Steve Dodd, a former Ashland Tomcat basketball standout and a respected high school and college coach, passed away Monday from injuries sustained in an automobile accident last month. He was 70.
Dodd starred for the Tomcats from 1971–73, serving as a key reserve on the 1972 team that was ranked No. 1 in the state but was upset by Russell, 80–75, in the 16th Region championship. Fittingly, 34 years later in 2006, Dodd guided Russell to its first regional title since that very season.
During his six years as the Red Devils’ head coach from 2002–08, Dodd compiled a 98–84 record and reached at least the 16th Region semifinals in five of those seasons before resigning.
Steve Dodd was a former Ashland Tomcat basketball standout and Hall of Fame NAIA coach.
A 1973 Ashland graduate, Dodd went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in English from Lipscomb University, where he was also a standout player. It’s also where he met Kay, his wife of 48 years. They had a son and daughter.
Soon after graduating, he began his coaching journey as an assistant at Battleground Academy in Franklin, Tenn.—the start of a nearly 50-year coaching career. Dodd’s coaching stops included Alderson Broaddus University, Oklahoma Christian University, Bethel College, and Lindsey Wilson College, where he led the program from 1998–2002 and enjoyed great success. His contributions to the sport earned him induction into the NAIA Hall of Fame.
After his time at Russell, Dodd took over at Hillwood High School in Nashville, leading the Hilltoppers from 2008–19, and most recently coached at Dickson County High School in Dickson, Tenn.
Dodd’s passion for the game went far beyond wins and losses. He was known for shaping young men both on and off the court—a fact reflected in the many heartfelt tributes shared by former players and colleagues Tuesday.
Todd Parsley, who served as Dodd’s assistant coach at Russell, told sportswriter William Adams of the Ashland Daily Independent that coaching alongside him was a privilege.
“I don’t think people knew how much he cared about his players,” Parsley said. “He had kids that would run through walls for him because I just saw the personal side of coach. When kids were having trouble with their home life, he was there helping them. He was far greater than just wins and losses.”
Dodd’s brother, Gary, said coaching was Steve’s lifelong calling. “He had 11 fractured ribs, four fractured vertebrae, and a bad concussion, but when he heard that, it was like, ‘I can pursue this, I can do that,’” Gary said. “He wanted to get back out there at age 70 and have another shot at trying to do that, even for the interim.”
As a player, Dodd was known for his toughness and scoring ability, averaging 15.8 points per game as a senior. That year, Ashland fell to Boyd County twice—first in the 64th District finals, 77–73, and again in the regional championship, 73–64, despite Dodd’s 21- and 22-point efforts. It was the first time Boyd County had beaten Ashland in basketball.
Dodd finished his Tomcat career with 669 points, including a career-high 27 against Fairview.
From his days wearing Ashland’s maroon and white to his decades molding athletes across the country, Steve Dodd left a lasting mark on basketball—and on everyone he coached.
The blockbuster movie “JAWS” came out in the summer of 1975 and frightened viewers who were so traumatized they barely dipped their toes in the ocean.
That summer, Herb Conley took his family to Mrytle Beach, an annual pilgrimage for the family. They would set up at a campground and make daily trips to the beach. The three boys – Greg, Shawn and Jeff – were all under 10 and braver than their mother Janice wanted them to be.
Each day they went a little further into the ocean and Janice told Herb she was not comfortable with how daring the boys were becoming.
Herb had an idea. He remembered there was a movie about sharks that had just come out and he took his young family to the movies to watch “JAWS.” The boys sat wide-eyed through the terrifying movie. Let’s just say Janice did not have to worry about the boys getting too far out into the ocean because they barely got back in the water at all the rest of the trip.
Terry Bell breaks through the hoop leading the 1975 Ashland football team onto the field before a playoff game.
“JAWS” had made an impact on Herb Conley, but it would not be the last one for Ashland’s veteran head football coach.
Living up to the JAWS nickname
He returned to Ashland refreshed and looking forward to the 1975 football season. Conley was anticipating a good season given that it was a strong senior class and some of them would be entering their third year of either starting or playing a lot.
It was a season built for success with a combination of speed, size and power. They were developed very much in the image of their coach – hard-nosed, hard-hitting and determined (afraid?) not to make their coach proud. Herb Conley commanded respect as a player, as an assistant coach and as the head coach. He was in his eighth season as the Tomcats’ head coach and a group that he believed was as good as any since the 1971 and 1972 seasons.
When Conley met with his assistant coaches before the season, he mentioned how his boys were scared to death after watching “JAWS” at the beach. Conley mentioned the possibility of naming the defense “JAWS” mostly as a joke. But coaches Mike Holtzapfel and Bill Tom Ross loved the idea.
Rick Sang waits for the play call from head coach Herb Conley, left, and assistant coach Bill Tom ross during Ashland’s 1975 season.
Conley was less sure it was a good idea because, as he put it, sometimes those things backfire on you. But Holtzapfel and Ross would not let it go, and Conley told them only if the team could prove it. That is also what they told the players, who were excited about naming the defense after the terrifying shark from the movie.
It took one game for Conley to be convinced that this “JAWS” nickname might be a good thing. The Tomcats blasted Johnson Central 41-14 in the opener at Putnam Stadium and hard-hitting Chuck Anderson knocked the Golden Eagles’ quarterback out of the game with a crunching hit that also knocked the breath out of him.
When Coach Conley went out on the field to check on him, Anderson could barely breathe but he practically begged his coach to let the team be “JAWS.” Conley pulled him up by the belt and helped his biggest hitter off the field. He would return to the game, but Johnson Central’s quarterback would not.
It became clear that it was no longer safe to go on the football field if the “JAWS” defense was the opponent.
The Tomcats kept it to themselves until after the second week of the season when they defeated top-ranked Bryan Station, 22-12, with another big hit from Anderson spurring a brilliant defensive effort.
Terry Bell was selected the top offensive lineman in Kentucky in 1975.
He knocked a would-be tackler unconscious with a block that sprung Rick Sang for a touchdown on a punt return that put Ashland ahead 12-0. It also set the tone not only for that game but the season.
Eventually, the media at the time got word about the “JAWS” defense and the Tomcat band even learned the memorable music from the movie when the shark was about to attack. Fans brought plastic sharks to the games and the businesses in town were prompting “JAWS” defense on their signs.
Everybody bought in, especially the team.
Make a wish(bone): A dominating offense
Ashland rattled off win after win during the regular season and went into the playoffs unblemished and ranked No. 1 in Class AAAA – then the biggest classification in the state. They demoralized teams on defense and dominated them on offense, too, with a vaunted wishbone offense.
Gary Thomas, only a junior, rushed for more than 1,700 yards and Jeff Slone surpassed 1,000 yards. Jay Shippey and Jim Johnson shared fullback duties, Anderson was the quarterback and Greg Jackson split time in the backfield, overcoming a broken foot that cost him a few games.
Quarterback Chuck Anderson (12) and tackle Raymond Hicks.
Sang was a top athlete as a tight end, return man and punter and the offensive line was ferocious with Terry Bell leading the way. He was voted as the Best Offensive Lineman in Kentucky. Bell was joined on the line by center Terry Lewis, guard Yancey Ramey and tackles Casey Jones and Raymond Hicks.
Shippey and Johnson were punishing runners and Thomas, Slone and Jackson ran like gazelles. Conley said his halfbacks were some of the best blockers he had during his coaching career. Split end Dougie Paige, all 115 pounds of him, could put players twice his size on the ground in downfield blocking. Keith Hillman, a speedy receiver, also played some at split end.
A trip to the movies just what was needed
Ashland had no losses during the regular season, but the team escaped one Friday night against Huntington High, winning 12-6 despite losing three fumbles to improve to 6-0. The players knew it was not their best effort and dreaded practice the following Monday.
Conley said he sensed something was wrong and that the team was playing tired. He told the coaches that instead of a brutal practice, he was taking the players to the movie on Monday to watch “the Towering Inferno,” starring O.J. Simpson, at Midtown Cinema. The players were stunned when they arrived ready for practice and were told to keep their street clothes on and get on the bus. Conley had instructed Hank Hillman of the Boosters Club to reserve the theater – complete with drinks and popcorn – for the team.
It was just what they needed. They came back fresh the next Friday, hammering a good Belfry team 47-7. The fire was reignited.
Ashland closed the regular season at 11-0 with a 43-0 victory over rival Boyd County that wrapped up the district and put them in the postseason. Back then, only district champions advanced to the playoffs. Boyd County had won the previous two seasons against the Tomcats and wanted to spoil their undefeated season. But the Lions were no match for them in at the time was the most lopsided loss in the series.
The playoffs beckon and a flight to remember
Even though the Tomcats were ranked No. 1 and undefeated, their first playoff game was on the road at Dixie Heights in one of the coldest games anybody can remember. After a sluggish first half, a halftime butt-chewing from their head coach got everybody’s attention and Ashland won 36-6. He had captains Sang, Bell and Anderson stand in front of mirrors in the locker room and told them to look into the mirror and ask themselves if they gave their best effort. The rest of the team was watching, and they got the message.
Doug Paige gets the play from coaches Bill Tom Ross, left, and Herb Conley.
Years later, Sang confessed that he thought he had given his best effort but stared into the mirror anyway. Coach Conley called Sang into his class on the following Monday and told him, “Hey Rick, we watched the film, and you really didn’t play that bad.”
They followed that with a win over Lafayette, 21-6, at Putnam Stadium to advance to the Class AAAA State At-Large championship in Paducah.
The Tomcats were in for a long trip on the other side of the state. But before the Lafayette game was even finished, plans were made to fly to Paducah and the Tomcats became the first team in Kentucky high school history to charter a flight to a game. Ashland was an eight-hour bus ride from Paducah but only a short flight. The Boosters Club raised the money, and the team flew on the day of the game.
Jim Johnson (41) leads the blocking for Greg Jackson.
Many of the players were making their first plane flight and it was a quiet trip with nobody saying anything. It was only five years since the horrific Marshall University plane crash,
The flight kept their legs fresh for Paducah and Thomas broke a 7-7 deadlock with a 75-yard touchdown run with three minutes to play that gave the Tomcats a 13-7 victory and a spot in the overall state championship game against Jefferson County champion St. Xavier.
St. Xavier was undefeated and loaded with talent. The Tigers had 11 different players on offense and defense and that depth wore down the Tomcats, who lost 20-0 after a tight first half, trailing only 6-0 with Ashland missing at least two good scoring opportunities. It would be the only loss in a 14-1 season, but the 1975 Tomcats have remained one of the most beloved teams in Ashland history.
On Oct. 3, the Tomcats 1975 JAWS team will be recognized at Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Putnam Stadium on their 50th anniversary.
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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