LOOKING BACK

 The Redhounds of Coach Tony Pietrowski battled and scrapped very hard last Friday evening, but could not quite get the win as they played the number two-ranked team in the state, the Scott County Cardinals.

A loss like this is something you can learn from. Coach Billy Hicks is considered one of the state’s best coaches, and he certainly has a large athletic team. This game should make the Redhounds a better team on down the road. We learned they could fight from behind and through a great deal of adversity.

One more win

The Wildcats of Coach John Calipari continued to roll right through a difficult time in their schedule, standing at 10-0 with North Carolina, Connecticut and Indiana being the last three victims. Yes, Coach Cal, I too am now drinking the poison.

The old days of winter

I look around and see the leafless trees and feel the frigid breeze of winter and think back to the fifties and think of the small warm gyms in Pleasant View, where Scotty Moses and the Haynes brothers, and the Davenport brothers played for the Panthers. I recall Poplar Creek, where Delbert Mays and Billy Ferguson and a very tall Woodrow Wilson and a kind named Lambkin could fill it up from the corner.

I remember Rockholds where the Hornets were led by Gray Broyles and his brother, Joe, Bill Bryant was a leaper, and if you go on back a few years, a transfer from Black Star named Johnny Reeves burned the nets for the Hornets.

The Woodbine Trojans of the fifties were led by such notables as Roy Bullock, Ralph Roaden, Charlie Moore and the Harris brothers, Enoch Gibbs and of course a deadly shooting left-hander named Ralph Centers. Kenneth Pennington was another outstanding Trojan player.

Those were Whitley County high schools that brought pride to their communities in much of the first half of the 20^th century.

There was a parochial high school that stood proudly on a hill overlooking the city of Corbin. My memory of St. Camillus Academy is very vivid. The Sisters of the Divine Providence ran the school and ran it very efficiently and they were marvelous educators.

I played basketball for the St. Camillus Saints and although we didn’t win a lot of games, it was a very enjoyable experience and I was able to cultivate friendships that has lasted a lifetime. I am still despondent about that high school being closed and then them tearing down the building.

Jerry Smith

I called Furman in Greenville, South Carolina to confirm my intentions to attend a reception for Jerry Smith, a former Redhound and Furman great who will have his jersey retired at halftime of the Furman-Georgia Southern game, Jan. 16. Jerry has been a good friend of mine since grade school and was in my opinion one of the very best to every play at Corbin or Furman.

I asked to speak with Furman Head Basketball coach Jeff Jackson during the course of my conversation with the receptionist.  My intention was to bring to his attention a current Redhound basketball player who might possibly be a prospect for Coach Jackson and his team. Coach Jackson cut our conversation very short by informing me they only had one scholarship this year and he had already signed someone.

Over the years we have had numerous kids travel the road to Greenville to play basketball at Furman.

The Selvy brothers, Frank, Edd, David and Charles “Curly”, Sylvester Wright, Jerry Smith and Boyce Frederick that I can recall.

Many Corbin kids in the 50s have migrated to the Carolinas, Bobby Cathers, Roy Gilliam, Jr., Darrell Storms and C. D. Vermillion all played basketball at Erskine College, while Harry Teague of Lynn Camp played at Elon College.