[Red and Black]

Greatest HS football coach in history. Not just Kentucky football history, but American football history, as well.

He was part of an old breed of men that are few and far between nowadays. A man of honor and sincerity. A man of love and respect. We were lucky to have had him for the time that we did. I feel lucky and blessed that he was born and raised in Prestonsburg, so all of us Pburg kids got to hear the stories about him when we were growing up both as a player and as a coach here. The common theme was always that his teammates loved him and his players loved him. He helped restore Pburg football to what it used to be in the 40's and 50's both when he played for some good teams in the late 60's and then coached some very good teams in the mid 70's and early 80's. Without him, who knows what would've happened to Pburg football? As someone who bleeds red and black, I'm very thankful for that. I feel very lucky and blessed that I got to play against him all 4 years that I was in HS (even though we only beat him once or twice out of about 7 or 8 tries, even though some were absolute barn-burners). I feel lucky and blessed that a coach of his caliber chose to stay in the mountains instead of moving on to more lucrative opportunities, which I'm sure were offered to him. Overall, just lucky and blessed to have had somebody like that that everyone who ever came in contact with him or heard his name can look up to. After my last game in 2004 (the last HS game ever played at Vipperman) I'll never forget him coming over to me and some of my brothers standing on the field after the handshake. We were all thinking about what we were going to do without the thing that we had dedicated our lives to for 4 years, we had just played our last game, and he said "don't hang your heads, boys. You've got nothing to be ashamed of". And it sounds like (and was) a very cliche thing to say, and coming from anybody else it probably would've just felt like hollow words. Like empty platitudes. But when I looked at him as he said it I could tell that he truly meant it, and his heart went out to us, and I loved him for it.

God speed, coach! Looking forward to talking about that game the next time I see you! Congrats on a race well run!