article 50 Greatest Programs in Kentucky History: #15-8

[Watusi]

You have closed your case multiple times in this thread WYW

[HIM]

I judge a program based on how many players move on to the next level. You can win all the State titles you want, but if very few of your players go on to college, in my book you failed. Right now Tilghman has three players in the NFL and when Josh Forrest gets drafted, it'll be four. Can Boyle say that? Male probably can, as well as Trinity. Mayfield, as awesome as they are, do not have anyone in the NFL.

Noel Devine is one of the most electric high school players in the history of the sport and his team never even had a winning record and he could pick any D1 school in the country to play at. Plenty of schools put out D1 and NFL players and never win games. Anyone who has ever coached or truly been around the game besides just a fan knows that recruiting is far less about stats and much more about measurables and tangibles. How many kids move on to D1 or the NFL should have no bearing on how good a program is at all, in fact it should be the other way around, how many titles can you win without elite D1 talent or NFL talent.

[CAP]

Trinity should be #1 out right because we all know that those teams would win by more than 2 touchdown's over anyone.

[85_Rebel]

First let me say that my alma mater is ranked well at #14. That's 14th out of 200 + schools. I will take that for my Rebels.

 

But there is always this notion that Boyle didn't play very good football until the Smith era. That isn't true. Let me unpack it if I may.

 

As has been pointed out, prior to the playoff expansions in the late 80's when 2 teams got in from each District, winning a District involved talent and the chips to fall in the right places so a team could go to the playoffs. Still some great teams never made it. One slip or bad game cost many a one loss squad their chance. Boyle was like that.

 

1960's

Few know that Boyle was unbeaten in 1963 (first year of the school). Didn't have enough points to win the District. 1964-66 were not only winning seasons they made the playoffs one year with the District crown and lost by 6 to the eventual State Runner-up. (Boyle also started the Danville series 1-0-1 vs the Ads) Then back to back winless seasons followed until John Buchanan arrived and put together some very fine teams (one of which went 9-1-1)

 

1970's

Boyle had a couple of winners to start the decade but then a couple of losing seasons followed. Buchanan left to coach at Mercer and Ed Rall arrived in 1974. Rebels went: 8-3, 9-2, 10-2, 8-4, 6-5, 9-1 to close out the decade.

 

The 1975 team still holds the State Record for fewest passing yards given up on a season.

 

The 1976 team lost to an outstanding Frankfort squad on a KO return in the closing minutes (21-20) and a late Punt Return by Chris Jones and Danville (21-14). The loss of those Dickinson points kept them out of the playoffs because they had defeated a great Harrodsbug team (Yeast, 2 Parks, Meaux and company) earlier Later beat in Henry Clay in a Post Season Bowl game.

 

The 1977 team won the District by points and had a huge upset win over #1 AAA Danville and Chris Jones.

 

The 1979 team went 9-1 with wins over AA Semi-Finalist Washington Co, AAA District winner Lincoln Co, and traditional powers Somerset & Danville.

 

 

1980's

 

Ed Rall continued the solid years at the start of the decade going 7-3, 6-4 and 8-3. The '81 team lost a heartbreaker to eventual AA runnerup Somerset in OT or they would have been District Champs. The '82 squad won the District with a big 1 point win over 10-1 Somerset and then lost to a strong Corbin squad in the Regional that went on a roll to win the State.

 

In '83 things changed. Injuries and other circumstances led to a 5-5 squad followed by 3-8, 4-7, 7-3 and 4-7. The ''83 squad did give Bardstown it's only regular season loss on the year. Ed Rall left and went to his alma mater, Centre College, to coach baseball.

 

What followed was the nightmare. Sam Burke took the job for one year only and went 2-8. John Griggs followed and went 1-9, 3-7, and I think 0-10.

 

Afterwards Chuck Smith came and the rest is what most of you know.

 

Thanks for letting me give a little Rebel "history" that isn't as bad as some make it out to be. :thumb:

 

Great Recap Hatz....I too agree wholeheartedly with Boyle's ranking at 14.

[Pikevillefan]

Not too many comments on Pikeville at number 9. Guessing that's because not many Pikeville people on this site. But looks about right, given the history of the program. Obviously, some will not agree with it. I know there's research being done on the Pikeville records and such but I think none of the criteria used to measure here would be impacted due to it being '59 and to present day. All time wins could be bumped from the research, still some years missing that they are looking at. May be a good topic for another thread here about the top winning programs?

[psychicscubadiver]

Not too many comments on Pikeville at number 9. Guessing that's because not many Pikeville people on this site. But looks about right, given the history of the program. Obviously, some will not agree with it. I know there's research being done on the Pikeville records and such but I think none of the criteria used to measure here would be impacted due to it being '59 and to present day. All time wins could be bumped from the research, still some years missing that they are looking at. May be a good topic for another thread here about the top winning programs?

 

KHSAA has all time winners for the top twenty teams already. Though they haven't updated for the 2015 season yet.

 

ALL-TIME WINS

(Entering 2015 Regular Season, Min. 500)

School (Years) Overall Record; 2014 Record

868 Highlands (1915- ) 868-217-26; 13-2

844 Male (1893- ) 844-322-49; 11-1

833 Mayfield (1919- ) 833-251-32; 14-1

757 Paducah Tilghman (1904- ) 757-314-25; 7-6

742 Danville (1924- ) 742-238-34; 8-4

731 St. Xavier (1917- ) 731-285-20; 8-5

713 Owensboro (1893- ) 713-370-30; 12-3

665 Somerset (1907- ) 665-387-43; 0-10

659 Ashland Blazer (1900- ) 659-390-41; 6-5

654 Bowling Green (1922- ) 654-330-35; 11-2

653 DuPont Manual (1892- ) 653-447-37; 8-4

643 Middlesboro (1921- ) 643-318-30; 5-5-1

624 Hopkinsville (1905- ) 624-465-33; 4-8

613 Hazard (1926- ) 613-324-20; 10-3

609 Glasgow (1918- ) 609-368-29; 8-4

595 Bardstown (1912- ) 595-263-16; 9-3

576 Russell (1926- ) 576-356-24; 11-3

574 Trinity (Louisville) (1955- ) 574-158-7; 10-5

552 Paintsville (1923- ) 552-350-27; 10-3

[Pikevillefan]

Thank you for posting.

[Hatz]

KHSAA has all time winners for the top twenty teams already. Though they haven't updated for the 2015 season yet.

 

ALL-TIME WINS

(Entering 2015 Regular Season, Min. 500)

School (Years) Overall Record; 2014 Record

868 Highlands (1915- ) 868-217-26; 13-2

844 Male (1893- ) 844-322-49; 11-1

833 Mayfield (1919- ) 833-251-32; 14-1

757 Paducah Tilghman (1904- ) 757-314-25; 7-6

742 Danville (1924- ) 742-238-34; 8-4

731 St. Xavier (1917- ) 731-285-20; 8-5

713 Owensboro (1893- ) 713-370-30; 12-3

665 Somerset (1907- ) 665-387-43; 0-10

659 Ashland Blazer (1900- ) 659-390-41; 6-5

654 Bowling Green (1922- ) 654-330-35; 11-2

653 DuPont Manual (1892- ) 653-447-37; 8-4

643 Middlesboro (1921- ) 643-318-30; 5-5-1

624 Hopkinsville (1905- ) 624-465-33; 4-8

613 Hazard (1926- ) 613-324-20; 10-3

609 Glasgow (1918- ) 609-368-29; 8-4

595 Bardstown (1912- ) 595-263-16; 9-3

576 Russell (1926- ) 576-356-24; 11-3

574 Trinity (Louisville) (1955- ) 574-158-7; 10-5

552 Paintsville (1923- ) 552-350-27; 10-3

 

What's truly revealing is the date each school began to play football. Note that Trinity is over twenty years younger than all the other teams.

[Watusi]

KHSAA has all time winners for the top twenty teams already. Though they haven't updated for the 2015 season yet.

 

ALL-TIME WINS

(Entering 2015 Regular Season, Min. 500)

School (Years) Overall Record; 2014 Record

868 Highlands (1915- ) 868-217-26; 13-2

844 Male (1893- ) 844-322-49; 11-1

833 Mayfield (1919- ) 833-251-32; 14-1

757 Paducah Tilghman (1904- ) 757-314-25; 7-6

742 Danville (1924- ) 742-238-34; 8-4

731 St. Xavier (1917- ) 731-285-20; 8-5

713 Owensboro (1893- ) 713-370-30; 12-3

665 Somerset (1907- ) 665-387-43; 0-10

659 Ashland Blazer (1900- ) 659-390-41; 6-5

654 Bowling Green (1922- ) 654-330-35; 11-2

653 DuPont Manual (1892- ) 653-447-37; 8-4

643 Middlesboro (1921- ) 643-318-30; 5-5-1

624 Hopkinsville (1905- ) 624-465-33; 4-8

613 Hazard (1926- ) 613-324-20; 10-3

609 Glasgow (1918- ) 609-368-29; 8-4

595 Bardstown (1912- ) 595-263-16; 9-3

576 Russell (1926- ) 576-356-24; 11-3

574 Trinity (Louisville) (1955- ) 574-158-7; 10-5

552 Paintsville (1923- ) 552-350-27; 10-3

Belfry would fall in there somewhere in the 10-20 range. I'm not sure what records have been submitted to KHSAA over the years but here is what I know.

 

Belfry began football in 1926. They weren't very good in the beginning and I've been told they were mediocre at best for a couple of decades. Those records don't exist locally, as I have been told they were lost in a fire when the gym burned sometime in the 40s.

 

Since 1949, the records I have show an overall record of 544-222-6. That is their official win total because those are the records that can be verified. Over those 67 years that is an average of slightly over 8 wins per season.

 

I would love to have the records for the 23 years from 1926-1948. I have no idea how many wins they would have added during this span, but from all reports they probably had many losing records. Conservatively, if they had averaged only 2 wins per season it would add 46 more wins bringing their win total to 600. 3 wins per season would add 69 for a total of 623. And so forth.

 

Of course you can't enter guess work into the record books, I'm just throwing it out there for historical perspective, and also to mention if any of you statisticians out there have any records of Belfry vs. Your Team prior to 1949 I'd be very interested in seeing the results.

[psychicscubadiver]

Belfry would fall in there somewhere in the 10-20 range. I'm not sure what records have been submitted to KHSAA over the years but here is what I know.

 

Belfry began football in 1926. They weren't very good in the beginning and I've been told they were mediocre at best for a couple of decades. Those records don't exist locally, as I have been told they were lost in a fire when the gym burned sometime in the 40s.

 

Since 1949, the records I have show an overall record of 544-222-6. That is their official win total because those are the records that can be verified. Over those 67 years that is an average of slightly over 8 wins per season.

 

I would love to have the records for the 23 years from 1926-1948. I have no idea how many wins they would have added during this span, but from all reports they probably had many losing records. Conservatively, if they had averaged only 2 wins per season it would add 46 more wins bringing their win total to 600. 3 wins per season would add 69 for a total of 623. And so forth.

 

Of course you can't enter guess work into the record books, I'm just throwing it out there for historical perspective, and also to mention if any of you statisticians out there have any records of Belfry vs. Your Team prior to 1949 I'd be very interested in seeing the results.

 

My team would be 0-0 against Belfry prior to 1949. :lol2:

 

Although, that is interesting. I wonder how many other schools have missing records that bring down their overall total.

[Watusi]

Thanks for trying scuba. Thats one team I can cross off my list of contacts

 

I imagine there may be a lot of schools with records missing. Was it always a priority to keep them? It is an uphill battle in a small rural town to rebuild them, I can tell you that. We have bits and pieces, but the local newspaper prior to WWII isn't much help. I wonder if a statewide library may have some records on microfilm or something of weekly game scores???

[gchs_uk9]

Thanks for trying scuba. Thats one team I can cross off my list of contacts

 

I imagine there may be a lot of schools with records missing. Was it always a priority to keep them? It is an uphill battle in a small rural town to rebuild them, I can tell you that. We have bits and pieces, but the local newspaper prior to WWII isn't much help. I wonder if a statewide library may have some records on microfilm or something of weekly game scores???

 

I went back into old Courier-Journals and found lots (but not all) of Lancaster High School's scores. After WWII they were almost always there; before WWII, it was spotty.

[Watusi]

I went back into old Courier-Journals and found lots (but not all) of Lancaster High School's scores. After WWII they were almost always there; before WWII, it was spotty.

Can you do that online? Or do you have to physically go to a library where the old microfilm is stored?

[gchs_uk9]

Can you do that online? Or do you have to physically go to a library where the old microfilm is stored?

 

I did it at the UK library and Centre College library. I've never found anything like that online.

[Guest]

Great thread, but putting NCC ahead of Male and BG is ridiculous. Both Male and BG should be top 5 or 6. Male is like 3rd nationally in wins. I realize that there was a program that made these results and its pretty good. Maybe I just think total wins should be factored in somehow? Although, that would probably bump Highlands to one, and ironically I think they belong at two.

Edited December 24, 2015 by Birdman98