Gary West

All I ever wanted to do someday was to write sports for a newspaper. Oh, I even dreamed about covering the Olympics. I knew who Red Smith was, and Earl Ruby, maybe the best ever, was a distant relative through marriage. I even went to his house in Louisville one Saturday morning and sat down to just ask a few questions. I was so starstruck I don’t remember one thing we talked about. For sure, I don’t remember asking a question. I knew this day would come. I dreaded it, but at the same time looked forward to it. In my head I wrote the story at least ten times... maybe...

Smiths Grove is where author Gary P. West took his first steps, rode his first bicycle, saw his first bowling alley, watched his first movie, attended first grade and drank his first chocolate malt at the downtown drug store, and got his first stitches from the town’s only doctor.  He was a second grader when the school exploded and blew most of the windows out of the house he lived in several blocks away. With Buc-ees arrival in Smiths Grove along with a couple more restaurants and shops, the town’s economic pace has quickened a bit. Let’s, however, take a look back to see how it got to this point. Everyone who...

With the recent passing of former Western Kentucky University basketball All-American Bobby Rascoe, it dawned on me that everyday there seems to be fewer and fewer living connections to famed Coach Ed Diddle. Rascoe, of course, played for him between the years of  1958-1962. As a student I knew Coach Diddle, interviewed him for a story in the college newspaper. He never knew my name, but knew where I was from, so he called me E’town. The stories about Coach Diddle, or as some referred to him as Mister Diddle, or some even Uncle Ed, deserves to be passed on so that’s what I’m going to do in this space. The variations...

The Olympics has come and gone. I will admit to being an Olympic junkie, particularly the Summer Games. While I like the Winter Games, it’s those Summer Games I love. It’s not as easy for me to zoom in on a winter sport as it is summer. Sledding down hospital hill in Bowling Green is pretty much it. But ping-pong, badminton, track, swimming, biking, and golf are a different story. All of a sudden it’s must-see TV. In the Olympics we suddenly became interested in sports we have never followed or perhaps never even seen. The 1960 games in Rome were my first real exposure. Wilma Rudolph, a Clarksville, Tennessee girl, and...

What do you mean you’ve never heard of him? I thought you were a basketball historian... especially in Kentucky. It’s been decades since Grady Wallace played at Betsy Layne High School, and even though his history in basketball may have fallen through the cracks in most of Kentucky, it hasn’t in the mountains of Floyd County. Grady Wallace is one of the greatest players to ever come out of this basketball-rich state, and he has the records to prove it. Sit back, get comfortable and get caught up on one of the greats. Playing at Betsy Layne, the 6-5, 165-pound Wallace was something to see. Raised in nearby Mare Creek Kentucky, and playing...

Bourbon collectors, especially in Kentucky, are a dime a dozen. Well, I’m one of them. Hoarding Kentucky’s finest doesn’t necessarily mean you drink it. Several years ago the state of Kentucky contracted me to write for their Travel Guide. My assignment was the Bourbon Trail... every distillery. That’s when I started collecting. When it came to bourbon, gin, vodka or Scotch you can throw truth in advertising out the window. The better the story behind the origin of their product the better their sales. A consumer has to decide if it’s the usually made-up-tale that is reason enough to pay big bucks for a bottle of bourbon. One of the bottles I...

For me history has been important. I enjoyed it in school as an elective subject. One of the best teachers I ever had was Dr. Carlton Jackson in an American His-tory class at Western Kentucky University in 1961, when it was known as Western Kentucky State Teachers College. For some reason I didn’t make Dean’s List grades in history, although it was my favorite subject at the time. Years later, after writing several books, I became very good friends with Dr. Jackson, even sheepishly calling him “Carlton.” I told him about my very average grade in his class, and without missing a beat he said, “You deserved better. I’ve gotten...

Signs, advertising signs that is, can be somewhat misleading. I learned my lesson fairly early in life while on a spring break trip to  Fort Lauderdale back in 1965. I had been there before, but this time it was different. This time I was driving my own car... a 1964 white Pontiac LeMans convertible with a baby-blue top. It didn’t matter that there were six of us jammed into the two-door car. It didn’t matter that each of us was limited to one small suitcase. It didn’t matter either that we would be driving 18-hours with no wiggle and very little room to rest your head. These things didn’t matter to any...

I’m not saying I’m old, but I am saying I’m old enough. If I had my choice I’d stop aging right now. When I look in the mirror I realize I’m old enough... don’t need anymore. Heck, I can remember when automobiles were advertised as having a radio and heater. Although I never drove one that didn’t have one of those taken-for-granted accessories, I do remember my grandparents having one. Now all we do is press this or turn that. With some of our modern tech all we have to do is speak it and we get results. It won’t be too far in the future when all we...

There might not be another man in America more focused and disciplined than Jim Morris. Let me explain. The name may not immediately resonate with you, but for those who followed high school basketball back in the late 60s and early 70s, Jim Morris was a 6-5 prolific record setting scorer for Bowling Green High School. Sports came easy for Jim, particularly basketball. However, his life away from the sport was a far different story. With a single parent, raising two rambunctious boys, Jim Morris even at an early age, found a way to zero in on the positives in his life... and it was basketball. Jim’s mom, Opal was on her...