By Stephen D. Bowling
In 2023, Breathitt High School will celebrate 50 years with an organized football program. A series of articles will follow the development and success of one of Eastern Kentucky’s most storied gridiron programs.
A group of students sat and looked nervously out at the audience on the night of October 6, 1969. More than 200 people sat in the audience and listened as the panel of young Breathitt Countians discussed the many issues facing them and the community. The event, coordinated by the Jackson Woman’s Club, the County Committee on Youth, and members of the Breathitt County School Advisory Council (SAC), accomplished the goal of allowing local high school and college students to voice their dreams and concerns. Many ideas came from that event, but none were treated with greater public interest than establishing a football program at Breathitt High School.
At the meeting, which was a preliminary regional discussion of topics for the 1970 White House Conference on Children and Youth, the audience heard from Chester McIntosh, Gayle Deaton, Patricia Turner, Dale Torok, Susan Bach, Sam Steele, Donna Maloney, Willard R. Shepherd, and Billy Dunn. The young presenters discussed recreation, college preparedness, vocational education, the need for expanded counseling, healthcare concerns, and the benefits of a student council in local schools. Each presenter received applause from the audience as Superintendent Eugene Sebastian, who moderated the event, sat silently and showed no emotion.
When Patricia Turner spoke, she stressed the need to provide access to sports for “girls to play” and the need to provide more extracurricular activities for local schools. Her comments brought some scattered applause. She closed her statement with a rousing call for the “expansion of the sports programs” and the positive effects of enlarging and improving the existing programs. Then she mentioned football. The crowd erupted in applause, and loud cheers were heard from many of those gathered.
For months, the discussion in Breathitt County had been about the possibility of starting a football program at Breathitt High School and at the elementary schools. Many in the community no longer feared what former school leaders and others called the “deadly” sport. A movement among the community’s leaders and several parents questioned school officials about starting a team as far back as 1966.
After the applause died down and all of the presenters were heard, a question and answer session was held. Superintendent Sebastian, toward whom most of the “why can’t we” questions were directed, sat calmly and answered a few. He deflected most of the rest with, “It takes a lot of money to operate a school.”
The meeting and the presentation by the young students was not the first discussion of football at Breathitt High School but the meeting marked the first time that the possibility and desire to launch a new program was discussed openly at a public forum with school officials. The Jackson Times reported later that week in a large headline, “Youth Throws Superintendent The Ball…He Passes.”
From that meeting, a group of community leaders discussed forming an organization to push the football question to the full Board of Education. The discussion was “hot” for the next few months, and more pressing issues came to the forefront. Then nothing happened. The desire for a team never died, and the local coffee clubs and some community leaders kept the discussion alive.
More than a year later, on October 26, 1970, the Breathitt County School Advisory Council held its annual planning meeting at the BHS Cafeteria and discussed a wide variety of education issues. Chairman Foster Hurst appointed three committees to “brainstorm” ideas to address the three most important issues facing the county school in 1970.
The committees included the Anti-Pollution and Beautification Committee, the Attendance and Drop-Out Committee, and the Recreation and Physical Fitness Committee. The committee members found open classrooms and developed ideas to combat the issues. After some time, Chairman Hurst called the groups back together and the full Council the ideas and plans that each committee developed.
The Anti-Pollution Committee reported their plans for the “Beautiful Breathitt” initiative across the county and city. The members of the Attendance Committee presented thoughts about attendance incentives, curriculum expansion, the development of a partnership with Hazard Community College, and raising the mandatory school attendance age to 16. The most anticipated report came from the Recreation Committee.
The Recreation Committee members, including Frank Fletcher, Sam P. Deaton, Ellis Johnson, Francis Johnson, Raymond Osborne, Paul Teague, Joy Fletcher, Edsel McCoun, and Connie Elan, listened as Chairman Jerry F. Howell presented the Committee’s thoughts on improving sports and recreation in the county and especially at the local schools.
Howell highlighted the urgent need for “an all-around physical education program, for boys and girls, that will reach all of the county schools in the Breathitt County system and what can be done to satisfy the need.” He told the Council that he believed that the improvement of recreation and sports would “upgrade the schools” and the “caliber of students.” A major part of the committee’s plan was the creation of a football program “perhaps on both elementary and secondary levels.”
The Recreation Committee announced that they planned to meet directly with Superintendent Sebastian to “investigate the costs involved and the types of financial aid for such a program.” “It is hoped that the civic clubs and other interested persons will support the cause to involve more students in athletics,” the Recreation Committee concluded.
Members of the Recreation Sub-Committee of the School Advisory Council had their meeting with Superintendent Sebastian and did not leave encouraged. They reported that Mr. Sebastian had many concerns, including the overall safety of the sport, questions about how many community members would support football, and, most concerning, how the school could pay for the coach’s salary and the required safety equipment to jump-start the new team.
The effort fizzled, and only occasional rumblings about football could be heard around the community. After nearly five years of discussions and two years of concentrated debate by school committees and officials, it appeared that the hopes of starting a football program at Breathitt High School were dashed because of a lack of funds.
All that changed one afternoon in September 1971. A small group of interested football supporters finally quit talking, rolled up their sleeves, and formed the Breathitt County Football Committee.
Coming Soon – Fifty Years Of Football: Part Two – The Committee
© 2023 Stephen D. Bowling
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