Gary West

Wes Strader may not have been a household name throughout Kentucky, but for any fan of Western Kentucky University basketball, or anyone who has listened to or attended the Boys High School Basketball Tournament over the last three decades, the name rings with hoops reverence. For 36 years he was the basketball and football “Voice of the Hilltoppers,” plus pre-game, post-game shows, call-in shows, and a stint that followed with UK icon Kenny Walker on the Big Blue Network. Wes died on Tuesday, January 9, 2018. He was my friend … my good friend. Wes packed a lot of living in his 79 years, and he did it on his terms with...

I have been writing this column for well over a decade in multiple newspapers from Paducah to Corbin and towns in between, publishing it on a monthly basis. The feedback I have received by way of e-mails, letters and even phone calls has been rewarding. Several offered suggestions for future columns while most had their take on what I had written about. For a writer it’s nice to know you are being read. Years ago I was in the advertising business and one of my advertisers gave me a paste-up of his Christmas toy ad. One of the items was a Chatty Cathy doll listed for $19.95. In the process the...

There are three sporting events that attract non-traditional sports fans annually. Without question the Super Bowl ranks number one, the NCAA basketball tournament probably number two, and the World Series next. In the beginning of what is now a sports-crazy society, however, the World Series was king. The Super Bowl and NCAAs are a creation of television. As a 12-year-old sixth grader at Morningside Elementary in Elizabethtown, I had cleverly hidden my little turquoise transistor radio out of my teacher Miss Mason’s sight. Hearing constant static, I could barely make it out that my favorite team, the Brooklyn Dodgers had just scored the go-ahead run in the seventh and deciding game against...

For more than 30 years horses have been roaming the hills and mountains of eastern Kentucky. And it’s not just a few either. “Over the past three years, I, with the help of friends, local horse owners, coal companies and state conservation officer, have actually documented and taken photos of 556 free-roaming horses,” says Debby Spencer, a tourism activist who has worked on projects from one end of Kentucky to the other. “Most are in herds of five to twelve with a few larger herds scattered around.” Spencer is quick to admit that several herds have probably been missed due to the remoteness of the area and difficulty of finding them. “One...

March in Kentucky means its basketball frenzy time. Even for those who don’t eat and breathe the sport, there’s no escaping it. For hoops it’s not a matter of choice. When it comes to high school hoops, most are familiar with legends King Kelly Coleman and Richie Farmer from the mountains of eastern Kentucky, but there’s another legend who for some reason hasn’t attained the status he probably deserves. You would think that if a player held the scoring record for every gym he ever played in, his name would roll off your tongue when naming the all-time greats. And what if that same player holds the national two season scoring...

Kentucky is proud of its 38 State Parks, but it also likes to pump up its relationship with a handful of significant national park attractions that have become beacons while drawing visitors here. Of course most Kentuckians are aware that Mammoth Cave (270.758.2180) in Edmonson County is one of the state’s biggest draws. Designated as a National Park in 1926, its over 300 miles of charted passage-ways have acted like magnets in attracting tourists. Visitors to the park are often surprised to learn that it is the second oldest tourist attraction in America, following only Niagara Falls. Tour guides, beginning with candles and lanterns, have been taking visitors down under since...

When the men’s Olympic basketball team takes the court in Rio this month few of its players, and perhaps even fewer of the fans, will remember what took place 44 years ago at the 1972 Games in Munich, Germany. There has never been such an Olympics, before or since. Swimmer Mark Spitz won an unheard of seven gold medals, gymnast Olga Korbut from Russia burst onto the world scene, and the U.S. men’s basketball team lost to the Russians in the most controversial game ever played. But it was what happened away from any of the competition, back in Olympic Village, that brought the world to its knees. For Munich in 1972,...

Who would have thought when the Cleveland Browns won the NFL title back in 1964 that it would be another 52 years before the city would claim another major professional sports championship? Though it might have seemed like 100 years to some, it took the Cleveland Cavaliers to rid Cleveland, sometimes called the “mistake on the lake,” of the jinx. When the Browns won Lyndon Johnson was in the White House, and the Rock ’n Roll Hall of Fame hadn’t even been thought of, at least not in Cleveland. In fact many of its inductees were years away from their first performance. Lost in it all, almost relegated to a footnote, is...

I can’t let a baseball season go by without telling of my connection to Babe Ruth. No, I didn’t actually know him . . . never met him . . . never saw him play. But in a round-about way I really did have a connection to the Sultan of Swat. In 1969, I was working for Uncle Sam at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and while editing the post newspaper during the week, I would do little “stringer” jobs for the wire services covering sports here and there. But I wanted more. I wanted to write for a magazine, preferably Sports Illustrated. They already had one Kentucky boy writing for...

In the 1930s, 40’s, and well into the 50’s dining out was considered a luxury, something done on special occasions. But as lifestyles began to change so did the restaurant business. With more women stepping out of the kitchen and into the workforce, local eateries emerged as did chain restaurants, both recognizing that we were becoming a society on the move. And we’re still on the move. That’s why in Kentucky alone there are hundreds and hundreds of quality spots to dine. Of course most of the chains are good, but the purpose here is to zero in on several of the “local types” that will be well worth your time...