We told the story Monday of the legendary William Grant basketball program in the late 1950’s and first half of the 1960’s from the point of view of the Covington school for Black students from all over Northern Kentucky as it integrated the KHSAA in those years. And of the historic first game in January of 1957 – not just in Northern Kentucky but in all of Kentucky – between Grant and Dixie Heights.
Now we’ll tell the story from the Dixie Heights’ point of view as the No. 4 team in Kentucky and No. 1 in Northern Kentucky as the Kenton County school helped set up that historic game. No better person to tell it than Bill Eger, who had a key part in that game. If you’ll recall, the game-deciding play happened when a Grant player, dribbling out the game’s final 11 seconds with a one-point lead, slipped on the wet floor where condensation had formed after the windows had been opened to cool down a standing-room-only crowd that had been packed into the old Dixie gym for hours.
Turns out that was Bill, a defensive sixth man, who benefited from that slip as he scooped up the ball and scored the game-winning come-from-behind layup. Retired after a couple of careers – with Sears in the Southeast and then as a school-teacher — and living in Valdosta, Ga., Eger recalls how the Colonels were in a box-and-one – four guys in a zone with him chasing the ball. Turned out that was the perfect defense for the moment.
Bill Eger (Photo provided)
“The sound was absolutely phenomenal,” Eger says, “you couldn’t hear anything . . . they put chairs on the floor and people were sitting on every one of the steps.” It was so crowded, Eger almost didn’t get into the game.
“We were supposed to get there at halftime of the JV game and as I walked up, people were lined up 10 deep and I worked my way around them to the door and they weren’t letting anyone in. But luckily I had my Dixie warmup over my shoulder and showed it to the person inside and they let me in.”
The game had only been announced a week before, Eger recalls, as they arrived back in school in January from the holidays. “Our coach (Lou Phillips) told us, ‘You think you guys are really good, well we’re going to find out . . . You may be No. 4 in the state but now we’re going to play a team that won the state championship for Black schools in Kentucky last year and we’re going to find out.”
Eger said they knew how good the Grant kids were, knew about Tom Thacker since they had been playing with and against them on Covington playgrounds in the summer. But when the pregame warmups started, “our coaches told us not to watch them,” Eger said. “We mostly shot one- and two-hand set shots and they were shooting jump shots from everywhere.”
But when the game got going, Dixie Heights’ size, with 6-foot-8 Joe Stark, and 6-2 all-state guard Howard Stacey, who would both go on to Louisville, countered Grant’s speed and athleticism. And it came down basically to that final play. With “water on the floor,” Eger says.
A 5-9 guy who played football, basketball and baseball as well as lead trumpet in the Dixie dance band, Eger just happened to be in the right place at the right time. His game-deciding layup was his only shot in the game. “I came up behind him when he hit the water,” Eger says, “and beat him to the ball.”
Howard Stacey scoring at the old Dixie Heights gym (File. photo)
Eger would go on to play freshman basketball and baseball at Villa Madonna (now Thomas More) and eventually head down to the University of Miami where he would get his degree in business and start his career with Sears. And then at the age of 53, he switched to teaching school.
Of playing in that historic game, Eger wants people to know that the moment “was such a big deal because of the talent of the teams. It wasn’t about race,” he said. “Our coach didn’t care if the players were green, grey or Black.” And neither did they.
As the season went on, Dixie would lose to Grant in the district finals, the first time a Black team would win a district title in Kentucky, but with both teams moving on to the region, Grant would lose to Newport and Dixie would beat Newport to advance to the Sweet 16 where they would lose to state champion Lexington Lafayette in the second round.
CONGRATS TO COVCATH’S BRADY HUSSEY
CovCath senior Brady Hussey, a star in basketball and tennis with a 3.5 GPA, has just been named winner of the Wah Wah Jones Award, named after the UK and Kentucky high school multi-sport legend, for excellence in the classroom and on and off the court and the playing field. He’s the only CovCath athlete to receive all-state recognition in two sports in the same academic year. The 6-2 guard was also named Sweet 16 all-tournament as a sophomore and as the No. 1 singles player, led CovCath to the state tennis title last spring.
REDS SAY GOODBYE TO DON GULLETT
Brady Hussey Wah Wah Jones Award
Johnny Bench was saying this week on learning of the death of his Reds’ battery-mate Don Gullett of how he was maybe the best athlete on a team of great athletes. I’ll go further than that. Gullett, a former McKell High athlete from Greenup County, might well have been the best athlete who was a great major league baseball pitcher who ever lived. How do I know? I saw him play football.
Just out of Xavier, I was a football coach at CovCath and since we couldn’t get many Northern Kentucky schools to schedule us, we played teams like Russell that had me heading upriver for a Saturday night scouting assignment — Russell against McKell. And that’s when I saw Gullett as a senior running back. It wasn’t the night he scored 72 points in a game — 11 TDs and six extra points — but he probably scored half that many that night.
And made it look easy. He had unbelievable speed and ability to change speeds and a complete awareness of where he was in space. No wonder Bear Bryant had signed him to play football at Alabama. He’d have been sensational. But that was before he went on to pitch that spring and in one perfect game, struck out 20 of 21 batters he faced and was off to the major leagues. No college football for Gullett, who never seemed anything other than this unbelievably gifted athlete from small-town Northeastern Kentucky.
POLL-WATCHING IN NORTHERN KENTUCKY
Don Gullett’s Reds Hall of Fame plaque (Photo provided0
Can’t recall a season when as many Northern Kentucky high school basketball teams have held up so strong for so long in the statewide media polls. Three boys’ teams led by No. 3 Newport and No. 6 CovCath and four girls’ teams, led by No. 2 Cooper and No. 4 Holy Cross, are in this week’s voting.
BOYS’ POLL 1. Great Crossing; 2. Lexington Catholic; 3. Newport; 4. Trinity; 5. Lyon County; 6. Covington Catholic; 7. St. Xavier; 8. (tie) Bowling Green; 8. (tie) Evangel Christian; 10. George Rogers Clark; 11. Manual; 12. Harlan County; 13. North Oldham; 14. Woodford County; 15. Frederick Douglass. Others receiving votes: Bryan Station 11, Cooper 10, Boyd County 9, DeSales 9, Henderson County 8, Adair County 3, Henry Clay 3, Hazard 2, Pikeville 2, Male 1.
GIRLS’ POLL: 1. Sacred Heart; 2. Cooper; 3. George Rogers Clark; 4. Covington Holy Cross; 5. Pikeville; 6. Owensboro Catholic; 7. McCracken County; 8. Anderson County; 9. Franklin-Simpson; 10. Ashland Blazer; 11. Butler; 12. Franklin County; 13. Notre Dame; 14. Ryle; 15. North Laurel. Others receiving votes: Russell 24, Pulaski County 16, Boyd County 12, Frederick Douglass 12, Corbin 10, Johnson Central 10, Simon Kenton 9, Bethlehem 6, Danville Christian 6, Meade County 5, Pineville 4, Assumption 3.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.
