In your own way you too can help the flood victims

WOW! We have been truly overwhelmed with the response today to our EKY Disaster Relief Donation Drive! That is the opening sentence from the post by the Corbin Arena on Facebook.

Don Estep is publisher of the News Journal.

The same outstanding response can be applied to numerous people and towns, not from just Kentucky, but from across the nation. I read a post where a group from Georgia were making their way to eastern Kentucky with supplies.

As bad as the flood in eastern Kentucky has been, and it was bad beyond description, the response of the people has been equally good. Everything that is being done is out of the goodness of the hearts of people.

You can contribute in whatever way you feel is best, but please do so. It will be a long road to recovery for those affected by the flood and they will need your help for months to come.

• The basketball world lost a legend this past weekend when Bill Russell passed away. For me it was the glory days of basketball when he played for the Boston Celtics.

As a tribute to Russell, ESPN is playing back some of the games when he was a Celtic. I happened to be scanning the channels last night and viewed part of a championship game played in 1963 between Boston and the Los Angeles Lakers.

It was in black and white, which added to the nostalgia. Corbin’s own Frank Selvy played for the Lakers. Frank Ramsey, a star player from Kentucky, played for Boston. It was fun to watch.

Russell blocked six shots and grabbed about every rebound in the limited time I watched. He had a big looping hook shot and scored eight points. The stars of that game, though, were Jerry West for the Lakers and Elgin Baylor for the Celtics. Those guys could shoot.

The play of Selvy and Ramsey stood out too. Selvy was 30 years old and the oldest player on the Laker team. Most of you know, but for those unfamiliar with this, Frank Selvy, one of the Selvy brothers who played sports for Corbin High School, played at Furman University and set several NCAA records including scoring 100 points in a game and that was before the three-point shot. Just recently Frank was inducted into the NCAA Hall of Fame as a coach.

The game of basketball has changed dramatically since 1963. For one thing, players that touched their opponent were called for a foul. Big centers were not allowed to back and shove their way to the basket. If they did they were called for a foul. I like that, and that should be the rule today.

One thing that hasn’t changed was officiating. It was as horrible then as it is now. Basketball is a game that is too difficult to call without error. I saw five charging fouls called that clearly were not charges.

I started broadcasting basketball games in 1961. Back then our audiences were big because there was a lack of competition from TV and other sports.

The school’s and the town’s pride centered around their team’s success. Gyms were small and hot, but were always packed with fans. The discussions around lunch counters and in offices the next day was about the game, including pro basketball.

Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics dominated pro basketball then and Russell was the dominate player we talked about. The big man was the one of the best ever!