Jackson’s action brings restoration to Putnam Stadium

Forgive Greg Jackson if you see him taking victory laps around Putnam Stadium.

When the Ashland school board approved and signed a 10-year partnership with Clark’s Pump-N-Shop on Monday, it was the culmination of a goal that Jackson set for himself when the Putnam Stadium Restoration Foundation was formed in 2007.

Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Putnam Stadium, as it will soon be named, will have its own carpet in time for the 2024 season. It’s only part of the second phase, which Jackson has vowed to finish and includes an LED scoreboard, new lighting, a sound system and a banked end zone on the open end of the stadium. Even if the latter projects don’t materialize by 2024, the playing surface will be laid down making Putnam Stadium an even bigger showplace than it is now, and that’s saying something.

And all that has happened through Jackson’s never-say-no attitude. He has remained positive in the face of many obstacles but never wavered from the objective.

Sixteen years ago, the committee was developed with the idea of giving Putnam Stadium a “facelift.” But it wasn’t long until that “facelift” became a long and expensive project of making the home of the Tomcats a viable and safe place to watch football.

Jackson, who was a co-chairman of the committee with Dan Kelly early on, has been at the helm of the program the entire time. He is former Tomcat football player – starring on the famed 1975 “JAWS” team – and a passion like few others for Putnam Stadium. He has seen it from a lot of views, including being a former Tomcat Band parent when daughters Rebecca and Kathryn were members, including one-time president.

The original restoration committee had 13 members but only three remain – Jackson, Blake Holbrook and Steve Conley.

Jackson, a West Point graduate with the leadership chops it takes to lead, has done just that for the committee and Ashland Tomcat fans should be thankful for his diligence and persistence in making a project this huge happen.

Thirteen people were on the original committee and the school board ordered an engineering study to be done on the stadium that was 74 years old at the time. Kelly retired from the school system and left the area and Jackson said not a lot was happening.

Steve Gilmore became Ashland’s new superintendent and still nothing was happening with the stadium. Jackson then took command, calling Gilmore and setting up a meeting.

“I wanted to take the committee and get his commitment to support us and be part of the committee to get this project going again,” Jackson said. “He said yes so I ran with it and the rest is history.”

Jackson got the committee together again and reenergized, assuring them that it was going to get done. He asked for commitment from each one of them to follow his leadership and they all agreed.

The engineering study revealed bad news, calling for the stadium to be torn down. That heartbreaking decision was made to take it down and a plan put in place to rebuild it in the same shape. The teardown and rebuild came after the 2013 season and prior to 2014. They didn’t miss a game, although the 2014 season opener was delayed because of a torrential rainstorm, and some drainage issues, that caused the field to be flooded.

Jackson developed friendships with Tomcat greats John Koskinen and Dave Alban who have been instrumental. Koskinen was a cornerstone donor of the “new” Putnam Stadium and it was the lift that Jackson needed. A longtime friend and leader in the community, Jackson’s influence was greatly felt during the time he guided the committee. As the human resources manager at Marathon Petroleum in Catlettsburg, Jackson was a friendly face to the community. He has been and still is active on many boards in Ashland. Jackson is a face that people trusted and he has been critical as other smaller steps were made with an eye on bringing artificial turf to Putnam Stadium.

Corporate sponsorship seemed to be the answer and the Ashland area has a great one in Clark’s Pump-N-Shop, owned by brothers Rick and Brent Clark and formed by John Clark. When asked about becoming a partner in the project, there was no hesitation from the Clarks. They understand how much Putnam Stadium means to the community and how artificial turf can make it an even more valuable venue for other community events beyond football.

They have a tradition of serving and giving back to the community where the business was built and remains a powerhouse today.

Jackson called on another great Tomcat and one of the world’s foremost marketing gurus in Jim Host to help put together a contract that was appealing to everyone. Much credit should go to the Clarks for stepping up in such a big way and bringing artificial turf to Ashland to tradition-rich Putnam Stadium. The Clarks do a lot in the community that nobody ever knows about, not wanting any credit for their generosity. They stepped up, no question about it.

But over the past 16 years, nobody spent more time, sweated more blood and been more important to this project than Greg Jackson. He waved the Tomcat flag – by the way it was Greg who got the flags with the years of state championship on them that circle the stadium – better than anyone when it came to restoring Putnam Stadium. He was also instrumental, along with former teammate Rick Sang, at setting up the donor corner with the statue of Herb Conley, the all-time Tomcat, in front of it.

Secretly, I think Jackson wants to run just one more down at Putnam Stadium. A few years ago, he and former teammates Chuck Anderson and Dave Early raced from the 50 to the end zone. Jackson, running like he was 17 again, smoked them.

Mind you, Greg Jackson is not done with what he wants to do with Putnam Stadium improvements, holding a list of items if anyone is willing to help.

But the grass sure looks a lot greener these days.