And, so, now it's on to basketball season! Here's what I know about KHSAA basketball so far: Estill County has a new-and-improved gym. "In seasons past, Beetle Lyle sounded like he had his head stuck in a pillow case trying to announce the game," reported the Citizen Voice & Times. ... Weather is already impacting schedules. ... I met Frank Ramsey at the Madisonville Kroger store on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. My 2-year-old and I were sitting on a bench, eating donuts and waiting for one of those carts with the little car in front; my daughter loves those things. This really tall guy comes and sits down next to us. My daughter would not share her donut with him. Once I realized who he was, I told him about how my dad always said that Frank Ramsey was the NBA's second-best point guard of his era--second only to his Boston Celtics teammate, Bob Cousy. Mr. Ramsey seemed completely uninterested in listening to such compliments, so instead we talked about Thanksgiving. He was planning to have 16 for the holiday at his house in Dixon; his son would be doing the cooking. Here's a picture I took on Christmas eve 2008; this is the only part of Mr. Ramsey's Madisonville's house that was spared by the 2005 tornado.

On to wrestling season, too.
And bowling.
Rock on, Lu Young! And Sheldon Compton! And Rita Britt!
Christmas parading in Henderson, Independence, (for 44 minutes-plus) Monticello and Paducah. Parade panning in Richmond: "If u r gonna put a float in parade put some effort into it people."
Wow. Graves County High's yearbooks are $65, and that's the early-bird price. Mrs. McGinty must be rich!
In a May 3, 2012, Madisonville Messenger story, Dave O'Connell quoted Frank Ramsey as saying UK in the early 1950s would scrimmage professional teams. "We held our own (against the Minneapolis Lakers." I think we scrimmaged them four days in a row. They were the world champions at the time. Very few people saw this because when Kentucky practiced, they locked all the doors and had the field gates up across the entrances. They had that because if you were late for practice, you didn't eat that night ... There was not a sound in there but the bouncing of the basketball."
ReplyDeleteO'Connell, Dave "Former star Ramsey keeping busy." The Messenger (May 3, 2012) B1.