Fifty Years of Football: Part Nine – Under The Lights

By Stephen D. Bowling

This is the ninth installment of a series of articles that follow the development and success of the football team at Breathitt High School.

Breathitt football was truly a community effort. The town and county pulled together to fund a team. They purchased equipment and worked to start a youth program. The future of Breathitt High School football was bright, but the field was still dark. There remained one additional challenge the community needed to overcome to set the football program on firm ground.

Light Up, Quick

On September 18, 1975, Louise Hatmaker, a long-time and early supporter of the football effort in Breathitt County, was a little upset when she typed her weekly Potpourri article. She wrote in The Times after visiting the construction at the stadium, “NO LIGHTS on the new football field. Please, someone, tell us we’re wrong…tell us there will be lights, that they’re just not up yet.” She expressed her shock, “Daytime’s okay for Pee Wee football, but varsity’s got have night lighted games. People who work can’t go to day games. Maybe it’s just a misunderstanding on our part. Light up, quick.”

In all the excitement about the new stadium and the new coach, there was nothing said about the lights of the field. Mr. Sebastian told football supporters that that “was a project for another day” and that the Breathitt County School Board could not afford to light or fence the new field. Hatmaker’s shock spread around the community when her newspaper hit the streets.

Answering the Call, Again

Once again, the community’s leaders stepped forward. The Jackson Lion’s Club announced on June 17, 1976, that the club’s primary objective was to raise enough money to light and fence the stadium. Roy Robinson, President of the Lost Creek Speedway, presented a check for $500 to Lion’s Club Football Light Committee Chairman Willis Francis. Other local businesses soon followed. Mervin Smith’s $200 donation from his oil company brought the amount at the announcement to $700 of the estimated total of $10,000 needed to complete the project.

Willis Francis (left) accepts a check for $500 from Roy Robinson (right), President of the Lost Creek Speedway. Francis holds the check from Mervin Smith in his right hand.

Willis Francis asked county residents to remember that “without lighting or fencing, evening games and activities cannot be held at the beautiful new stadium.” Supporters believed that many people would “sneak into the games in the darkness without paying,” and the stadium would not be able to support the costs or the needs of the football team. Francis, Bill Noel, and Lee Hubbard formed the committee and requested community donations.

Francis announced in June that the Lion’s Club had also voted to give the proceeds of the annual radio auction to the football effort for the second year in a row. Members of the Lions Club made their way around town and solicited the donation of items and services to support the auction. “The community had been very helpful,” Willis Francis told The Jackson Times. “We are looking for a big year and lots of support from our neighbors.”

Members of the Jackson Lions Club worked the 1976 Annual Radio Auction, including Willis Francis, Jim Maggard, Black Griffith, Lee Hubbard, Dan Haddix, and Tommy Miller.

The Auction went live on WEKG Radio on Wednesday, June 23, 1976, at 5:15 p.m. (right after the news). Thousands of dollars of merchandise, “including skis, life jackets, blankets, quilts, bedspreads, tools, chairs, fishing poles, dishes, and many, many more” items were up for sale. Each night, members of the Lions Club would announce the items for sale and describe them over the radio. Potential buyers would call and place a bid, and after a few rounds of bidding, the item was sold. For four nights, the bidding was “fast-paced and very active.”

On July 1, 1976, the Lions Club publically thanked the members of the Breathitt County community for their support of the annual auction. They announced that the club had conducted “our biggest ever, partly because of the projects chosen this year, but also because of the generosity of everyone.” They announced that more than $11,000 had been raised and would completely fund the new fence and the lights at the BHS football stadium. Lions Club President Jim Hay announced that the excess funds above what was needed for the stadium would also be used for beautification and to complete some landscaping around the Nim Henson Geriatric Center.

Support for football in the community continued to grow. The LBJ football team marched in the October 1976 Breathitt County School Fair in their uniforms and prepared to be Bobcats someday.

Hay presented the check for the fencing and lights to Superintendent Eugene Sebastian, but the order for pole lights and equipment had already been made. Combined with nearly $8,000 donated from local businesses, enough funds were available to complete the work. Within weeks, installation of the four 75-foot wooden poles had begun. The electrical circuits were completed and inspected in July, and the lights were tested and adjusted in August.

“Let There Be Light”

On August 26, 1976, Louise Hatmaker announced on the front page of The Jackson Times that it was time for “Football Under the Lights.” “The stage is set. The lights are up. The stadium is ready for Breathitt County’s first night football game,” she wrote. “The only thing needed is a sellout crowd of cheering football fans to help Coach Dudley Hilton’s Bobcats find their first win of the season.”

“What we need now is support from all the fans who’ve said they were waiting for seats and lights and night football,” Coach Hilton said. “This is it.”

The new chain link fence was installed around the field just a week before the first home game. Admission was set at $1.50. The team and boosters pre-sold season tickets. The community responded to the call for support once again. Nearly an hour before the game, the stadium was filled to capacity.

The stadium before the lights were turned on on August 27, 1976.

Just before dusk, the switch was flipped in the breaker box on one of the wooden poles. The lights came on slowly as they warmed up. Within minutes, the new Breathitt High School football field was awash in light as the Bobcats defeated Leslie County for their first win of the season and their first win on the new field.

Members of the BHS football team ran onto the field for the first night game and the first game at the new BHS Stadium on August 27, 1976.

As The Jackson Times noted, “In just five years, football supporters in this community have helped bring the sport of football to Breathitt County. The near-impossible has been accomplished with the cooperation of the school administration.” Beginning with an idea and the desire to start a team, the people of Jackson and Breathitt County supported the fundraisers that helped buy the first equipment. The school, with pressure from the community, hired the first coaches. The people of Breathitt County voted to tax themselves to build a new field. The community and its civic organizations stepped up to light and fence the field. The Jackson Times printed, with some pride, that “local supporters have never faltered in their efforts.”

“While everybody knows that it takes years to build a first-class football program,” a reporter for The Times wrote in 1976, “enthusiasts were encouraged every time the Cats went over the goal line.”

All of the pieces for a successful program were in place by the fall of 1976. A five-year, Herculean effort by the community, through their hard work and monetary support, created a football team out of nothing. The firm foundation was laid, and many generations of players helped develop a winning tradition at Breathitt. The program, in its first fifty years, claimed three state championships and led the mountain in 3A and 2A football for years.

We celebrate fifty years of football at Breathitt High School by celebrating the beginning of our team. The Breathitt Bobcat football team is truly our community team.

A big “Thank You” to everyone who read and enjoyed this first series of 50 Years of Football- the Beginning. It was originally my intention to end with the installation of the lights and the fulfillment of the early needs of the football program.

Due to the overwhelming interest and many, many requests, I have decided to start a Second Series. I plan, in the coming weeks, to look at the individual seasons and explore events and players during the Hilton, the Holcomb, and the Moore eras. A look at several “super fans” and supporters of the program is also in the works.

If you have a topic suggestion, interesting stories, information, or if you would like to see the series continue, please comment below or let me know. I have enjoyed our look at BHS football’s beginning and hope that you have learned about our program and enjoyed it too. Thank you!