Lloyd, St. Henry top September NKSHOF honors
Wednesday kicks off the year for the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame inductions with six inductees at a 1 p.m. event at The Gardens in Park Hills. On what will be something of an Erlanger day, there’s Lloyd High’s Billy Lyon, who led Marshall to an NCAA FCS national championship and then played six years in the NFL as an undrafted free agent. He’ll be joined by another Lloyd alum, Mike Baker, who spent more than two decades coaching DIxie Area Knothole kids.
From St. Henry, baseball-basketball star Paul Ritter took his talents to NKU and he’s joined by another baseball-basketball St. Henry alum, Brian Donohue. From Covington Latin and Thomas More is Golden Gloves’ boxer Jim Noll and from Dayton, there’s Ken Richardson who co-captained the Greendevils’ 1966 state championship football team.
The public is invited and there is no charge.
Interesting SEC Ft. Thomas football footnote
We mentioned last week that former Highlands’ star Jeff Kremer finished his four-year linebacking career at UK (1984-1987) as the sixth-leading all-time SEC tackler with 475. What we didn’t realize was that another former Highlands star who went on to be UK linebacker (from 1990 to1993), Marty Moore, was No. 9 all-time in the SEC with 470. He was also the first Mr. Irrelevant as the 222nd and last player drafted in the 1994 NFL Draft to make it to the Super Bowl in an eight-year NFL career. Amazing stuff when you consider how many great football players the SEC has produced and two were Bluebirds.
Two Northern Kentuckians on Oscar’s Top 10
Longtime UK basketball observer, and founder of The Cat’s Pause, the legendary Oscar Combs, put together a terrific list of the Top 10 all-time Kentucky basketball players he wished had played for the Wildcats. And when you look at this list, you realize how great the high school basketball played in this state was once upon a time. Can’t disagree with one of them here and just wish the SEC had been much more receptive to Black players and what that cost everybody in the state.
Here they are: 1. Wesley Unseld 2. Dave Cowens (Newport Central Catholic) 3. Butch Beard 4. Jim McDaniels 5. Allan Houston 6. Kelly Coleman 7. Clem Haskins 8. Tom Thacker (Covington Grant) 9. Darrell Griffith 10. Mike Silliman.
All Bellevue’s Cowens did was earn an NBA MVP award and Basketball Hall of Fame honors with the Boston Celtics. As for Covington’s Thacker, he led the Cincinnati Bearcats to two straight NCAA titles and came within seconds of a third straight in a career that saw him go on to become the only player in basketball history to win an NCAA championship, an NBA championship and an ABA championship.
Many came to say goodbye to Dave Guidugli
The turnout for the Thursday funeral Mass for Dave Guidugli made it clear how many people the one-of-a-kind Northern Kentucky teacher and fitness guru affected. A continuous line of mourners stretched halfway down the block from Newport’s Holy Spirit Parish Church for an hour before the funeral Mass. And to get the service going on time, they had to turn the single line into three just to get everybody inside.
Heartbreaking finish for the Y’alls
How tough a way to end a season is this? The Florence Y’alls were eliminated in the rain-delayed third game of the best-of-three Frontier League playoffs in a 9-8 walkoff loss at the Washington Wild Things Sunday. After falling behind 7-0 after five innings, the Y’alls rallied for an unanswered eight runs and an 8-7 lead before losing on a two-out ninth inning hit that ended Manager Toby Hall’s first season — and their first playoff postseason series since 2021 in the toughest way possible.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X @dweber3440.