STEELTON, Pa. – Dave Sullivan hasn’t forgotten his roots.
The successful businessman and former Steelton-Highspire football star has donated $500,000 to kickstart a transformative $9 million project to rebuild War Veterans Memorial Field, the more than century-old stadium of the Steelton-Highspire High School Rollers. The stadium was recently declared unfit for use, forcing all games to be played away from home.
Sullivan, a 1968 graduate and NFL alum, stepped in not just with funds, but also as an ambassador for the initiative.
“Our athletic programs have always been strong, but our community has been overlooked,” Sullivan told a local news station. “It’s time we change that.”
An artist tendering of the proposed stadium and track at Steelton-Highspire High School in Steelton, Penn.
Despite limited resources, the Rollers have built a powerhouse program, winning Pennsylvania state titles in 2007, 2008, 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024. But their facilities haven’t kept up with their success.
“Our facilities no longer reflect our legacy,” said Head Coach and Athletic Director Andrew Erby. “We’ve produced champions without resources—imagine what we could do with them.”
The project is about more than football. Once a booming steel town with more than 16,000 residents, Steelton has faced economic decline. The local steel mill—once a vital part of the town—will close by the end of June, leaving up to 550 workers without jobs. The population has dwindled to just over 6,300, per the 2020 U.S. Census.
Sullivan and his wife, Sara, recognized the need for a bold step forward. His recent donation follows a previous $100,000 gift to the school’s athletic department.
Former Steelton football star Dave Sullivan during his induction into the Pennsylvania High School Hall of Fame. Sullivan set records in college at Virginia and played two seasons for the Cleveland Browns. He is part of a group trying to raise funds to build a new football stadium and community center in his hometown. He and wife Sara made a $500,000 donation.
“This is personal for me,” Sullivan said. “I’ve been blessed in business, but it all started here. Everything I’ve accomplished stems from the foundation I got in Steelton.”
After earning a scholarship to the University of Virginia, Sullivan played wide receiver in 1973-74 for the Cleveland Browns before a career-ending injury in the mid-1970s. He went on to lead Gibraltar Mausoleum and Saber Management, helping grow both into major players in the funeral services industry. Together, he and Sara have supported other philanthropic efforts, including more than $50,000 donated to Amy For Africa, a Christian education mission in Uganda.
Their support is giving the stadium project the momentum it needs.
“We knew this needed financial support, and we felt called to help,” Sullivan said. “This is a spark for others to join in. Now is the time to get involved—full steam ahead.”
The project is divided into three phases:
Phase One: Install turf field, upgrade lighting and stormwater systems, and build a six-lane Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association-compliant track.
Phase Two: Replace the 1918 bleachers with ADA-compliant grandstands, construct a new press box, classrooms, kitchen, and restrooms.
Phase Three: Create a Career, Education and Wellness Center featuring a fitness studio, nutrition kitchen, and counseling services.
“This is about more than sports,” Erby said. “It’s about saving lives and building futures. What we’re doing here will impact generations.”
There is currently no set timeline for completion, and the school is actively seeking additional donors to help fully fund the $9 million initiative. No taxpayer dollars will be used.
To learn more or support the project, visit the Roller National Foundation at rollernationfoundation.org.
Jim McKenzie, who had a memorable run in the Sweet 16 on Ashland’s 1962 state runnerup basketball team, died Wednesday night.
McKenzie played two seasons for the Tomcats after transferring from Russell. As a junior, he was in the backcourt with Kenn Johnson. Larry Conley was a senior that season and almost led Ashland to back-to-back state championships.
While Conley was the star, McKenzie played a huge role for coach Bob Wright’s 32-6 team. He averaged 11.8 points per game – second behind Conley – and scored 438 points in that junior season.
McKenzie shined under the bright lights of Freedom Hall in the state tournament. He scored 17 points in the opening 61-57 win over Newport and had 24 against Caneyville in a 73-49 triumph in the state semifinals. During the 62-58 loss to St. Xavier in the championship game, he had 16 points and Conley scored 17 as Ashland fell just short of a second consecutive title.
Coach Bob Wright is hoisted after winning the 16th Region title in 1962. Jim McKenzie (21) is next to Larry Conley who is helping hold the coach.
As a senior, classmates McKenzie, Johnson and David Turpin each averaged double figures. McKenzie led the way with 12.8 ppg. scoring average on 385 points. Ashland fell to Olive Hill in the 16th Region finals, 59-57, with McKenzie scoring 18 points.
He scored 823 points during his two years at Ashland.
The Tomcats would not return to the championship game of the Sweet 16 until 1996 when they fell to Paintsville. The 1961 championship season is the last time Ashland, or any team from the 16th Region, has won the crown.
Jim McKenzie was an outstanding high school basketball referee in the 1970s and 1980s.
McKenzie was also the catcher on the 1962 Tomcat baseball team that reached the state tournament. He had an older brother, Larry, who played basketball and Russell and coached for several seasons.
ASHLAND – Greg Jackson, who spearheaded and practically willed the rebuilding of Putnam Stadium from rubble to spectacular showcase, will be honored this summer on Elks Sports Day.
Jackson spent countless hours overseeing the Putnam Stadium restoration project for 17 years, serving as everything from fundraiser to cheerleader to give the Tomcats and their fans one of the most complete and impressive stadiums in the South. Nobody could question the resolve of Jackson whose expansive vision for what Putnam Stadium could be came to life this fall.
A born leader who graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1980, Jackson is also a community champion who has served on countless boards and is a leader at his church. He was a two-sport star in high school for Ashland. Jackson was a running back and outside linebacker on the famed JAWS 1975 champions and a third baseman for the 1975 and 1976 regional baseball champions.
Jackson also played on freshmen football and baseball teams at West Point. He served six years in the Army after graduating from West Point. He went there with classmate and teammate Chuck Anderson, a past Sports Day honoree, who went on to a career in the Army that saw him rise to become a Two-Star General. Anderson will introduce Jackson at the Sports Day banquet.
Greg Jackson spent 17 years as chairman of the Putnam Stadium Restoration Committee, finishing the job in the fall of 2024.
Beyond playing, Jackson served as an assistant coach for Ashland Kittens softball for eight seasons, including six regional champions, and was president of the Tomcat Band Booster Club for one year and active for eight years when his daughters were in band. He also was a youth softball, baseball, football, and basketball coach when his three children were young.
All that while working 34 years in Human Resources with Ashland Oil and Marathon Petroleum Corporation and serving on a dozen community boards.
The exhaustive list of accomplishments checked all the boxes for making him the perfect choice for Sports Day, said Dale Sexton, who is serving as co-chairman with Steve Towler. Sexton said Jackson was a unanimous selection of the committee.
Greg Jackson with his coach, Herb Conley, in September 2024 to dedicate the stadium’s new look.
“He’s definitely somebody that needed to be honored for all he’s done for the Ashland community,” Sexton said. “He is very deserving, and we are glad to have him as the honoree. I think it will be a great night to honor a great man who obviously loves Ashland.”
The banquet is on June 14 at Elks Lodge. Jackson’s portrait will be hung on the lodge’s back wall joining the honorees who have come before him. Mark Maynard, another former Sports Day honoree and former editor of The Daily Independent, will be the speaker.
“You look at those names and it is hard to feel like you’re in that group,” Jackson said. “I’m humbled to have even been considered but appreciative of being selected by the committee.”
Jackson, 67, was inducted in 2022 to the CP-1 Ashland Baseball Hall of Fame.
Jackson is the ultimate volunteer, using his time and skills to make Ashland a better place throughout his life. His board work was exemplary, even reaching the state level where he was on the state United Way board from 2015-2018.
As an athlete, few played harder than Jackson, who missed five weeks of his senior football season with a broken foot. Although he did not know it, he had broken the foot two days before the opener against Johnson Central.
JAWS 1975 team was the State At Large champions.
The night before the opener he had a temperature of 102 but tried to hide the injury from the coaches because he wanted to play the first game of his senior season. Jackson played and on his first carry dashed 53 yards for a touchdown. Jackson carried three more times and had 100 yards rushing at halftime.
His foot was throbbing and after sitting through halftime, it swelled so much that he could not put weight on it. An x-ray the next morning revealed the break. Jackson said he asked the doctor if he could just give him a cortisone shot on game days and was met with a resounding no.
“I didn’t think so, but I thought it was worth asking,” he said.
Jackson eventually returned to the playing field and was a key player on defense for the famed JAWS team that finished 14-1, losing their last game to St. Xavier 20-0 in the Class AAAA overall state championship. The week before against Paducah Tilghman, Jackson had a fourth-down touchdown run that put the Tomcats in front 7-0 in a 13-7 victory in the Class AAAA State At-Large state championship.
JAWS defense dominated Class AAAA in 1975.
Although his carries were limited because of the foot injury, Jackson still rushed for 350 yards and was second on the team in yards per carry at 8.1.
That Ashland team became the first in Kentucky to fly to a game. The Tomcat Boosters raised money to transport the team to Paducah to save them from a long bus ride across the state.
The Tomcats have always been high on Jackson’s priority as evidenced by taking on the job of rebuilding Putnam Stadium. He became chair in 2008 and finished the project last fall. His advice to others is to volunteer time and expertise.
“Get involved in all the things you can for your community to make it a better place,” Jackson said. “I would not trade my time coaching for anything. You do for others what people did for me. My first coach was my father passing ball with me in the backyard.”
He worked with strong board members throughout his time serving in the community.
“It takes so many people to take on big projects. You must have volunteers. It does not just happen. The stadium is a prime example.”
Jackson’s inner determination made the project happen. Not only was the old stadium razed because of safety concerns but the new one was built with the same footprint. It took years to accomplish everything on his to-do list including a turfed field, flags to display championship seasons and new flagpoles and flags behind the end zone, Tomcat Donor Corner to honor those who gave, a statue of coach Herb Conley representing Ashland’s past and present, a Tomcat statue at the top of the stairs going down to the field to motivate players, the (Jumbotron) video scoreboard, LED lights, a sound system with mics for the referees, a banked end zone, new press box, bucket seating, locker rooms, wall dedications, a catch net behind the open end zone and decorative screens along the walls to tie colors together.
There was no stone left unturned for Jackson who was determined to make it all happen. Anything less was a failure in his mind.
“Fortunately, I got support from the school board, superintendents and the stadium restoration committee all along,” Jackson said. “They supported everything. Also, Donna (Suttle) was instrumental in fundraising early on and Steve (Conley) was with me every step of the way.”
Longtime stadium groundskeeper Steve Conley hugs Jackson.
Jackson said fundraising was not one of his strengths, but he found himself in that role with the stadium project. He was able to bring in one-third of the total cost through fundraising efforts including Clark’s Pump-N-Shop donation and naming rights to bring turf to the stadium, which was one of the biggest pieces.
“There were times when I thought, ‘Are we really going to get there?’” he said. “I know what I wanted to do and kept adding things and told everybody we were going to get it done.”
He had everything but the video (Jumbotron) scoreboard by the end of April but had no more money in the stadium account and it was going to cost $260,000. Jackson told his wife, Cindy, that he had to raise a quarter million in the next month.
“I wasn’t going to stop until I have it,” he said.
Not only did he raise enough for the football scoreboard but also was able to add almost another $100,000 for a video board that was put in the gymnasium on the Ashland campus.
Jackson is an avid Ashland Tomcat, Kentucky Wildcat, and Army fan (Go Army! Beat Navy!). He remains active in church leadership at Unity Baptist serving as a deacon. He and his wife have three grown children – Josh Griffith (Marie), Becca Doss (Roger), and Kathryn Jackson – who came up through the Ashland school system and two grandchildren (Joshua Griffith and Talula Mae Griffith).
Eugene “Jeep” Clark, who brought the intoxicating man-to-man defense that became the calling card of Boyd County basketball, died on Wednesday in Hattiesburg, Miss. He was 92.
Clark’s six-year coaching stint from 1976 to 1982 including back-to-back 16th Region championships in his last two seasons, paving the way for Roger Zornes to take the baton and carry the Lions’ tradition for the next 20 years.
Clark was a fierce competitor, and one of the nicest men you would ever meet. He taught more than great basketball to the players he coached.
Brock Walter, who was an exhausting, relentless presence as a point guard that epitomized what Clark wanted from his defense for the two-time regional champions, called him an “elite coach and person.”
“He assembled an unbelievable (coaching) staff allowing them each to have a unique input and impact on so many student athletes,” Walter said. “As a mentor to so many, his knowledge and wisdom became invaluable for both personal and professional growth throughout life. He grew us to be resilient, loving us and pushing us beyond our natural potential. He inspired us to be better individuals, better people. There were none with more class than Coach Jeep Clark.”
Jeep Clark led Boyd County basketball from 1976-1982, winning 16th Region championships his last two seasons. (Photo by Daily Independent)
Clark was 118-51 in six seasons at Boyd County before serving seven years as the school athletic director while watching Zornes continue to build on the foundation that he laid for the program. The Lions became a 16th Region powerhouse and a team that could compete anywhere because of that same relentless defense.
Clark was nothing but class in how he handled winning and losing. He dealt well with the rivalry with Ashland, too. Clark, who grew up on 32nd Street, was a terrific basketball and baseball player for the Tomcats in the late 1940s. He was an All-State basketball player as a senior on Ashland’s 1949 region runners-up. That Tomcat team fell to Clark County 46-33 in Winchester in the regional finals. Clark County was the No. 1 team in the state.
The game ended with coach Letcher Norton’s team clutching the championship trophy, just as it had the previous year when Clark County defeated Ashland 39-38 in Ashland.
Clark was the team captain and led the team with a 12.3 scoring average, but it was adept ballhandling that separated him from the rest.
Clark eventually went to Southern Mississippi after playing for a year at Ashland Junior College where he was the leading scorer in 17 of 27 games. Clark’s teammates included Marvin Meredith, Charlie “Stick” Stewart of Olive Hill and Jim Highley, a high school teammate.
Southern Miss went 76-31 during his playing days there. He also coached at Southern Miss for four years, going 41-61, before coming to Boyd County.
Clark had several high school coaching stopovers out of college, including a couple in Kentucky at Montgomery County (1954-59) and Paris (1954-62).
Clark eventually went to play at Southern Mississippi after playing a year at Ashland Junior College where he was the leading scorer in 17 of 27 games. Clark’s teammates included Marvin Meredith, Charlie “Stick” Stewart of Olive Hill and Jim Highley, a high school teammate.
Southern Miss went 76-31 during his playing days there. He also coached at Southern Miss for four years before coming to Boyd County.
Clark had several high school coaching stopovers, including a couple in Kentucky at Montgomery County (1954-59) and Paris (1954-62).
Former East Carter coach Charles Baker broke into coaching when Clark came to Boyd County. In an interview in 2006, when Clark was being recognized by the Ashland Elks on Sports Day, Baler called him “a mastermind of the game.”
“The way he carried himself with so much confidence but no arrogance. He makes you feel so at ease when talking to him,” he said. “Here I was, up and coming, trying to make it, and this guy has been around the world in the coaching area. He was so humble.”
Baker said Clark’s philosophy of aggressiveness and hard-nosed defense took the program to great levels.
“It was nothing dirty,” Baker said. “He had his players take your space away. They would bang on you and bang on you. They (the referees) would get tired of blowing the whistle. It proved out and it carried over. He had his stamp on it.”
Much like Coach Baker starting in the business, I was just starting in the journalism business when Jeep Clark came to Boyd County. He was always a gentleman – win or lose – and always complimentary of the opponent. I cannot recall him ever questioning a referee’s call, at least in public, or making excuses for losses. He was so kind to this still green-behind-the-ears sportswriter.
Zornes was an assistant under Clark for seven years and carried that same defensive philosophy with him. It served him well with multiple regional crowns and his name on the gymnasium wall at Boyd County.
“The big thing on Jeep was just the way he handled people,” Zornes said in a 2006 interview. “He had a knack of getting things out of kids without the fussing and hollering at them. I really liked the way Jeep did things. I picked up a lot from him.”
Zornes said Clark was also good at giving his assistant coaches responsibility.
“Jeep would listen to his assistant coaches,” he said. “I had a lot of ideas. Of course, he was going to make the final decision. But he allowed me to do a lot of things.”
Clark, a strong Christian man of the Methodist faith, was married for 69 years to wife, Mary, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 88. He also had a son, Gary, who preceded him in death.
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