ASHLAND, Ky. – Steve Conley and Joe McDavid hate the spotlight as much as they love Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Putnam Stadium. And that’s saying something.
They do their jobs with excellence but in such obscurity the only photo available of Conley was from 10 years ago. I was able to muster only a mug shot of McDavid.
Conley and McDavid, like the late Doug Childers before them, have treated the natural surface at the stadium like their own front yards, manicuring every blade of grass it seemed. Those three men have been the unofficial (and unpaid) groundskeepers and caretakers at the home of the Tomcats for more than five decades combined.
Conley has worked at it for more than 20 years and McDavid more than 11 years. Childers did it for 30 years before they came on the scene – enough so that they renamed the surface Doug Childers Field. He was a fine man who cared a great deal for the stadium.
Doug’s sister, Donna Childers Suttle, was a huge fundraiser for the stadium restoration project and served on the committee for several years. She always said that Doug “treated it like it was his own front yard.”
The same could be said for Conley and McDavid who in the spring and summer mowed the grass three times a week. It was a way they could give back to the football program and Tomcat Nation in general. McDavid’s sons, Drew and Daniel, were outstanding Tomcat football players so his attachment came quite naturally.
Conley’s son played basketball but his personal satisfaction came from trying to make it the best stadium in the area. It wasn’t just mowing the grass either. He did the watering, trimmed bushes and was the eyes and ears for Ashland athletic directors Mark Swift and Jim Conway, making sure they knew if there was anything that needed to be fixed, repaired or painted. It is hard telling how many man hours he put in on the stadium.
And still does. Conley can usually be spotted with Greg Jackson, the tireless chairman of the restoration committee that is about to realize the end of a 17-year vision. Conley has been a crucial member of the committee for Jackson, who had to sometimes feel like he was on a deserted island through the long process. But he always had a confidant in Conley.
Conley has always cared for the stadium and was instrumental in getting the restoration project under way. In 2007, he was working at the Catlettsburg Refinery under supervisor P.J. Stringer, who was also the chairman of the Ashland school board. He showed Stringer the places where the stadium’s structure looked like it was showing its age. Concrete was being chipped away and the underbelly of the stadium was cracking.
It was eye-opening for Stringer, who immediately met with then superintendent Phil Eason and formed a stadium restoration committee.
“We needed to repair Putnam Stadium,” Conley said. “That was our goal when we started. It was never to replace Putnam Stadium.”
However, after hiring some engineers to inspect the stadium, they learned the news was much worse. “They came back and said, ‘You can’t repair this, it has to be replaced.’ That was in the spring or summer of 2008. It was unrepairable,” Conley said in a 2014 story in The Independent.
The committee then started on the long fundraising journey that has seen many ups and downs, including a recession that rocked the economy.
Conley said in that story in 2014 that he would do the groundskeeping “for as long as he was able.” He was 62 years old. Ten years later, and the job was getting too big for the two volunteers who deserve so much credit for how Putnam Stadium has looked every season.
Conley and McDavid took pride in how the stadium looked as fans came through the gates, especially for that first game of the season when you couldn’t tell if it was natural grass or artificial surface, it was so perfect. They went to great lengths, putting in a lot of hours throughout the weeks, to get it in Game Day shape throughout the remainder of the season.
“The commitment level they’ve had has been remarkable, unbelievable to be honest,” Conway said. “They don’t ask for anything and say, ‘Don’t say anything about us. We want to be in the back and do our thing. Thank you for allowing us to be a part.’ You don’t run into people like that.”
Volunteers, which included parents of players from each particular season, put down the paint for the field on Thursday nights. Sometimes there was a lot of help and other times not so much. Each year there was a new group and a new learning curve.
“That has been the monster.” Conway said. “Back in the day, a lot of people were willing to commit time and do those things. The number of people willing to do that is very minimal at best. It’s like always having the same folks working the concession stand. It’s always the same ones, they’re going to do it regardless. But you can’t expect the same folks to be doing it all the time. They’re getting older, they’ve got other things going on in their life with their families.”
With the artificial turf, which was made possible through a sizeable donation from Rick and Brent Clark of Clark’s Pump-N-Shop, Conley and McDavid can sit back and smell the roses. There will also be no more paint parties on Thursday night.
“I know the older generations are upset because the grass surface is going away but people don’t understand how this is going to affect everything,” Conway said. “We will never have to cancel JFL (games) again and we’re not going to have a muddy, sloppy game in November when the stakes are high. It has been needed for quite some time. We finally got there.”
The new Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Putnam Stadium will have its reveal on Sept. 6 when the Tomcats play their first home game of the season against Harvest Prep out of the Columbus area. There have been plenty of spectacular additions, including a giant Jumbotron inside the new scoreboard and a sound system that would make the Rolling Stones blush.
But, if possible, could I suggest one more thing?
How about a couple of rocking chairs in prime locations on the field for two of the unsung rock stars of the past 20 years of Tomcat football?
MARK MY WORDS 2 