U of L men's coach coined this term, microwave society, recently. He was trying to explain that in today's world, what you do right now will be old news by.....tonight! We live in such an instant gratification society that few people get the respect or recognition they have earned over a long period of time. Many people forget history.
How many times have we heard at HHS that this is the "first time in school history"? I know I have been guilty of it, but there are a couple things wrong with this, most people don't know the full history of HHS because they are unaware, or it hasn't been written down somewhere for us to access. Some things are easy like first basketball sectional title (94 girls), first boys' and baseball title (99), first boys' basketball sectional title (04), those are easy. But what about some of the teams and players that came before us? I will use basketball as an example because I know about as much about it as anything, but I don't know everything.
Henryville is one of the few schools with undefeated regular seasons. In 1945 and 1946, the Hornets won 38 consecutive regular season games being defeated both years in the first game of the sectional. I need to research the '47 season to see how many they may have won in a row during that stretch.
How many can name more than 4 coaches from HHS? Most get me, Jack Brooks, John Bradley and Herman Furnish because they are the most recent and who the gym is named after, but after than unless you played for them, you can't name a few others. Kermit Spurgeon was not a coach, but a player. I am sure someone can tell me the significance of why the gym was named after him.
Herman Furnish won 160 games at Henryville. But did you know that in 1941, he coached the first half of the season at Borden before moving to Henryville to finish out the year? Coach Jim Huter had an impressive run at HHS with his best record occurring in 1963 at 19-3 and one of the few conference championships ever at HHS with the Dixie Athletic Conference. But Coach Huter left HHS with 103 wins and went on to win 2 state Kentucky state championships in basketball at Male High School in Louisville.
Wes Porter coached here then moved on to Borden where in 1980 he had a really good team that almost beat Floyd Central in the one class sectional. Phil Schroer coached at HHS then moved on to Providence H.S. and then to Arizona where he has been inducted into the Arizona athletic hall of fame.
Denny Doutaz and Dennis Holt did good jobs at HHS then went on to build programs who after they left became really good; Doutaz at Forest Park and Holt at Paoli. Terry Rademacher led the Borden girls' program to multiple sectional championships. John Laskowski's brother Tom was one of the first recruits for Bob Knight at IU. John Bradley has successfully guided the rocky path to coach long tenures at rivals HHS and Silver Creek, and Jack Brooks was the first (if I am correct here) HHS alumnae/basketball player to come back and coach his alma mater leading the Hornets to their first sectional victory in 2004.
Player wise, Ralph Guthrie is considered to be one of the best players ever at HHS. He went to IU and played on the freshman team and was told he would have a spot on the varsity by Branch McCracken but came home to Henryville. Shane Meadows is the all-time leading scorer, before him was Greg Robertson. Before him for many years was McKee Munk.
McKee Munk has driven the bus for many years and hasn't missed too many games since his playing days. McKee is the grandfather of recent players Cody and Cory Munk and the father of the 70's great Jay Munk. McKee's father played at HHS also making Cory and Cody a rarity at any school. They were 4th generation basketball players for the same school of the same gender.
My favorite players growing up were Roger and Robin Embry. Roger because of the triple-doubles and Robin because of the swagger. They played during a resurgence of basketball at HHS. In 1980, HHS won two sectional games and were the first games they had won in the postseason since 1963. In 1981, they lead HHS to a regular season record of 17-3 and lost in the first round at Madison to Madison in overtime. Then in '82, Robin's senior year team made it to the sectional championship before bowing to Silver Creek. Take in the '84 team who had Jack Brooks and my '88 team who beat Borden, and we won about as many sectional games in that decade as any other decade during the 1 class era.
I looked at the pictures that I have one time and found only one season in which there wasn't one player from the previous season on the next season's team. Meaning that other than that one year, you can look at a team's seniors and they have played with the seniors 3 years previous. There is a line that runs from each class that is unbroken except that one time all the way back to 1938, I believe.
So, it is important, and I don't know if it is because I am a history teacher, to remember the past. The HHS basketball program was here before us, it has had it's periods of success and failures, but each person, each team worked to be the very best they could be.
There are many more stories for boys' basketball, but each sport has it's own rich history. If you would ever love to write them down and send them to me, please do not hesitate, they will be taken care of and kept for future generations.
