From Mike Fields:

 

It was 50 years ago today — Nov. 26, 1966 — that Dayton High School stunned Russellville 6-2 to win the Class A football title at UK’s Stoll Field.

 

Dayton hadn’t been to the state finals before, and it hasn’t been there since.

 

Russellville came into the championship game undefeated (11-0) and a solid favorite to handle the Greendevils (9-3). One big reason: Russellville’s linemen outweighed Dayton’s by an average of more than 30 pounds.

 

The Panthers’ Henry Noe and Donnie Bagget blocked a Dayton punt out of the end zone midway through the second quarter to give Russellville a 2-0 lead.

 

Ironically, Coach Ray King’s Greendevils wound up winning the game on the same kind of play.

 

Early in the fourth quarter Dayton’s Jerry Brooks blocked a Russellville punt — his fifth block of the season — and teammate John Fowee picked up the loose ball and returned it 8 yards for a TD.

 

It was the second-lowest scoring game in Class A title game history. Bellevue, Dayton’s arch-rival, beat Madison 7-0 in the 1979 finals.

 

 

5

I never get tired of reading Mike Fields' stories. Glad he is still able to share via the KHSAA's website.

I went to Coach King's funeral last year. They had quite a bit of memorabilia on hand including a state championship trophy. Very cool stuff to a high school football addict.

BTW the 1967 Dayton team was undefeated in the regular season including a win over Highlands but was upset in the playoffs before the Final

50 years ago Dayton had a youth football league that had 4 teams in it. People have since moved out of the city and now they struggle to field a high school team. Much like a lot of the river cities.

Dad was on that team.

There were a few pictures posted a couple months ago when they were honored at halftime at a regular season game. The Bellevue / Dayton Game I believe

Hardest hitting players in my hs career were Skip and Tom Ferguson from the '63 Dayton Greendevils and Mike Lawson from Highlands. Dayton was always a tough game!

Article correction:

Early in the fourth quarter Dayton’s ERNIE Brooks blocked a Russellville punt — his fifth block of the season — and teammate John Fowee picked up the loose ball and returned it 8 yards for a TD.

 

Ernie passed away summer '15.

His son Ernie (jr) coaches (or coached) XC/Track here in NKy.