[Pulp Fiction]

That's two pages worth of history!!

HC was built in what we called Copperhead Holler. That holler was rampant with snakes!! Before they opened, a "committee" was appointed to determine school colors, mascot, etc. They supposedly put these decisions to a vote by the general public. The 3 choices of mascots were the Coal Miners, the Rattlesnakes or the Knights. It was reported that the Knights won the most votes and that's what we were for the first year. I even have a T-shirt and Pappy has a hat that reads "Harlan County Knights".

IMO even THIS was highly politicized. I remember people mad over the mascot being too close to the "Trojans" and mad over the colors being "Cumberland" colors, etc. One old gentleman got up in a board meeting and said that he had hunted these mountains all his life and had NEVER seen a Knight jump out from behind a tree!!! nicker:

Soooo, anyway, Da Bears was chosen and we kept the colors as they were. With all the adults fighting over stupid crap like this, it's no wonder that it took the kids a little while to come together as one team, but they finally did.

And the result is the Harlan County Black Bears!


Believe it or not, this is the short version.

The Harlan County Copperheads would have been epic. I would proudly wear a Harlan County Copperheads t-shirt.


The schools fight song had to be nothing less than Copperhead Road by Steve Earle.
"You never come back from Copperhead Road....."