EJ Walker transferring from South Carolina
Lloyd Memorial alum EJ Walker, who worked his way from redshirt freshman into the starting lineup at South Carolina this season, has entered the transfer portal. At an official 6-foot-7 and 253 pounds, Walker averaged 2.9 points a game after starting six games at the end of the season for the Gamecocks.
Walker’s best game came against NCAA Sweet 16 team Texas when he scored eight points with three rebounds and a steal on a perfect four-for-four shooting night. Programs like Wisconsin, who were finalists in Walker’s recruiting, are already touting the possibility that he might reconsider now for the Big Ten school.
Catching up on the March NKSHOF inductees
Sorry we missed it last week when the March inductions for the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame came at the exact same time as the opening game of the Boys’ State High School Basketball Tournament in Lexington. But we need to return to the five newest HOF members. Here they are:
• Joe ‘Bones” Egan: “Bones” is a familiar figure now as the director of operations for the Bellevue High football team. But he made his athletic bones as a basketball player for the Tigers as one of the few who played in the last game at the old gym and in the first game at the new Ben Flora Gym as a 1972 grad, playing for both John Gross and Gary Akers.
He then served as the president of the Bellevue Boosters Club from 1981-88 and a member of the Board of Education for 20 years and an athletic mentor for Bellevue athletes for more than 40 years, buying dinner – or equipment — when a young athlete might need it. Already in the Bellevue High HOF and the Northern Kentucky Athletic Directors’ HOF, the man they call “Mr. Tiger” says he’ll keep doing this – including taking the team uniforms home and laundering them – as long as he’s able.
• Graham Taylor: The 2002 Dixie Heights alum is inducted for both baseball and basketball but it’s clear baseball was the sport for the pitcher/first baseman. From team captain at Dixie with a 1.41 ERA with his jersey retired there, he went on to Miami of Ohio where he was named a freshman All-American and over three years there, earned almost every honor the Mid-American Conference offers for career pitching.
A 10th-round pick by the Miami Marlins in the MLB Draft, Graham was Player of the Year in the NY-Penn League a three-time minor league pitcher of the month and four-time minor league all-star and Marlins’ minor league player of the year going on to make his major league debut in April of 2009 against Philadelphia.
• Ken Lehkamp: As much success as Ken Lehkamp had as an athlete at both Highlands and UK, where he was a starting pitcher for both, or as he had in his successful baseball coaching stint at his high school alma mater for 18 years or the 18 years previously when he coached both baseball and basketball at Campbell County High School, that’s not always what people first recall about his athletic career.
Nope, Ken was also famously the basketball manager for Adolph Rupp at UK, traveling on that old DC-3 charter to games all over the SEC in a position that became seriously important for the UK program. So impactful was Ken in his work, he was awarded season tickets – 11 rows from the floor — to all UK home games.
• Kristen Noakes Bayles: A former Dixie Heights and NKU athlete, Kristen earned 15 varsity letter at Dixie in four sports – track, soccer, basketball and softball – in an amazing high school career that saw her score 85 goals with 41 assists in her soccer career while scoring 2,064 points and setting numerous records in her high school basketball career.
At NKU, the 1999 Dixie grad helped lead the Norse to three Final Four trips in basketball while traveling to France and Germany with NKU teams. Her honors in both sports are almost too many to mention but after college Kristen added another sport – marathon running – where she’s completed nine all over the nation – including most famously — Boston.
• Mike Nolan: The 1971 Newport Central Catholic grad earned 10 varsity letters in four sports in high school – football, baseball, track and wrestling – but no question which was his first love. Wrestling in the tough GCL in Cincinnati, NewCath’s league at the time, Mike finished an incredible 60-3 in his high school career as he moved up in weight class each year while winning state championships in Kentucky in 1969 and 1971 and earning the Most Outstanding Wrestler in the 1971 Kentucky state championships.
Named to the NewCath Hall of Fame in 2009, Mike was only the second wrestler so honored. He followed his wrestling career playing on some of the top softball teams in Greater Cincinnati.
Baseball Coaches’ HOF fame . . . some thoughts
We noted recently about the first class that will be inducted May 26 into the first-ever Northern Kentucky Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame. It’s both a terrific group and a great idea.
Here’s that 16-person original class: Tom Ries – Newport, Stan Arnzen – Newport, Jim Connor – Newport / NewCath, Frank Pangallo – NewCath, Bob Barton , Holmes, Gary Sargent – Holmes, Jim Caldwell – NewCath, Leo Groeschen – NewCath, Jim Cutter – Newport, Chris Hook – Lloyd, Brandon Berger – Beechwood, Ray Brown – Newport, Grady Brown – Newport, Leo Foster – Holmes, Chris Curley – Beechwood, Bill Krumpelbeck – Covington Catholic.
To that class, we’d suggest Jon Draud, whose 1963 Holmes team was the lone Kentucky state baseball champ from Northern Kentucky in 46 years before Jon went on to a career as a principal, superintendent, state representative, Kenton County commissioner and Kentucky Commissioner of Education. But coaching a state championship team from Northern Kentucky, considering there has been just one in the last 62 years since then, would seem to us to be an automatic qualifier.
Also we think they need to add Jeoff Long, the Lloyd Memorial alum who was in that same MLB “bonus baby” class with Bob Barton in 1959 who didn’t let serious arm and knee injuries to keep him from making it to the major leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals at the age of 21 and then the Chicago White Sox.
Also we’d like to see the coaches clear up how to consider players like Jim Bunning, Northern Kentucky’s lone member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, who grew up in Southgate but played baseball at St. Xavier High when it was in downtown Cincinnati. Might be a good idea to consider the former US Senator Bunning for a place there, as well.