There were a lot of reasons why Ashland was a football juggernaut from 1925 to 1932.
The Terrible Tomcats, as they were called at the time, went 62-0-4 and laid claim to seven state championships. They “laid claim” because there were no playoffs in Kentucky until 1959. So state champions were mostly mythical, although nobody was arguing with them. The Tomcats pounded all-comers.
Ashland had superior talent (some maybe a little older than the average senior), outstanding coaching and a lucky fedora.
The non-losing streak started in the last two games of the 1925 season and the inception of the old hat became a part of the Ashland High School football equipment in 1926, the beginning of Ashland’s six-year winning streak. It was introduced by Capt. Ernie Chattin, who graduated from the University of Illinois in 1930 following his Tomcat career.
Upon graduating from AHS, Chattin turned the hat over to Capt. Paul “Siki” Wolff (later to play at VPI) in 1927 and coach Paul Jenkins took charge of the hat in 1928, his first season at the helm.
He wore the tattered hat to every game because the players – and maybe Jenkins himself – thought it brought them luck. Not that they needed much luck because the Tomcats pulverized almost anybody in their path.
The old fedora was working its magic but a few days before a Thanksgiving Day game in 1928, Jenkins was in a panic. He could not find the old fedora anywhere and he looked everywhere. Jenkins left for the field without the skypiece, as it was called in an article in The Courier-Journal printed on Christmas Eve, and shared with me by Curt Crye, the researcher supreme. I had never heard the story.
Jenkins and the Tomcats were aghast over the loss of the old hat, taking it as an omen that defeat was imminent. They were wringing their hands and filling their heads with negative thoughts. But Jenkins’ future wife, the then Emma Buckley, found the hat at the last minute and rushed it to the playing field. The players breathed a sigh of relief.
The game went much like losing and finding the hat. For three quarters it was scoreless and then Portsmouth tallied a safety on what the article called without details a bone-headed play. With the game and the winning streak on the line and time running out, Ellis Johnson completed two long passes to Darrell Darby – both future UK players – to give the Tomcats a 7-2 triumph.
Jenkins prized the old hat for the rest of his coaching career at Ashland, never losing sight of it again
Two of the Tomcats greatest teams came in 1930 and 1931, the team that crushed Decatur, Ga., in the Southern Bowl 85-6 at Armco Park. That game came the week after clobbering Owensboro 57-0 on the road in the defacto championship game. The romp over Decatur made Ashland the national high school champions of 1931.
Because all good things come to an end, the winning streak was snapped in heartbreaking style against Erie East, Penn., in 1932. The game was tied at 13 and on the last play of the game, the Tomcats had the ball and attempted a flat pass along the sideline that was intercepted and run back for a touchdown. They could have settled for the tie and extended the non-winning streak but instead went for the win.
As Erie East celebrated, the Tomcats were seen all over the field, pounding the turf in frustration. Many of the Ashland fans, who had not tasted defeat since 1925, were seen crying in the stands as if they had lost someone special. Not even the old hat could keep them from defeat.
Jenkins coached seven seasons with a 62-6-2 record and the Tomcats claimed mythical state titles in six of those seasons. In seven seasons, Ashland had outscored opponents 2,154 to 129. It outscored opponents 596-2 in 1930.
Following the 1932 season, which included a rare two losses, 80 players came out for spring practice in 1933.
Jenkins coached basketball for the Tomcats as well, winning back-to-back state championships in 1933 and 1934. Ashland was the second team in Kentucky history to repeat as state basketball champs.
However, a threepeat wasn’t going to be possible. The athletic association suspended Ashland for the 1934-35 basketball season because the 1934 football team used an ineligible player in the last four games of the season. Jenkins’ tenure at Ashland ended in January 1935 with Ernie Chattin taking over as head basketball coach and Ellis Johnson as an assistant coach. The lucky fedora must have went with him.
Jenkins continued his successful career, coaching at St. Xavier, Portsmouth, Louisville Male (multiple sports) and finished his career in Florida.
MARK MY WORDS 2 