The Kentucky boys’ high school state tournament has been delayed a week this year because of the NCAA tournament being held at Rupp Arena last week. I have a long history of attending the tournament, both as a fan and a broadcaster. I could share a thousand stories or more, and in this column, I’ll share a few.
My first broadcasts were from 1960 to 1963 for WVLK in Lexington. The most memorable game I did at that time was in 1961 between Breathitt County and Dunbar, played at Memorial Coliseum
It was memorable for one reason… because of a racially biased referee. Sitting next to me was Earl Cox, famed writer for the Louisville Courier-Journal. At a time out, that referee came over to Cox and said in so many words, “as long as I’m refereeing this game Dunbar will never win.” The next day, Cox wrote what he said and that was the last time that referee ever called a game.
The game was also memorable because Austin Dumas made a shot from back court in the final seconds and Dunbar won, 55-54.
That tournament was won by the Ashland Tom Cats, featuring Larry Conley on a high school team that has been called one of the best ever in the state tournament.
What a way to get my play-by-play broadcasting career started at the state tournament. Altogether, I broadcast over 350 state tournament games.
I started working for radio station WCTT in Corbin in 1961, but the management continued to let me do the broadcast for the Lexington station until we decided to originate our own broadcast. For years, WCTT was getting a feed from a Hazard radio station. So, in 1964, Jim Lee Crawford and I started 20-plus years of broadcasting all games over the local station. I did the play-by-play and Jim Lee did the color.
I only missed one half of a game during that period of time. It was an afternoon session and I had made it through one game and a half but I was so sick I couldn’t go on. An Owensboro station next to us picked up our microphone and finished the broadcast. The Corbin basketball coach at that time was Bill Smith. He saw me slumped over the table, white as a sheet. He literally carried me out the door and ushered me to our motel room. After a couple of hours of rest I returned to Freedom Hall and called the final two games of the evening session.
Such great memories of being there with Coach Smith, Jim Lee, Dave Huff, and the Huff Drug coffee table gang.
My broadcasting career ended around 1990. In the final game of the tournament a reporter from WLEX-TV in Lexington asked if he could video me doing the broadcast. My good friend Dallas Jones videotaped that telecast and gave me the tape, which I cherish. On the video, the camera panned around Rupp Arena and showed the many radio station banners that circled the floor. Then it showed our banner, and then me. The announcer said, “Don Estep, from Corbin, has been doing state tournament games since 1960, and he’ll be back next year. No doubt, he will make the drive from Corbin to broadcast next year’s tournament.” That was the kiss of death. I didn’t return. My career at this newspaper had just started and it required too much time and effort. I had to give up broadcasting.
After that, for many years my good friend Bill Crook and I went to every tournament. At a game at Freedom Hall, we witnessed a fan in front of us making funny remarks after calls a coach was making, and the crowd in that area was laughing hard. It was a comedy show. Bill insisted that we go down and meet those guys after the game. Thus started a long relationship with two friends – Bob and Larry from Graves County, or about as far west in Kentucky as you can go.
For many years, the four of us sat, ate and teamed together at the tournaments. Bob Berry was the comedian of the bunch, a guy that everyone enjoyed being around and everybody in hearing distance loved his remarks. I talked to Bob and, yes, he was heading to Lexington this week for the tournament. He, like us, attended the tournament for decades. Bill attended as long as his health would allow, and I quit going when Bill could no longer make it. That is, except when Corbin made it to the sweet sixteen. Even then, when Bill could no longer make it, so we would talk on the phone and reminisce about old times. When Bill passed away he took with him a library of state tournament knowledge.
We sat in a section of Rupp Arena that started with as many as 30 or more fans attending every year. But as time went on, one by one, they started to die off and the crowd grew smaller. By the time I quit going there were less than ten remaining.
As I said, I could write many stories about our adventures at the state tournaments. At times, I will recall them. It brings with it nostalgia, plus a tear and many precious memories for me.
