoyed chasing a story. By this I mean writing something where the facts don\u2019t jump up and smack you in the face. When I found out Coach John Burr of Adair County was going in the Kentucky Basketball Hall of Fame this year, I immediately set out on a chase. It tested my memory back some 65 years when I recalled a story in the Courier-Journal about the Adair County coach banning a radio broadcast at his gym in Columbia. My recall was that it was in the early 60s, but I could dig up zero on the internet. Was my mind playing tricks? The chase was on. A phone call to Jim Richards, who had played for Coach Burr in the mid-50s. \u201cYou need to call Ben Burr, Coach Burr\u2019s son,\u201d he suggested. \u201cI remember something about it, but not any details.\u201d Ben said, yes, he knew something like that happened, but no particulars. \u201cCall Ralph Waggener,\u201d he said. Ralph heads up a longtime internet publication called ColumbiaMagazine.com. \u201cI\u2019m not sure about it, but I\u2019ll check on it and put it on Facebook.\u201d Ralph\u2019s sister, Annette, is married to Jim Richards. It\u2019s a small world! On my own I called Donna Hancock. She\u2019s the publisher of the Adair County Progress\u00a0 Surely she would know someone who knew about a radio station being banned from broadcasting a high school basketball game in Columbia. When I told her the time frame, she offered that that was way before her time. \u201cI might put out a query and see if anyone remembers,\u201d she said while giving me a bit of hope. Then it was a call to Ralph Shearer. His wife, Pam, informed me he was experiencing some major health issues and unable to speak with me at this time. Ralph wasn\u2019t just a name out of the blue. He is still considered the best player to ever play at Adair County when he led his team to back-to-back final fours at the Kentucky High School State Tournament. Playing for Coach Burr, the Indians lost to Inez by two points in the semis in 1954. In 1955, Hazard behind Johnny Cox won 74-66 over Adair. Shearer had 29 points in the championship game. Realizing that an old friend of mine from Western Kentucky University days was now the athletic director at Adair County High, I called Craig Biggs. \u201cI grew up here but don\u2019t know anything about that,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I know who will.\u201d Craig gave me the name and phone number of Doc Rogers. \u201cHe\u2019s been the team doctor for years,\u201d added Biggs. \u201cHe\u2019ll know.\u201d I was about to solve the mystery of the banned radio station, and I quickly dialed Doc Rogers only to get no answer. Thankfully, he called back. \u201cI remember something like that happening,\u201d he said. \u201cI think I was in the eighth grade, but don\u2019t remember what really happened. But I know someone who probably will. Call John Pendleton. He was a team manager and scorekeeper for Coach Burr for several years. He\u2019ll know.\u201d Finally, someone who remembers that bizarre event. Even though I didn\u2019t have the exact story, I felt like I was closing in on it. Everyone, all eight of the people I had talked with, remembered the event. Well, sort of. No details or year. In between calls I called Jody Richards. As a former Speaker of the House in Frankfort I knew he would have the facts on this chase. He didn\u2019t. He knew something about everything except what I wanted to know. The next afternoon Ralph Waggener called. \u201cI think I\u2019ve found some information,\u201d he said. Then another call. This one from Jim Richards. \u201cYou\u2019re going to be getting a call from Blackie Nixon,\u201d Jim said. \u201cHe was around the year it happened.\u201d Now, perhaps my chase was getting out of hand. With someone named Blackie and a last name Nixon, my thoughts drifted from a basketball game to something more menacing than blocking a radio station from broadcasting a high school basketball game. This was getting very interesting. At 8:34 that night, sure enough my phone rang. It was Blackie. His name came about because his hair was black, and, hang on for this, his brother was called Red because, guess what? His hair was red. John Pendleton told me later they looked nothing like brothers. All of that mattered little to me as Blackie Nixon began to put all of the pieces together for this story that had managed to escape me all of these 65 years. \u201cIt was 1958, the first year of integration.\u201d Blackie recalled. \u201cI was a senior and remember that all of the coaches in the District decided not to allow any radio broadcast of the games that year. The District Tournament was in our gym, which was only a few years old at this time.\u201d Back then there were 10 teams in the 21st District of which Adair was hosting. Three of the teams were from Campbellsville.\u00a0 C-ville, Taylor County and the new black school entry Campbellsville Durham which featured an eighth grader, Clem Haskins. With Campbellsville matched against Taylor County in the first round and Durham\u2019s opening game with Campbellsville, who had defeated Taylor County, there was no way radio station WTCO wasn\u2019t going to let its listeners who couldn\u2019t fight their way into the 2,000 seat gym in Columbia, to miss the broadcast of these games. \u201cI know that station tapped into a phone line on a pole outside of the gym.\u201d Blackie Nixon said. \u201cThey had someone inside who would write things on a piece of paper and get it to a person standing in the upper part of the gym who would drop it out the window to the person calling the game on the phone. As far as I know they did all of the games that year like that. I do know Lebanon Rosenwald beat us (Adair County) in the semis, by one point.\u201d For [&hellip;]"}