Out & About KY Style: John Burr of Adair Co.

I’ve always enjoyed chasing a story. By this I mean writing something where the facts don’t 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?

Gary West is an author and News Journal columnist.

The chase was on.

A phone call to Jim Richards, who had played for Coach Burr in the mid-50s. “You need to call Ben Burr, Coach Burr’s son,” he suggested. “I remember something about it, but not any details.”

Ben said, yes, he knew something like that happened, but no particulars. “Call Ralph Waggener,” he said.

Ralph heads up a longtime internet publication called ColumbiaMagazine.com. “I’m not sure about it, but I’ll check on it and put it on Facebook.”

Ralph’s sister, Annette, is married to Jim Richards. It’s a small world!

On my own I called Donna Hancock. She’s the publisher of the Adair County Progress  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.

“I might put out a query and see if anyone remembers,” 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’t 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. “I grew up here but don’t know anything about that,” he said. “But I know who will.”

Craig gave me the name and phone number of Doc Rogers.

“He’s been the team doctor for years,” added Biggs. “He’ll know.”

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.

“I remember something like that happening,” he said. “I think I was in the eighth grade, but don’t 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’ll know.”

Finally, someone who remembers that bizarre event. Even though I didn’t 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’t. He knew something about everything except what I wanted to know.

The next afternoon Ralph Waggener called. “I think I’ve found some information,” he said.

Then another call. This one from Jim Richards.

“You’re going to be getting a call from Blackie Nixon,” Jim said. “He was around the year it happened.”

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.

“It was 1958, the first year of integration.” Blackie recalled. “I 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.”

Back then there were 10 teams in the 21st District of which Adair was hosting. Three of the teams were from Campbellsville.  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’s opening game with Campbellsville, who had defeated Taylor County, there was no way radio station WTCO wasn’t going to let its listeners who couldn’t fight their way into the 2,000 seat gym in Columbia, to miss the broadcast of these games.

“I know that station tapped into a phone line on a pole outside of the gym.” Blackie Nixon said. “They 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.”

For the record Lebanon Rosenwald defeated Campbellsville Durham in the District finals only to loose to Durham in the Regional semis. Hodgenville turned back Durham in the finals. One of the most underrated players in the history of the 5th Region that year was Durham’s J.W. Allen. Years later Clem Haskins said Allen was one of the best he ever saw play.

There are great stories out there, and I enjoy chasing them.

There’s no excuse, get up, get out and get going! Gary P. West can be reached at westgarypdeb@gmail.com.