Super Bowl

In days of old, when knights were bold and every kingdom favored their champion, the hamlet that spreads beneath the water tower on Kentucky Hill and known to its subjects as Corbin, had their very own champion.
The arena was packed with over 100,000 people as the combatants raced onto the turf of battle wearing the colors of black and silver and gold and green. The black knights were called the Raiders and the gold and green were colors of the Green Bay Packers, it was Super Bowl II.
The Corbin Redhounds had been represented before in many arenas, but never in the hype of such a championship aura of a Super Bowl.
I had known our champion all of his life. I knew his mom, Bonnie, and his dad, Rueben, and his brothers Jerry, Calvin and Billy. I knew his sisters, Shirley and Nancy.
Rueben worked for Honey Crust bread with my uncle Ray Holland and they would get together with their families and play cards and enjoy each other’s company.
The oldest son, Jerry, had been an all-state basketball player in high school for the Redhounds and carried our colors in Memorial Coliseum representing the Kentucky Wildcats on the basketball courts and then on to arenas all over the nation as a member of the New York Knicks.
Brother Calvin had set new standards for high school football players across the state and nation by scoring touchdowns at a faster pace than anyone had ever done before him.
Billy was a bolt of lighting as he raced through opposing teams, once scoring 66 points in one game, which remains a school record today.
But this was the big arena, the biggest show in sports and our knight wore the silver and black of the Oakland Raiders.
Rodger Bird was the youngest of Rueben and Bonnie’s children and he had reached the pinnacle of the game of football, he was in the Super Bowl and with him, he carried the hopes of all of Corbin.
Rodger had been the number one draft pick of the Oakland Raiders in 1965 after being named All-American his senior season as a Kentucky Wildcat. Rodger had also been named defensive Rookie of the Year in the National Football League and held the record for punt return yardage in the NFL for several years.
The Raiders to this day are known for their very physical style of play and Rodger was certainly one of their pioneers of that perception. If you came across the middle of the field to catch a pass, you better give your soul to the almighty, because your rear end was going to belong to number 21.
I spoke with Rodger this week, and to no surprise, Rodger Bird is still the “good ole boy” he has been all of his life. Corbin remains very dear to him and his memory is very vivid of his youth.
Rodger always had a flair for the dramatic, as a high school senior, he scored five touchdowns against Louisville Dupont Manual in perhaps the best high school football game I have ever seen as the Redhounds beat the Louisville squad, 46-34 to complete the undefeated season of 1960.
In his first game at the University of Kentucky, Bird took the opening kickoff and raced for a touchdown against Virginia Tech, the first time he had ever touched the ball in a college game.
Against the number three nationally ranked Auburn Tigers, Rodger intercepted a Jimmy Sidle pass and out-ran All-American Tucker Fredrickson 90 yards for a touchdown to lead the Wildcats to a 20-0 win.
When I spoke with Rodger this week, he spoke of Jerry “Smiley” Martin who passed away recently, and of their friendship and of his buddy Lowell Wyatt and of their close friends. You get a good feeling for the man who in spite of his high list of accomplishments in life has never lost his perspective.
There was another Kentucky boy in that arena of Super Bowl II, Paul Hornung, I recently read Mr. Hornung’s book, “Golden Boy”.
Green Bay won the game that day long ago, but after reading Hornung’s book and knowing Rodger Bird, I can assure you we in Corbin, had a true champion in the arena of Super Bowl II.