Darryl Smith will be remembered for all the right reasons

The news that Darryl Smith had died while taking his morning walk on Monday was hard to process. He was a former Ashland Tomcat two-sport standout about the time I was trying to figure out this sportswriting business. I’ve written numerous stories about him through the years when he was an athlete, a coach and a highly successful college basketball referee. I always considered him a friend.

Darryl Smith during the 2019 CP-1 Hall of Fame induction in Ashland’s Central Park.

He was an outstanding athlete in baseball and basketball and an even better person. He came from good stock, and one of the best Tomcat families in history. The late John and Rhoda Smith had five sons – David, Doug, Darryl, Daniel and Deron – and the Ashland community benefitted from having this fine family in the area for reasons far beyond sports. People like the Smiths were building blocks of great communities.

Darryl was a crafty left-handed pitcher, and he turned around at the plate and batted righthanded. He was good at both. He also was on back-to-back 16^th Region basketball championship teams in coach Paul Patterson’s first two seasons as head coach.

But baseball was where it was for Smith, who went to Cumberland College to pitch.

After college, Smith signed on to coach Mike Tussey’s inaugural Stan Musial team in 1982 and played every summer through 1986 where he was a dominating pitcher and first base with a powerful bat.

Smith delivers his speech at the CP-1 Hall of Fame in 2019.

He hung up playing for coaching as he became a mentor for baseball players in Boyd County when he coached Catlettsburg Post 224’s Legion team, including winning a state championship in 1988.

For all that, Darryl Smith was an easy choice as one of the 101 people to be inducted into the CP-1 Hall of Fame. He was in the 2019 class. I remember calling him to tell him the news and he was so excited and honored. It was something he never expected and appreciated so much. Darryl would join his younger brother, Daniel, in the CP-1 Hall of Fame.

He was living in Jacksonville, Fla., and I asked him if attending the August ceremony would be a problem and he said, absolutely not, he would be there. Smith came that sunny afternoon and so did his parents. They were so proud of him and the rest of his athletic siblings.

Of course, travel wasn’t a problem for Smith. He was used to that after more than a decade of being a college basketball referee and, naturally, a good one. He rose through those ranks rather quickly and that was no surprise to anyone who knew him.

Jody Hamilton, a former teammate on the Tomcats, called him a great teammate. Jody also had superlatives about the Smith family, which was all about the Tomcats.

“Darryl was much like his dad. Never panicked, calm with strong presence,” Hamilton said.

The entire infield of the 1976 Tomcats baseball team – Smith (pitcher), Herb Wamsley (catcher), Mark Swift (second base), Greg Jackson (third base), Don Allen (shortstop) and Hamilton (first base) – are in the CP-1 Hall of Fame along with their coach, Frank Sloan. They were regional champions.

Teammates like these all raved about the competitiveness and quiet confidence that was a part of Smith’s DNA as an athlete. He was a winner who played the game the right way.

Darryl Smith, back row second from left, along with the other inductees in the 2019 CP-1 Hall of Fame.

Smith was a role player for Patterson because that’s what everyone did for the coach who never lost a game to a 16^th Region opponent in his four seasons. During his senior year, he was surrounded with great talent – Jeff Kovach, Jim Harkins, Mark and Greg Swift, Dale Dummitt, Don Allen and others. That 1977 team went 30-2 and reached the state semifinals before losing to Louisville Valley in Freedom Hall.

Smith had several games in double figures and led the Tomcats twice with 14 against Ironton in a hard-fought win and 18 on Senior Night against Montgomery County. But he was mostly in there for rebounds, screening and defense. That was the Patterson way.

Darryl Smith with Colin Porter, a former Tomcat star and current Liberty University senior guard.

As a college basketball referee, he would often cross paths with players who had ties to the 16^th Region. He 2010, he was officiating a game where Paul Patterson was coaching at Taylor University. Scott Gill, a former Russell High star and son Ashland grad David Gill, was playing for Taylor. He posed for a photo with them afterward.

Last Thanksgiving, he met former Tomcat point guard Colin Porter and his mother, Hilary, in the lobby of the hotel where Liberty University was playing. Darryl, who was officiating the tournament Liberty was participating in, was always affable.

Darryl Smith, who graduated from Ashland In 1977, will be remembered for a long time for how he carried himself as an athlete, a coach and in life. His death leaves a void for his family and friends that is hard to fill. He is gone far too soon.

Greg Jackson, community champion and driving force of the Putnam Stadium project, selected as Sports Day honoree

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).

RIP Mike Johnson, Tomcat Legend

Mike Johnson was an iconic figure in Ashland sports. He played on state championship teams in Little League (1963) and high school football (1967) and was on Ashland’s state baseball runners-up in 1969. He was the first honoree in the Coaching Legends of the now defunct Ashland Junior/Senior League, named a Distinguished Tomcat in 2013 and a CP-1 Hall of Fame member in 2019.

Johnson was practically an institution in Ashland Babe Ruth, coaching the Reds for 19 seasons. Former players sought him out long after their playing days were over. They often came back and thanked him for inspiring them.

What better testimony can there be for a coach?

Johnson told me once the when the players would come back to see him that he would do a double-take because the boys who were 13 to 15 years old when he coached them were now grown men. But if they told him their name, he remembered them and could recall details they may not even recall.

Mike Johnson during the 2019 CP-1 Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Central Park.

And they sure loved him and the impact he had on their lives.

Johnson has a passion for Ashland youth baseball that carried on for more than 50 years, starting back in his Little League days in the early 1960s. It was a turbulent time for African-Americans and it was during Johnson’s days as a Little League All-Star that he his eyes were first opened to prejudice.

Johnson was a member of the Ashland American 1963 Little League team that would eventually become state champions and came within one victory of making it to the Little League World Series. They played the State Tournament in Lexington and the Ashland team stayed at a motel that would not allow the team’s two Black players – Charlie Jackson and Johnson – to get in the swimming pool.

“On the last day before we left, I dove into that pool with all my clothes on,” Johnson said with a grin in an interview with me.

After the team won its first game in the State Tournament, he remembered the coaches wanted to treat the players to something special. They tossed around ideas like bowling and swimming before settling on a game of miniature golf because there was a course just down from where they were staying.

“I’d never played miniature golf in my life,” Johnson said. “I was looking forward to it. Everybody was excited.”

The team went together to the course and grabbed a club. But the owner stopped Jackson and Johnson from picking one up, telling the coaches that those two boys wouldn’t be allowed to play.

The team decided if their two friends weren’t welcome, they weren’t staying. It was a unanimous decision.

“Growing up in the ‘60s for a black kid was kind of rough,” Johnson said. “Sports was kind of a relief.”

While Johnson learned about prejudice during that trip to Lexington, he also learned about friendship and respect.

“It meant a lot to us that our teammates and coaches stood behind us,” he said. “They wouldn’t do anything or go anywhere that we couldn’t go.”

He said it also may have inspired the Ashland American All-Stars, who went on to win the State Tournament.

“I think it made us play harder, I really do,” Johnson said.

Johnson later played on a Babe Ruth state champion and was a starting cornerback on Ashland’s 1967 state championship football team and was the quarterback on coach Herb Conley’s first Tomcat team in 1968.

His oldest son, Mike Jr., was an all-around athlete and one of the greatest running backs in Tomcat history. He’s now a (track) state champion coach too at Mercer County and an outstanding assistant football coach. A younger son, Charlie, was a member of Ashland’s 1990 state championship team making them the only father-son duos to win state football titles in Tomcat history. His daughter Angie was a tremendous high school and college basketball player and college coach at Georgia and Florida State. He and Anyetta, his wife of 54 years, had reason to be proud.

His speeches to All-Star teams always underscored Ashland’s tradition and how much fun it is to ride the fire truck after winning a state championship. He was a man who knew through life experiences in this Tomcat town that riding the fire truck meant you were something special.

Johnson coached many All-Star teams during his 19 years and, while he never won a state championship, the players left with good memories. Players always liked playing for Johnson because he was fair and he made the game fun. He expected the players to give him their best effort every time and they knew it. I had the honor of coaching with him during my son’s three years on Babe Ruth All-Star teams. I learned so much about coaching and even more about him. He was an inspiration.

His coaching skills were not limited to baseball. He was a constant with the Ashland Junior Football League as well. If you can coach, coach. This man could coach.

And If not for some health issues that were eventually too much to overcome, he might have never stopped coaching.

But Mike Johnson left an imprint on Ashland sports that has few equals. He will always be a Tomcat Legend.

Johnny Mullins made lasting impact as athlete, friend

The 1960s are considered a golden era in Ashland Tomcat sports. They won state high school championships in basketball, football and baseball in the decade and had some of the greatest athletes to ever wear maroon and white.

Few teams anywhere – not just in the 16^th Region but in all of Kentucky – could match them. Ashland put together powerful youth programs, especially in baseball, where state championships were quickly accumulated. That translated later to high school baseball teams from 1965-1969 when Ashland dominated the state with three titles, a semifinal finish and a runner-up finish during a five-year Tomcat Dynasty period that remains unmatched in state history.

The names from that era are forever remembered in Ashland. We sadly lost one of them last month with the passing of Johnny Mullins on Oct. 18. He was a brilliant athlete who excelled in baseball and basketball for the Tomcats while also starring on three memorable youth league championship teams, including the 1963 and 1964 Ashland American Little League state champions. The ’63 team was one win shy of being in the Little League World Series, losing to a team from North Houston 6-3. The following year, as a 13-year-old, he was on a Babe Ruth state champion, and he was just getting started. He was a star from the beginning with clutch performances on the mound and at the plate.

John Mullins stands behind Jim Speaks, a pair of fireball pitchers who were inducted into the CP-1 Hall of Fame in 2017. Both former Tomcat stars passed away in 2024.

Johnny was loved and admired by his teammates because if he was on your team, he made you better. He was a special talent.

Ashland’s baseball coaches recognized that in 1967 when they invited Mullins, who was a freshman at Coles Jr. High, to try out for the team. During that era, freshmen never played varsity in any sport. Ever. They would wait their turn not just in the freshman year but usually the sophomore year, too. But the Tomcats needed a shortstop and Mullins’ talent was undeniable. Let’s give the kid a shot, they said.

While he didn’t ultimately start at shortstop, he was a valuable reserve and pitched some too. That was unheard of for a freshman, and this was a team coming off an undefeated state championship season. All they did that season was win another state championship, and then another during Mullins’ sophomore year when he played a starring role.

Mullins was an easy selection for the CP-1 Hall of Fame in 2017 because of the gigantic roles he played on Tomcat teams of that era, including as a junior when he helped the Tomcats reach the state championship game for an unprecedented fourth consecutive year where they suffered a 1-0 loss to Owensboro in the championship game. As a senior, he took a depleted Tomcat team back to the regional championship game and Mullins’ will to win had a lot to do with that.

As a standout basketball player, he started on teams that went to the Sweet 16 in back-to-back seasons in 1969 and 1970 and reached the state semifinals in ’69 before losing an 82-80 heartbreaker to Ohio County. Playing in the final four is rare air even for Ashland, which has advanced that far only three times in the 55 years since.

Johnny Mullins was a natural athlete and good at anything he tried. He could have jumped off the high dive at Southside Pool for the first time and splashed down into the water after doing a triple flip without creating so much as a ripple, then move over’ to the basketball court and play the rest of the day because his team would never lose – and winners always stayed up at Southside. Then he might go down to the park and throw horseshoes and win there, too. Athletes like him do not come along often. The 1960s were full of them at Ashland and John Mullins rightly stands with the best of them.

The characteristics that made him a good athlete also made him a loyal friend and a loving husband, father, grandfather and brother. Family and friends mattered most to him.

Was he perfect? Of course not. None of us are. But it is what we do with those learning experiences that matter. As a professional, Mullins worked as a counselor at a day treatment center to help troubled youth in Ashland. Helping was what he did best. He related well to those he counseled, and they listened to his advice.

If you were in his circle, you could always count on him to be there in difficult times. He wanted to be that person who makes a difference, just like he did as an athlete.

Ashland lost a treasured friend on Oct. 18, but his legacy as an athlete, friend, and family man will be everlasting. A memorial ceremony to honor John Mullins will take place in the lobby of Paul G. Blazer High School on Nov. 16 from 2-4 p.m.

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