Who is this? What is his claim to fame? And, why is he important to Kentucky High School Football?

 

 

Sending PM because I don't want to end the thread this fast.

Sending PM because I don't want to end the thread this fast.

Nah, go ahead he's recognizable, but what about his importance to Kentucky High School Football?

Donald Gullett, scored 72 points in 1 game for McKell vs Wurtland. 11 TD's and kicked 6 PAT's.

Donald Gullett, scored 72 points in 1 game for McKell vs Wurtland. 11 TD's and kicked 6 PAT's.

Good job. VOR got it right as well.

MARK MAYNARD: About that 72-point game for Gullett ...

Mark Maynard

06/20/2014 12:29 AM

Of all the marvelous achievements that happened in Don Gullett’s career before his days with the Cincinnati Reds, the one that draws the most acclaim is the football game where he scored every point in McKell’s 72-7 victory over Wurtland in the last regular season game of the 1968 season.

 

Gullett, who was a senior, scored 11 touchdowns and kicked six extra points.

 

Fans who actually witnessed the game probably numbers in the hundreds but fans who say they were at the game is more in the thousands today.

 

Nevertheless, it was a performance that is not lost upon those who experienced it on the field.

 

Say hello to Bob Bryson, a classmate and the center on the 1968 McKell Bulldogs.

 

“Looking back on it now, what more than 45 years later, I’m kinda proud to say I played in that game when a national record-setter,” Bryson said.

 

Bryson said McKell went into the game trying to make Gullett the state scoring champion. “We knew if he scored four or five touchdowns, that would be enough. We had beaten them like 46-0 in the Grid-O-Rama (preseason) so we knew he was scoring. The idea was we wanted him to get the state scoring title.”

 

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MARK MAYNARD: Some tales tall, some tales true

Mark Maynard

06/18/2014 10:51 PM

There are some Paul Bunyan-like tales when it comes to Don Gullett, who will be the honoree this weekend for the Elks Sports Day festivities.

 

Those who saw him play understand what a special athlete they were watching, by all accounts the best athlete in area history.

 

Whether it was baseball, football, basketball or anything to do with the outdoors, like hunting and fishing, there was no more fierce competitor than Gullett.

 

One such Bunyan-like tale is that when Don was young he would go hunting squirrels with his father and have a bag full of rocks. He was tearing up the squirrels so bad throwing right-handed that his dad made him start throwing left-handed.

 

Gullett’s electrifying fastball whizzed past enough players in the area it seems that he struck out almost eight out of 10 that I have spoken to about it.

 

Ashland’s Johnny Mullins remembered facing up with no expectation of making contact.

 

“I just went up there and took my three strikes,” he said.

 

Then there’s the story of the player who actually urinated on himself for fear of what was coming. That one has been verified by Bill Gullett, Don’s brother and his catcher for nine years.

 

I noticed on the back of one of Gullett’s baseball cards that he was 9-2 his senior year at McKell High School. One of the losses was a 1-0 decision to Ashland in the region tournament semifinals, when Dave Damron had the only hit off Gullett and scored the only run.

 

“I always taught guys at the major league level that anyone who walks up there with a piece of ash in their hand, they’re dangerous,” Gullett said. “There’s the potential of them getting a hit, of squaring that baseball.”

 

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Gullett weekend heats up tonight

Mark Maynard

06/20/2014 12:37 AM

Don Gullett, one of the all-time great athletes in northeastern Kentucky, will be honored this weekend at the 40th annual Elks Sports Day.

 

Gullett, who starred at McKell High School before going on to a major league baseball career with the Cincinnati Reds and New York Yankees, becomes the first Greenup Countian to receive the Sports Day recognition.

 

None have been any more deserving than Gullett, a star in baseball, basketball and football at McKell.

 

Gullett, who is already in the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame and the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame, doesn’t take the latest honor for granted.

 

“Anytime you’re being honored it means you haven’t been forgotten and that’s good,” he said. “You know people care for you.”

 

Gullett won 109 games in an injury-shortened major league career. He was a part of four consecutive World Series champions with the Reds (1975-76) and Yankees (1977-78). Gullett was a part of six teams that made it to the World Series and he also served as the Reds’ pitching coach from 1993 to 2005.

 

“I have a lot of great memories, a lot of fond memories when I was active as a player and coach,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.”

 

He knows many of the past Sports Day honorees personally and knows more of them because of what they did.

 

“I didnt meet a lot of those people on the wall but I know they did a lot of great things,” he said. “It’s an honor to be part of that. I’ve obviously met (former umpire) Charlie Reliford, Larry Conley and Mr. (Jim) Host.”

 

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