Happy 50th (and 55th) Anniversary to Louisville Central

[brentbbs]

Fifty years ago today, on March 16, 1974, the Central Yellowjackets captured their second KHSAA basketball championship, defeating Male 59-54 in the only competitive game they played all tournament.  Excluding the final, Central’s average margin of victory in all tournament games was 37.5 points.  

The championship game capped off a 33-1 season, the lone loss coming at the hands of Bryan Station, 95-82 in the LIT semifinals.  Central coach Robert Graves noted that his team played that game short-handed, with star guard Daryl Yarbrough out with a knee injury, defensive ace Carlos Hampton hobbled by a foot injury and five other players sick with the flu.  Graves admitted to the Courier Journal’s Bob White, “Maybe Bryan Station would have beaten us anyway, but we weren’t healthy then.”  All teams have to deal with injuries and illness, of course, but it seems reasonable to think that if the injuries and flu bug had arrived at another point in the season or if they had not hit quite so many players at the same time, we might very well be observing the anniversary of an undefeated state championship team.  

Central nearly repeated its state tournament run in 1975, losing only its second game of the year in the state semi-final, a 62-60 defeat at the hands of Henry Clay.  The 31-2 state semi-final team in 1975 capped off what could reasonably be characterized as the end of a 50-year dynasty.  

• William Kean became Central’s coach in the Fall of 1922.  In his first nine seasons Kean’s Yellowjackets — ineligible to compete by the not yet integrated KHSAA until 1957, and without an alternative post-season tournament to play in — won 182 games against only 13 losses.  Two of Kean's teams in that nine-year run were undefeated. 
• An all-Black association, the KHSAL, held its first tournament in 1932.  Central won it.  The Jackets added four more KHSAL championships, as well as a national Black teams’ tournament title in 1952, before finally being allowed to participate in the KHSAA tournament in 1957.
• Having lobbied for integration since at least 1953, Kean's first two KHSAA-eligible squads enjoyed tremendous success in 1956-57 (25-2) and 1957-58 (24-3), ending both seasons as the top team in the Litkenhous ratings.  
• The 1958 Yellowjackets drew eventual state champion St. Xavier in the first game of the 25th District tournament, losing by two points in double overtime.  It would be Kean's last game.  He passed away the following month with a lifetime coaching record of 791-151.
• Central won the district tournament in each of the two seasons following Kean's death, capturing its first region championship in 1965. Graves took over as head coach the next season.
• In 1969, Central became the first former KHSAL school to win a KHSAA state basketball championship.  The Courier-Journal’s Dave Kindred wrote that Central’s 1969 squad, ranked number one all season, “provoked a rumbling of boos from the nearly 18,000 Freedom Hall patrons with its every appearance.”  By any objective measure, the boos did not faze the Jackets in the slightest.  Before the final game against Ohio County on March 29, star guard Otto Petty told Kindred, “It doesn’t make any difference if the whole state hollers against us. We have our song.  Those nets will be singing.”  Sing they did, to the tune of 101 points, a championship game record that still stands.
• Central would continue to be a state power through the 1981 season and return to the state semi-final game in 1978, but the heights were never quite as high after 1975; Central's first losing season in school history came in 1982 after 70(!) consecutive winning records.  Since then it has seen the normal distribution of ups and downs.

In wrapping up, here's to the players, coaches and fans of Louisville Central -- congratulations on your achievements through the years.  And to the 1969 and 1974 teams particularly, congratulations on the 55th and 50th anniversaries of your state championship seasons.

Brent Houk

[16thBBall Fan]

Thanks for sharing that was a great read! Also welcome to BGP @brentbbs!

[tcjkbt]

Otto Petty and Ron King from that 1969 squad starred for Florida State.   Dave Cowens night have been on those FSU teams, too.

[Ordell]

Thank you for sharing about Central’s tremendous history.

[The Professor]

Central was also runner up in the KHSAA tournament in 2009, losing in double overtime to Covington Holmes. And what makes that interesting is Central came into the tournament that year as the only team in it with a losing record.