Each time I go to a basketball game at Freedom Hall, I think about the State Tournament when I arrived late and walked  past the Coaches’ Hospitality Room. I put on the breaks when I thought I saw an old coach sitting all alone. It was Tom Ellis, who had been a good coach in both football and basketball at Covington Holmes High.

I shook hands with Tom and asked him to accompany me out to the arena where we could watch the State Tournament.

“I don’t feel well enough to watch the games,” said Ellis. “I just came one last time to tell my friends goodbye.”

Now that hurt.

Ellis was one of the top men who coached both football and basketball.

I had a request recently to write about the men who coached both sports.

Collier at the top
Blanton Collier, who coached both sports at Paris High, later was the football coach at UK and directed the Cleveland Browns to the National Football League championship.

Joe Ohr, my coach and principal at Irvine High, always insisted that as great  a football coach as Collier was, he was even better at coaching basketball. It also should be noted that as football coach of the Wildcats, he beat Tennessee like a drum.

Wah Wah Jones’ coach in both sports at Harlan High was Joe Gilly, and he was a good one, too.

Nick Denes was unique. He coached Corbin High to the 1936 state basketball championship and Louisville Male High to state titles in football and track. He later was head football coach at Western Kentucky University.

Paulie did both
Paulie Miller, who coached Paul Hornung at Louisville Flaget High, won state football titles and turned over a Flaget basketball team to Jim Morris that won the state title. Paulie also played on a national Catholic basketball championship team at Louisville St. Xavier.

I’m sure there are other men coached both football and basketball. If I have missed some, let me know.

Ellis Johnson, for instance, was a great coach in both football and basketball at Morehead State College.

John Heber coached Lexington High (now Henry Clay) to a state basketball title and also was a top football coach. So was Cap Rees, who won a state basketball crown and was a good football coach at Millersburg Military Institute. Heber also is the only man to earn five letters in football at UK. He played an extra season because the rules were relaxed during World War I.

Kean a standout
William Kean coached several Louisville Central High football and basketball teams to national black championships, and he won several state basketball and football crowns for black high schools. Louis Stout, former commissioner of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association, wrote a book on the football and basketball history of black high schools of Kentucky. It’s a collector’s item.

Another colorful coach in both sports was the legendary Bain “Tiny” Jones of Mount Sterling High. He was anything but Tiny.

Zenith for McGrath
John McGrath, a Flaget High quarterback who was recruited to play football at Kentucky, is receiving congratulations galore from his friends. McGrath has received the high honor of  being chosen as the best of the best in the ranks of National Football League game officials. Johnny will be the back judge in next month’s Super Bowl in Miami. He will be in the middle of all the action downfield.

He has worked hard for many years in the officiating ranks. His buddies tell me that he had to go off by himself when he heard the news. It’s a long way from calling little boys football in the Catholic School Athletic Association to the Super Bowl.

If a football game ever breaks out at Big Spring Country Club during a meeting of the Louisville Quarterback Club, it will be nice to have Johnny to toot his whistle.