Tag: BASKETBALL

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).

Jeep Clark, who laid foundation for powerhouse basketball at Boyd County, has died at 92

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.

Arrangements have not been made.

An open letter to Colin Porter

Dear Colin,

Just a note of congratulations and appreciation for how you handle yourself not only on the basketball court, which is nothing short of sensational, but how your faith and belief in Jesus Christ comes shining through.

You are the most valuable leader of a team that has made it to the NCAA tournament by playing the kind of basketball that should make others envious while offering a blueprint for wild success. Your play at point guard for Liberty University is the model and something that Ashland fans witnessed and will never forget during your three seasons as a Tomcat.

Even though everyone was sad to see you graduate early from Ashland (academics was never a problem either, obviously), we can clearly see it was the right decision. You were ready for college basketball.  

Watching your teammates gather around and celebrate with you during the national television interview after the win over Jacksonville State in the CUSA championship game Saturday night warmed hearts in Ashland. Through the magic of ESPN+, most every Liberty game has been on our televisions. We love the Wildcats but the Flames have a little fire, too.

Colin Porter will lead Liberty into the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday against Oregon. (Liberty photo)

Future Tomcats going through the program and the ones already there have no one better to admire and strive to be like on and off the court than you. “Be Like Colin” should be stamped on headbands and passed out to potential point guards.

Your mother and father certainly should take a bow, too, to raise a son with the characteristics that you possess. In these days and times, that is no simple task.

Basketball is something you do extremely well but you are winning at life, too, and that is far more important. People want whatever it is that is inside of you. Basketball gives you a platform to share that life-changing message of Jesus and you use it well. Your competitive spirit, those (Tom)cat-like reflexes and instincts, your flair for the dramatic play and leadership skills make people and teammates stand up and notice.

Through it all, you have remained a humble, hard-working young man who would rather watch a teammate succeed more than yourself. Liberty has a rare gem.

Ashland will be watching on Friday when the Flames take on fifth-seeded Oregon in the NCAA tournament. Anybody who has watched Liberty play this season (or the last three for that matter) will hesitate before choosing Oregon on their bracket. Those who see only “the 12th seed vs. the 5 seed” without knowing how Liberty plays could well be sorry when the clock strikes midnight.

But whether that happens or not, Porter has joined an exclusive club of former Ashland Tomcats (and Kittens) who have had the opportunity to be in the Big Dance. It is a smaller list than I imagined. This may not be an exhaustive list – and if somebody is left off please let me know –  but it is certainly a who’s who of Ashland Tomcat (and Kitten) basketball.

Colin, put your name beside the great ones: Earl “Brother” Adkins (UK), Larry Castle (WKU), Warner Caines (WKU), Gene Smith (Cincinnati), Larry Conley (UK), Ray Kleykamp (WKU), Clint Wheeler (UK), Jeff Kovach (Tulsa), Jim Harkins (Miami of Ohio), Jeff Tipton (Morehead State), Adam Howard (WKU) and Mykasa Robinson (with Louisville on the women’s side) who were on teams that played in the NCAA tournament.

 Our greats from the 1920s and 1930s like Ellis Johnson and Darrell Darby came before the NCAA tournament started in 1939 although they played in the national tournament of that time .

The humble Porter can take his place among the all-time greats in Ashland history. He is an absolute maestro with the basketball, with passing skills reserved for big stages and bright lights. His clutch playmaking during a pivotal sophomore season when Ashland went 33-0 during the COVID year that is part of a run of seven consecutive 16th Region championships, was the bittersweet season of a lifetime. Undefeated and uncrowned state champions.

Colin, basketball is what you do so well and have done well for most of your life, and this week is a dream come true for you. But God has a bigger purpose and plan. Just wait and see.

Coach Haywood’s life wasn’t just football. He was a guiding light for others.

The late great Philip Haywood was a mountain mover, putting that brand of football on the Kentucky high school football stage in magnificent ways throughout a brilliant career. During a 50-year coaching career, he amassed eight state championships, six runner-up finishes and an astounding 491 victories – more than any coach in Kentucky high school history – while serving as the head coach at Prestonsburg (nine seasons) and Belfry (41).

Fifty-years!

His passing on Wednesday doesn’t just leave a void, it leaves a deep hole in the heart of the Pond Creek community – and the Kentucky high school football community for that matter – that will be impossible to replace. I’m certain they are in shock that he’s gone. When I saw the report on Wednesday afternoon that he had died, it literally took my breath away. Even knowing that he was in a serious accident with severe injuries from a car accident a few days earlier, I was not expecting that news. Not Coach Haywood. He was going to recover and be fine. Such a good, good man.

It wasn’t just his football coaching skills that made him extraordinary. His interpersonal skills with players, teachers, sportswriters and anybody that crossed his path made him a master of communications. You walked away from any conversations with Coach Haywood feeling better about yourself because that’s how he affected people and that was his aim.

Coach Philip Haywood was successful in football and life. (Photo by Joshua Ball)

It was never about him. “How are you doing? How is your family?” and on and on the questions would go. We would eventually get around to football, which he loved to talk about, too. “How are the Tomcats doing?” he would ask me even if I was calling him about an upcoming game with Russell.

After serving as an assistant coach for three years at Tates Creek and Meade County, he took his first head coaching assignment at Prestonsburg, his alma mater, in 1975. That’s also the year I started working for the Ashland Daily Independent. Over the next few years, as he was building on an incredible coaching resume, I was learning the ropes of a sportswriter.

Prestonsburg was on the edge of our coverage area and, being at the bottom of the food chain in the sports department, that’s where I was to begin. I can remember interviewing him even then and coming away thinking how likeable he was. And I’m sure he had to answer (endure?) some dumb questions from this still green-behind-the-ears aspiring journalist.

We spoke off and on throughout his Prestonsburg tenure. Not often but often enough that we knew each other. If he didn’t answer the phone himself, he always called me back even though the ADI wasn’t really the paper of Prestonsburg. We might have sent a few hundred copies to that part of the Big Sandy area. Our reach mostly stopped around Paintsville (I had a good relationship with the great Walter Brugh, too).

Over the years both of our careers were moving. When he took over at Belfry High School in 1984, I had moved up the ladder and mostly covered the bigger schools in the closer part of our coverage area – Russell, Boyd County and Ashland.

Coach Haywood and I spoke on occasion, especially for some incredible battles with Russell and coach Ivan McGlone. They were important games and always a great chess match between Hall of Fame coaches. They were usually defense-dominated games with a conversion or extra point deciding the outcome.

Win or lose, both of those coaches were humble. They may have been disappointed if defeat came but understood how the game was played, and life was more than what happened on Friday nights. They were incredible men who offered life lessons to players during good times and bad. Both offered such dynamic insight into life even on the hardest of days.

Coach Haywood and I continued to be friends as our careers continued. I began covering more of Ashland games and eventually became the sports editor in 1989. That came during Haywood’s building of Belfry’s great program.

Belfry and Ashland knocked heads a lot during his time – 16 games to be exact. The Tomcats got the better of him in 12 of those, including a state semifinal game in 2020 at Putnam Stadium when Ashland won 10-3 on the way to the Class 3A state championship.

Keontae Pittman races for a 17-yard gain against Belfry in the 2020 state semifinals at Putnam Stadium. The Tomcats won 10-3 and won the Class 3A title a week later. (Photo by Don McReynolds)

He always had a healthy respect for the Tomcats and during many of our conversations he said just that to me. That may date back to his first coaching job as an assistant coach at Tates Creek for Roy Walton in 1972. The Creekers defeated Ashland 16-7 in the state championship that season in the last game ever played at UK’s Stoll Field. That Tomcat team never got the lasting respect they deserved but that’s a column for another day.

It might also be because of a conversation he had once with Herb Conley, who came over to his bus after a Tomcat game, put his hand on his shoulder and told him he was a great coach and was going to have a great career. Haywood never forgot the gesture.

Walton was a mentor for Haywood right down to the reason he wore a coat and tie on the sidelines every Friday night. Walton told him coaching on Friday nights was like going to the symphony so why not dress up. Tates Creek was 13-0 in that 1972 season.

Ashland was 4-3 at Belfry when Haywood was coaching and 8-1 in Putnam Stadium with the defeat (31-14) coming in 1989. That was the year before the Tomcats won the Class 4A title in 1990, which included a 35-20 victory at Belfry after the Tomcats had fallen behind at the half.

There were some important battles between Russell and Belfry over the years as well. Games that meant state championship appearances for the winner.

He carried so much respect for Ashland and Russell as I suspect he did for any opponent he was preparing to play. That’s just how he rolled. Respect the game, respect the opponent.

But Coach Haywood knew at the end of the day there were things a lot more important than a football game. He instilled that notion in his players, modeling what a Christian should be, showing these young men the importance of a relationship with Jesus. They didn’t have to look far for a role model that would not steer them wrong.

I cannot imagine what the Belfry community is experiencing right now. The word “loss” isn’t enough. Irreplaceable comes to mind. Greatness comes to mind. But not loss, because Coach Haywood was never about that word. It was always gain for him. Even in defeat there was something to be learned. He found a way to learn and teach even on the hardest days. He is teaching now that this is how you live and there is a reward. “Well done good and faithful servant” is what he heard Wednesday. And it wasn’t for his 491 victories and eight state championships. It was for a life that led others to Jesus. There is no bigger victory.