ASHLAND, Ky. – Ashland’s undefeated Class 3A state championship football team finished No. 7 in Kentucky and No. 63 nationally among small schools, according to MaxPreps.

The Tomcats completed an 11-0 season with a 35-14 victory over Elizabethtown at Kroger Field in Lexington last month.

It was Ashland’s first undefeated season since 1958 and first undefeated and untied season since 1942.

Ashland’s last state title before this one came in 1990 against Lincoln County by an identical 35-14 score.

Johnson Central was No. 8 in Kentucky while Elizabethtown (18), Belfry (22) and Paintsville (25) were in the top 25.

Ironton, Ohio, ranked 69^th in the small school rankings and 58^th in Ohio. Kirtland, which handed Ironton its only loss in the Ohio state Division 5 finals, was ranked sixth nationally and No. 9 in Ohio.

Mike Manley, who in his only season as head coach at Ashland in 1980 began a turnaround to a great era of Tomcat football, died Wednesday from heart complications in Naples, Florida.

Manley, 69, had been teaching math at a private school. He suffered a heart attack in a Publix grocery store, was rushed to the hospital but later passed away, according to friends.

He was coaching at Bullitt Central when he applied for the Tomcat coaching position in the winter of 1979. Ashland had suffered three consecutive losing seasons after the first half of the decade had produced some of the Tomcats’ greatest teams under Herb Conley, who took an administrative position after the 1976 season. The natives were restless to say the least.

Manley was a quarterback for Mt. Sterling High School in 1967 where he teamed with receiver Don McReynolds on a team that was the Class A runners-up. He also shared a birthday with McReynolds, who he talked into coming to Ashland with him to coach.

Mt. Sterling defeated McKell and Don Gullett in the 1967 playoffs, with Manley returning a punt for the winning touchdown during a 21-13 victory, and then the Trojans lost to Bardstown 20-13 in the Class A championship – the game before the Tomcats defeated Elizabethtown in the Class AA championship game in Louisville.

Manley left after one season at Ashland to become the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Morehead State. He was only 29 at the time.

McReynolds, who had been at Fleming County before coming to Ashland, went on to coach through the 1989 season with the Tomcats as an offensive coordinator. Manley’s staff kept only one coach from Mike Holtzapfel’s staff and that was Vic Marsh, who he made the defensive coordinator.

When Manley left for Morehead in the late spring of 1981, Marsh was handed the reins of the program. It turned out to be a great move with Marsh winning more games than any coach in Ashland history. He led the Tomcats to the 1990 state championship which was the last title until the 2020 team broke through in December.

Manley also hired Randy Heaberlin, a line coach who also had a long and successful career with the Tomcats as an assistant coach.

Coming off a 1-9 season in 1979 and consecutive 3-7 seasons in 1977 and 1978, the Tomcats needed something positive to happen and Manley became the answer, introducing a wide-open attack led by junior quarterback Scott Crank (1,127 yards passing, 516 rushing) and halfback Dave Hall (1,353 yards, 11 TDs). The 1980 Tomcats also included future major league pitcher Drew Hall, who had 24 catches for 302 yards, lineman Tony Consiglio, future Tomcat quarterback Greg Conley and hard-running Paul McPeek (563 yards, 8 TDs).

“The players loved him,” McReynolds said. “It’s a lot like it is now with Tony (Love). They liked his style.”

The change in culture led to a 9-4 season that ended with a 21-6 loss to Henry Clay in the quarterfinals of the Class 4A playoffs.

McReynolds said Manley called him in December and invited him to come to Ashland to watch the Ashland Invitational Tournament when high-scoring Ervin Stepp and Phelps were playing the Tomcats.

“I told him, ‘We won’t be able to get tickets’ and he said ‘Don’t worry about that,’’’ McReynolds said. “So I told him I’d go with him. He also told me Ashland had a head coaching opening and he might apply for it. I said, ‘They’ll never hire you.’”

Manley left for a meeting in the first quarter of the first game and didn’t return until the fourth quarter was starting, McReynolds said. “He told me he was going to apply and he was going to get the job. He asked me if he did, would I come with him. That’s what brought me to Ashland.”

McReynolds was the offensive coordinator with a seat in the press box but Manley was offensive-minded and liked calling the players.

“I remember the first game against Scott County,” McReynolds said of the 35-0 victory. “I was upstairs and didn’t get to call one play. He was calling everything. I came down after the game madder than a hornet. I told him if he was going to call all the plays, what am I supposed to be doing? I couldn’t get one play called before he’d already sent the play in. We came to an understanding. It got better as the season went along.”

Manley couldn’t resist the lure of coaching in college and when Morehead State called in the spring, he jumped at the opportunity. That opened the Tomcat door for Marsh, who had learned a lot himself coaching on the staff with Manley.

The Tomcats were back on track and winning became the norm under Marsh, who built on the coaching staff with Mark Renfroe.

Manley stayed at Morehead only one season before taking the head coaching position at Anderson College, where he played and graduated from in 1972. He coached at Anderson from 1982 to 1997 where he compiled a 68-86 record. He was named ISAC Coach of the Year in 1993 after leading Anderson to a 10-0 regular season and into the Division III playoffs.

He took a sabbatical from coaching in 1998 and resigned the following spring.

Manley came back to coach girls basketball at Montgomery County later in his career. He wasn’t coaching at the private school where he was teaching in Naples.

When you go through life, they say you’re lucky to have even a few good friends.

Friends who understand you.

Friends who share your dreams.

Friends who you can remember tears streaming down your face because of something funny said or something sad that has happened.

I’ve been fortunate in my 63 years on this planet to have a lot of good friends. I have work friends, church friends, ministry friends, sports friends, all kinds of friends.

But 19 years ago on Jan. 17, one of my best friends ever left this world far too early.

I say that because Tony Curnutte was not only my friend. He was a friend to many others, too.

His death, so sudden and so unexpected, caught us all off guard.

It sent shockwaves through the newsroom at The Daily Independent, where Tony worked as a copy editor at the time of his death.

It sent shockwaves through the religious community, because Tony preached and also took care of the Baptist Student Union at the community college.

It sent shockwaves through the entire community, because he was a beloved and memorable character.

Tony worked on the copy desk for two years but he’s better remembered for his time as a sportswriter, not to mention his quick wit and his rare ability to make you laugh until your sides split.

Jupe Holleran, the alter-ego he transformed to on prank phone calls, literally had us crawling under our desks.

Tony was a performer and he knew how to bring the house down.

He also knew Real Life, a life centered around a deep love of God and his adoring family, wife Karen and daughter Lauren who he loved to the moon and back, as they like to say these days. Tony always felt like he “married up” with Karen, who definitely knew she had a catch, too.

They were great together. Just great.

Tony was a Baptist minister and led the Baptist Student Union at ACTC for years, growing it from only a few people to a standing-room-only crowd nearly every week. Everybody loved Tony.

So when he died on that January day in 2002, a part of us all died with him.

No matter what I put my hands on, Tony was supportive of it. He looked up to me.  We had so much fun together and we had our serious moments, too. I knew him as someone who was a praying person and you can’t have too many friends like that. That was one of the traits that came from his parents, Watt and Connie, who made sure Tony and his sister were grounded in the faith.

We sang in church choirs together, played Strat-O-Matic baseball together, and he was essentially indoctrinated into part of “My Gang” who hung out in my basement. They were friends who gave nobody a free pass.

They called him Nute and that “life experience” with some of my crazy friends, along with his real-life job as a sportswriter for the newspaper, transformed this shy young boy who was afraid of his shadow into a powerful personality who became a missionary in his own hometown area.

And then he was gone. Taken far too soon.

Tony would be proud of how Karen has carried on and how his beautiful daughter has blossomed into such a lovely young lady. He would want your both to be happy in life and not grieve for him.

He would also be proud that Jupe Holleran’s name is still uttered with his own.

Tony loved to get a laugh and he wouldn’t want us crying over his departure from this place.

 If you ever knew him, you’d know that to be true.

 But you will be forever missed TC.

It was in 2012 that the late Clarence “Bevo” Francis’s record of 113 points against Hillsdale (Mich.) College in February 1954 at Jackson (Ohio) High School was broken by Division III star Jack Taylor of Grinnell when he put up 138 points in a game against Faith Baptist.

But Bevo’s 113-point game wasn’t even his best effort. That came against Ashland Junior College on January 9, 1953 when he scored 116 at Community Hall on the Rio Grande campus. That remains on the record books as the NAIA record. It was once the NCAA record too but the organization later decided it would only recognize games against institutions that granted four-year degrees, which AJC did not.

Bevo’s game against AJC brought his scoring mark to 50.7 points per game. He made 47 field goals and 22 free throws. Remember, of course, there was no 3-point shot. Here’s an amazing fact from that game: Bevo scored 55 points in the last 10 minutes after putting only “only” 61 through the first 30 minutes. No other Rio Grande player scored more than a dozen.

Two teammates of Bevo, both who have died, were local players Jack Gossett (Holy Family) and Jim McKenzie (Boyd County). They made sure Bevo got as many touches as possible.

Jeanette McKenzie, widow of Jim, once told me the former teammates always reunited at the Bevo Francis Classic in Rio Grande. Her husband is in the college’s Hall of Fame. “The team is reuniting in heaven,” she said.

Rio Grande went 39-0 in the 1952-53 season, Bevo’s freshman year, while averaging 50.1 points per game. Francis arrived as an unknown but soon took the team to national prominence.

They went on the road for 17 consecutive games after Bevo’s outburst against AJC, playing in several large arenas throughout the eastern United States.

The night after the big game with AJC, Rio Grande played Mayo State Vocational at Paintsville High School. Bevo scored 63 points in a 119-91 victory to set the scoring record at the Paintsville High gym that still stands today. J.R. VanHoose, a sports historian in the Big Sandy area, reported that in a story he wrote for The Daily Independent five years ago.

Rio Grande had a rematch with Ashland later in the season and the Redmen won the game although Bevo didn’t come close to the century mark. AJC “recruited” former Russell High School star “Long” John Thomas to defend him. They enrolled Thomas in classes and immediately got him working with the team.

Rio Grande broke the 100-point mark in 23 games and averaged 101.1 points per game while holding foes to 68.2. They won 39 consecutive games in that 1952-53 season.

Bevo, who died five years ago at the age of 82, was an AP All-American and he established NAIA records for field goals (708), free throws (538), points (1,953) and average (50.1).

Bevo came with coach Newt Oliver to Rio Grande after only one season of high school varsity basketball at Wellsville, Ohio. He averaged 32 points per game. Oliver had played at Rio Grande and was offered the job so he could bring Bevo to the school with him.

Bevo left after two years at Rio Grande to play professionally. He scored 3,272 points and the Redmen were 60-7 in his remarkable two seasons. Bevo outscored entire teams nine times in his career and never fouled out of a game; Oliver had told him to lay back on defense.

Oliver and Bevo signed a package deal with the Boston Whirlwinds, the touring team that played the Harlem Globetrotters.

 “Bevo was a great individual scorer, but he never failed to say that he couldn’t have scored a point if it weren’t for the fact that he had great teammates. He was always concerned about how Rio was doing and was a fantastic supporter for 60-plus years,” said Jeff Lanham, the AD at the University of Rio Grande.

In his second season with the then-Redmen, Bevo was enough of a celebrity that his coach took the Rio Grande program on a barnstorming tour that included trips to Villanova, Providence, Miami (Fla.), North Carolina State, Wake Forest and Creighton. Rio Grande also played in both Madison Square Garden and the Boston Garden. The money that the program received for those games helped keep the college out of financial ruin.

Here’s how big Bevo Francis was. Creighton actually postponed its game against Rio Grande after he was injured, giving the star scorer a chance to get healthy. He scored 41 points in a loss to the Bluejays.

Everybody came to watch Bevo score the ball, which he did like nobody else.