Looking Back

Senior Redhound point guard Josh Hamlin neatly dropped in a 20-footer at the buzzer to beat a good Adair County team on Saturday night in an exciting finish to a game that was close throughout. It must have brought back memories to Coach Tony Pietrowski of his own game-winning last second shot against a very strong Harlan team in the mid-nineties.
Hamlin is getting better as each game goes by since a sick spell he suffered a couple of weeks back. Josh is a very good perimeter shooter. As a point guard, however, he doesn’t shoot that often. Hamlin gets his shots within the offense and rarely ever takes a bad shot.
I was particularly pleased to see the emotion of his teammates as they rushed the floor to congratulate Josh.
Sometimes kids get all caught up in the seriousness of the game and forget to have fun and enjoy playing the game.
One thing as a high school player, I was able to get out of the game, was how close I became to my teammates and remain that way today.
One of these days, and I hope it is many years from now when Josh goes to meet his maker, he will remember that shot, I will too. Another Josh, Josh Smith was named Player of the Game and played terrific.
I was very happy to see Baker Reasor and Mrs. Reasor at the game Saturday. Baker has followed the Redounds in all sports for many years and has always been there with a helping hand for any of the Redound programs. As with George Crabtree and Baker’s brother, Bascom Reasor, the Redounds always played a major part in their life.

I spoke with coach Steve Jewell at the ballgame the other night and he told me he had talked with 22 or 23 eighth graders who were coming out for football in the spring. The Redhounds already have around 50 players working in the weight room, which would push their numbers total to around 70 players. That would be great. If all the kids who have the athletic skills to play football at Corbin High School would come out, the Redhounds would once again be a football powerhouse.
Ray Canady is the assigning secretary for officials in our area. Ray was an outstanding athlete at Barbourville High School in the mid-fifties. Ray told me he once tackled Calvin Bird seven times in one game. Unfortunately, Canady stated six of those tackles occurred in the end zone as the Redounds ran up a 76-0 win over the Tigers in the 1955 game. Ray was one of Barbourville High School all time great athletes despite that game.
Barbourville High School recently was petitioned to revive the football program, but chose not to after a meeting of the minds, too bad. The Tigers once had a very competitive team, even beating a good 1954 Redound team, 12-6.
My best wishes for a wonderful life of retirement for an old friend, Dr. Glen Ray Baker, Jr. After many years of service to his community, Dr. Baker, has decided to hang it up. I remember Dr. Baker as a hard throwing right-hander in baseball who was always very physically fit. I wish him the best as a full time Redound fan.
There were no McDonalds, no Subways, no Wendy’s and only one Colonel Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken and we had it here in Corbin. It was the fifties. If all that was true, where did people go to eat?
They went to the Lunch Queen, the Wing Drive Inn, the Hungry Hound, and the Rose Lawn, all of which had great food. But none, but Kentucky Fried Chicken, could pass the test of time. Another still remains Gerry on 18th street run by Norma Parks, and of course, the Dixie Restaurant on Main Street.
Most everything changes over a fifty year period, but not so much at the Edwards Gym, now known as the Middle School Gym. On Friday evening, it was filled to near capacity as sixth and seventh graders went at it hard and heavy with teams from Tennessee, I hope that never changes.