Editor's note: This column first appeared in KyForward.com. I don’t bleed much, but when I do, I bleed maroon. I’m an Eastern Kentucky University Colonels men’s basketball fan, and it started way back in 1971 as a freshman student at the school.
Sports is an interest of mine, but more accurately, I follow a few specific teams and when any of those teams lose and are out of the post-season mix, I lose interest in any other games. I like the Cincinnati Reds and Bengals; I hope that UK athletic teams win, and I root pretty hard for EKU football, too.
That said, closest to my heart, by far, is the EKU men’s hoops teams I’ve been behind for almost five decades. Yep, I bleed maroon in a demonstrably emotional way—and I’m normally not demonstrably emotional.
The current team, under the helm of A.W. Hamilton in his third season, is one of my all-time favorites. A big reason IS the coach. A.W.’s guys play fast and extremely hard, and A.W. is a player’s coach—and a fan’s coach, too. But mostly he’s the kind of guy you like because he is a truly personable type who is in love with the words “thank you” and who is infectiously positive. And as far as I can see, he’s that way with all around him—high profile types, common folk and all between. As he is energizing to others, it seems to energize him as well. Predictably, he has a wonderful family with a wife who is also positive and three lovely children—all a credit to the school and the Richmond community. More later about his team.
While growing up, I figured there was only one real college team to follow, and that was the UK Wildcats. The influence came from my dad and Uncle Donnie, I guess, who I often heard talking about the subject. I listened to the Cats in the 1960s on the family’s clock radio while lying in bed at night. I loved hearing names called by announcer Cawood Ledford such as Cotton Nash and Randy Embry, then in later years Pat Riley, Louie Dampier and Dan Issel. I thought of them as heroic people. Problem was, I often fell asleep and woke up with something feeling awfully warm beside me—the clock radio. It’s a wonder a certain little boy didn‘t die in a horrible fire because of a bad case of Wildcat fever.
In the summer of ’71, I participated in an orientation program at EKU before starting freshman classes for the fall semester. Part of the activities was a trip over to McBrayer Arena to see a showcasing of Coach Guy Strong and his Colonels hoopsters. Frankly, I was not particularly interested at first, as I had the notion it was probably an inferior brand of basketball, and in choosing EKU as my college choice, something I’d have to accept as part of the deal.
But on that day, I saw a fast-breaking team with skills and in talking to others about the previous year’s record, I found out that they nearly beat powerful Western Kentucky at Richmond, a Hilltopper team that later beat UK in the NCAA tournament. That got my interest, and when the new season started, I was in the stands watching my new (and forever) team . . .and have stayed there ever since. In fact, though I still followed UK, EKU’s program became more important to me, and in doing so, it felt natural. I watched them be a part of a three-way tie for the Ohio Valley Conference championship in the ’71-’72 season and won the playoff at Frankfort to go to the NCAA tourney. They lost a close game in the opener to Florida State University; FSU advanced and lost to the vaunted UCLA in the finals. I was now a Colonel fan with a small taste of success!
A few years later while still an EKU student, I served as a staff member of the school’s weekly newspaper, the Eastern Progress. Through that association, I joined the Colonels’ volunteer basketball statisticians crew for home basketball games under the tutelage of Karl Park, the sports information director, for whom I owe a lot for his patient mentoring. I continued the association, with a few interruptions, for about a dozen years, well after graduating. Recording what was happening ringside on the court was often stressful, but it was also joyful (plus, I got in the games free and enjoyed a free hot dog and Coke at half-time).
As a stats crew member, I recall a few especially memorable occurrences. In the 1978-79 OVC Championship game at Richmond, WKU was leading by one when a foul was called on the Hilltoppers with the clock showing no time left. However, the referees and timekeeper did not hear the buzzer go off because of crowd noise. EKU made two free throws and was declared the winner, even though the film later showed that the foul took place three and a half seconds after the buzzer. The loss was appealed to the OVC commissioner by Western but was turned down. It was a gut-wrenching loss for them, and I understood their sense of grievance. However, I recall that a well-defined rule mechanism for such didn’t exist in those days but does now. Film used for making official decisions today is used in almost all games, and maybe the EKU-WKU game moved that along.
On another occasion while working stats, a rival game got particularly heated. I saw Morehead and EKU assistant coaches become irate with each other and they nearly squared off. My other notable remembrance is when ESPN came to McBrayer to televise a game. I was asked to wear an ESPN headset to relay TV timeout messages to the game’s referees. I like to mention to people that I once worked for ESPN (though I didn’t get paid). I finally moved on from working with the stats crew in the mid-1980s, and I could concentrate on simply being a fan. There was more than one single-digit win season, but there would be more OVC championships, too—with no controversy as in ’79. In the 2004-05 tournament, Travis Ford’s team beat Austin Peay in the finals to make the NCAA tourney. Their reward was a first-round game with UK, with EKU losing to them by only 8 but playing even in points the second half. In 2006-07 with coach Jeff Neubauer, EKU again beat Austin Peay in the finals and played mighty North Carolina for their opener, losing 86-65. In the 2013-14 season, Neubauer’s Colonels scored a victory over Belmont in the conference finals and were defeated by powerful Kansas, 80-69 but made a run at the Jayhawks late. Altogether, I’ve seen EKU make the “Big Dance” five times.
Here are some random thoughts as a member of Maroon Nation:
• Greg Stotelmyer, the radio “Voice of the Colonels” for over four decades, has become for me and many others like Marty Brennaman was for the Cincinnati Reds—a familiar and trustworthy voice who obviously cared for his team, yet honest in his appraisals of what happened during games. I also appreciate the astute commentary that color man sidekick Doug Sallee supplies.
• I have a closet in my bedroom dedicated to mostly maroon attire I wear on game days.
• I figure I’ve logged over 40,000 miles driving to home games over the years.
• I still check on UK to see how they’re doing in their games, but only after exhausting all information, I can find on the Colonels first.
• For about half of the games I’ve attended, my stepson Ramon has been sitting beside me. Colonel time has helped bond our relationship.
• My favorite Colonels? Probably Corey Walden, Nick Mayo, and current player Michael Moreno. I love the way Moreno carries himself as an individual—classy—along with his wonderful three-point shot (along with another wonderful 4-point grade average in class). My favorite coach . . .if you guessed Mr. Hamilton, you’d be correct. As I write, I’m still a little sad after the Colonels lost a squeaker to Morehead State in the OVC semifinals. One night later, MSU defeated Belmont handily to gain the automatic berth in the NCAA tourney. But a 22-7 season and fifteen conference victories have made it a banner season, nonetheless. Excited, too, in knowing that most of the team’s players are back for next season, ready to tackle their first go-around in the ASUN conference, a recent development.
And if I’m still around, I’ll be right there with them. GoBigE!
Steve Flairty is a teacher, public speaker and an author of seven books: a biography of Kentucky Afield host Tim Farmer and six in the Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes series, including a kids’ version. Steve’s “Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes #5,” was released in 2019. Steve is a senior correspondent for Kentucky Monthly, a weekly KyForward and NKyTribune columnist and a former member of the Kentucky Humanities Council Speakers Bureau. Contact him at sflairty2001@yahoo.com or visit his Facebook page, “Kentucky in Common: Word Sketches in Tribute.”
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