Tag: tomcats

1975 JAWS Tomcats clamped down on rival Boyd County in a game with high stakes

In 1975, the stakes for the Boyd County-Ashland football rivalry moved beyond bragging rights. It meant everything. The season was on the line. For the winning team, it meant a trip to the Class AAAA state playoffs. For the losing team, it meant basketball season.

Unlike today’s playoff format, where four teams from each district advance, only the district champion went to the postseason party in 1975. As if it didn’t already mean everything, that made the game even bigger. There were no second chances. It was take-your-breath-away football.

It was played in the last week of the regular season, only adding to the drama that was building since before the season started when fans began comparing the rivals. The game was always big, and the series was tied 5-5 going into the 1975 battle between the Tomcats and Lions. Both came in with outstanding teams and the game was played in Cannonsburg.

They played in the preseason, meeting in a Grid-O-Rama game in Putnam Stadium on a rainy night that ended with Ashland winning 12-0. The teams played only for about a half on a muddy turf, so it wasn’t a true measure of what could be and everybody knew it. But it still added to the discussion throughout the week leading up to the game.

Herb Conley was the architect of the Ashland JAWS Tomcats in 1975.

Boyd County was coming off consecutive seasons where it made the Class AAA playoffs. The Lions were ranked No. 1 in 1974 and were stunned by Middlesboro 28-14 in the opening round. That came after the 1973 season when Boyd County roared into the state championship game before losing 27-8 to Paducah Tilghman at Hanger Field on EKU’s campus.

The Lions had beaten the Tomcats both of those years, albeit by narrow margins – 14-13 in 1973 and 20-8 in 1974. Those were the kind of scores that most fans expected when the bitter rivals met, no matter which team was superior. Ashland’s last win in the series was 24-8 in 1972 with a team that reached the Class AAA finals against Tates Creek, losing 16-7, at Stoll Field in Lexington.

The Boyd County and Ashland programs were recognized and highly respected statewide for their hard-nosed and hard-hitting styles of play.

Ashland went into the 1975 game looking for perfection and a district championship. It could be a historic night with the last undefeated Tomcat team coming in 1958 when Herb Conley was playing. Even that team had a blemish – a tie against Huntington East – in a 10-0-1 season.

Casey Jones was a standout tackle for the Tomcats.

The last undefeated and untied team in Ashland history came in 1942. The JAWS Tomcats were chasing history. They were more interested in making their own legacy in the Tomcat program and knew they had the makings of greatness.

The Ashland-Boyd County games of the 1970s and 1980s were almost always played on the last Friday of the regular season, always had high stakes and always drew a massive number of fans. Everybody in the area was watching and interested In the outcome. It was just that kind of game.

Given the Tomcats proudly using the JAWS nickname for its defense throughout much of the season, Boyd County’s fans decided to have some fun, calling their team the JAWBREAKERS. Electricity was in the air, the fans were packed in on Boyd County’s large home side and the smaller set of bleachers were full for the visiting fans. The hillside on the home side was crowded with a mix of fans too with the expectation that something special could happen no matter which side won.

Ashland came in a confident 10-0 and feeling good after blowing out Covington Catholic 56-14 the week prior. Boyd County was 7-3 and coming off a defensive battle with Russell won with a goal from Mark Rice that provided a 3-0 victory. The Lions had a star running back in James Tackett who was heading to play at West Virginia. He came into the game injured but still played, gaining 58 yards on 10 carries.

The Tomcats were ready and when big Terry Bell, Ashland’s All-State lineman, busted through a hoop coming onto the field it almost sent an instant message.

“Terry came running out there in the front,” remembered tight end Alan Mayo. “Terry, Chuck (Anderson) and Rick (Sang), were our captains. People came running out (behind them) and sprinted to the middle of the field. Everybody in the stadium went quiet. You knew he (Bell) was there and was going to give it his all.”

Mayo figured in setting up the game’s first touchdown. He slipped past the Lions defenders to pull in a catch and ran 41 yards to the Boyd County five. Mayo looked headed for the end zone until Tim Powers tripped him up from behind. But a three-yard run from Gary Thomas set up a two-yard plunge from Jay Shippey for the touchdown. Kevin Ward’s extra point made it 7-0 on Ashland’s first possession.

Terry Bell breaks through the hoop and runs onto the field.

Ashland made it 15-0 early in the second quarter when Jeff Slone finished off a drive with a seven-yard touchdown run. Anderson hit Mayo on the two-point conversion try.

Anderson, the quarterback-linebacker, played a huge role with a 6-for-13 passing performance that included a 20-yard touchdown pass to Sang eight seconds before halftime for a 23-0 lead. Anderson also rushed for 46 yards on 11 carries out of the wishbone.

In the second half, Thomas returned a punt 85 yards for a touchdown and Greg Jackson ran in the two-point conversion to push the margin to 31-0. Anderson later scored on a 13-yard run and the last touchdown, set up by a 25-yard strike from Anderson to Jim Johnson, moved the Tomcats inside the 20. Shippey rumbled into the end zone on a 16-yard run with 2:27 remaining to bring the final score to a whopping 43-0.

Ashland outgained Boyd County 477-175 as the JAWS defense stated its case, clamping down on the Lions from start to finish. Boyd County made it inside Ashland’s 30 only once in the game and that came on the last series. Tackett had a short run and a facemask penalty put the ball on the 22. But any hope of ruining the shutout ended when quarterback Wayne Chaffin was sacked for a 10-yard loss on the last play of the game.

Greg Jackson (27) runs behind Jim Johnson for a big gain.

A 43-0 shutout victory over its biggest rival was enough to put Herb Conley in rare form and he did not hold back his excitement over the victory that was the biggest margin in the series. It also sent Ashland into the state playoffs as the top-ranked team in Class AAAA.

“The best team showed that it was the best tonight. We have the best team in the Tri-State and I can say it now. I’ve kept my mount shut all year, but I can say it now … we’ve beaten them all. This win was especially good after the last two years.”

The perfect season was intact and the victory over Boyd County was sweeter than ever for the Tomcats. But now the fun would begin. Despite being undefeated and ranked No. 1, the Tomcats only had one playoff game in Putnam Stadium. They played at Dixie Heights, home against Lafayette, at Paducah Tilghman and in Louisville against St. Xavier for the state championship.

Steve Gilmore: A hero in his Ashland hometown

Steve Gilmore held three of the most volatile positions that anyone could have in Ashland – the city mayor, the school superintendent and the Tomcat head basketball coach.

Those are three of the most second-guessed jobs in Ashland. Every decision is publicly scrutinized, criticized and magnified unfairly. In Gilmore’s case though, at the end of the day, those decisions he made were more often than not celebrated.

“Everybody is a coach, and everybody is a mayor, and everybody thinks they want to be superintendent,” Gilmore told me in one of several stories that was written about him. “I think you develop perspectives. You learn perspective so much better. You don’t have that growing up and in the eye of the storm.”

He’s made friends and made enemies, pleased some and angered others. But, along the way, Gilmore said he’s always tried to be fair. He also considered himself fortunate to have lived and worked in a place he loved so much.

“I’ve been the most blessed person in my hometown,” he told me. “I may be the most blessed person anywhere.”

Gilmore has stood firm even in the face of criticism be it as the Tomcat basketball coach, city commissioner, mayor or superintendent.

Steve Gilmore presented me with “Mark Maynard Day” after retiring from the newspaper in 2017. He was always a friend even if the story didn’t go the way he may have liked.

The late David Payne, of his best friends, once told me about Gilmore: “He stands by what he believes. You have to admire that. All those jobs have their share of second-guessing. But he never backs down.”

Heartfelt tributes are pouring in for Gilmore, who died early Wednesday morning after an extended illness. He is a giant in Ashland lore, somebody who had a deep love for the city where he grew up and a favorite son whose impact will be felt for generations to come whether it was in politics or school administration.

But he’s even more Ashland than that. Gilmore pitched in the first Little League game in Ashland history in 1955, played against the great 1961 Tomcats as a high-scoring star for Holy Family and became the youngest coach in Ashland history at 27 years old in 1972. He was also on the ground floor of the rebuild of Putnam Stadium which today is one of the state’s best places to watch high school football.

Steve Gilmore was a popular politician who was a city commissioner and eventually the mayor, even running unopposed one term which, at the time, was also a first in Ashland history. Like any politician, he had an ego but he did not let it get in the way of fairness, a trait he carried with him throughout his life.

Gilmore had a sense of Ashland history, too, which was why he was so humbled when awarded the Elks Sports Day recipient in 2012. He was awed by those who had come before him and even helped him become the person he was. The history was important to him.

Steve Gilmore posed with good friends David Payne, Dicky Martin and Donna Childers Suttle at Putnam Stadium in 2014. Gilmore was the Ashland school superintendent who was on the ground floor of the rebuild that was completed this fall.

Few have had the passion for the city Gilmore exhibited, said Charlie Reliford in a 2012 interview. During Reliford’s umpiring days, he was nicknamed “Mr. Ashland” for his constant references to his hometown.

“As I started to leave Ashland — and you know how much I care about Ashland — I always felt like he cared more than I did. He took the job as mayor when Ashland Oil was leaving, and it looked like hard times. But he made things better. He’s always been a great representative of Ashland, Kentucky, no matter what he was doing.”

Gilmore was a standout basketball player for Holy Family, where he graduated in 1961, and he went on to play four years of basketball at Rio Grande. The basketball teams from Gilmore’s era still meet every year for reunions, a testament to the closeness of the players and coach. He returned home after college, landing a job as a teacher/coach at Putnam Junior High. That started him on a long and highly successful trek right here in his hometown.

“This school district has been my life and it’s been good to me. It’s the people who you teach with, coach with and interact with that make it special,” Gilmore said during an interview after he was awarded as a Distinguished Tomcat. “It’s an older community, and I’m part of that. The whole community is Ashland, and I wouldn’t trade this town for any town in the world.”

Steve Gilmore spent a lifetime of serving Ashland in various capacities. He died on Dec. 11 at 81.

Gilmore’s journey took him from Ashland to Rio Grande and back to Ashland again where he remained a friend and vital cog in the community for more than five decades.

Ashland was home for him, and he didn’t want to be anyplace else.

“I’ve said this many times — and I certainly didn’t coin the phrase — but it’s hard to be a hero in your hometown,” Gilmore once told me.

In the case of Steve Gilmore, though, the cape with the A on it fits more perfectly than he dared to dream.

He will be remembered that way in Ashland. A hero, and a friend to the end. RIP, good friend.