Episode 52 Jerry Ormes

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Welcome to episode 52 of the podcast. My guest is Jerry Orms,
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who served as a basketball official before serving as a head coach of the St.
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Patrick Lady Saints and an assistant coach for the Mason County Lady Royals.
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And he did a whole lot other than coaching, but that's kind of the start here.
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Jerry, thanks for joining us.
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Well, thank you, Danny. I appreciate you inviting me to come to do this.
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I've listened to several of your podcasts and I'm just at all some of the interesting
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things that people have in their lifetime. time.
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And it's really good. And I appreciate you coming and asked me to do this.
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Let's go back to the 50s. What was it like growing up in Maysville? Big family.
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Your brother, Bobby, was a star on the Maysville State Championship and runner-up
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team. Just take us back to that era.
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Well, back then, you know, in the 50s, you know, I was a young boy.
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And I started school down at the 1st District, school down on West 2nd Street,
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and moved from there up to the Maysville, at that time, Maysville High School.
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But my brother playing basketball, I have vague memories of him because of my age.
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Now, my parents was always going to the games, and Paris, Inez,
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was a big rivalry for them.
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My father always told me a story about Maysville when they were in the district
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tournament, and they were going to play, and everybody wanted tickets to go see them play.
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And so they said, okay, we're going to line up out in front of the Maysville gym and you go inside.
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Everybody goes inside.
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And as you go out, you'll file out and you'll buy your ticket.
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So then, you know, so it got to where the crowd, the gym was loaded with people.
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And all of a sudden, somebody said that they're running out of tickets. Wow.
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My father said it was like a stampede. People were going down,
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you know, trying to get their tickets.
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It was crazy, you know, how people did back in those days. But it was kind of funny.
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You know, you'd go to a basketball game back then, and people were smoking a lot.
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They'd be right out in the lobby smoking, and the basketball players would come
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running out from the locker room through the cloud of blue smoke from everybody smoking out there.
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And, uh, but it was, it was really, uh, you know, I guess you could think of that.
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If you've seen the movie of Hoosers, it's exactly what it was like.
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It was, it was kind of a neat place to be in.
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And, and, uh, my brother, he was, uh, I think he was an eighth grader when they
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won the state tournament from Burr.
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And then he was a freshman when they were runner up to Burr the very next year.
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So, uh, he got to play a lot of basketball with a lot of good boys,
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George Cook. I couldn't, Gus Sturgis and some of those, the Ryan boys,
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there were a couple of Ryan boys that played on the team with them. I remember their names.
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But it was fun. It was a fun time.
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Well, I got out the old newspapers and I dug around some. In 1958,
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your boys' club team beat Maysville Junior High 64-49. You had a 24-point game.
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It was crazy, Danny.
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I mean, Woody Crown became the new coach, and I went out for the basketball
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team myself, and a couple of the other boys went out for the team.
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They cut us. We didn't get to play. So we were playing. We just would play around
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at the boys' club like normal kids do.
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And we got up a team. There was myself, Dave Clark, Larry Case, Gary Hook.
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So we all decided, let's play. So we entertained the idea. We played the Maysville team.
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And when we went down, and I don't know, I think a team was coming out from
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the mountains that didn't bring their JV. So they entertained us to play them, so we did.
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It was a lot of fun to get down there to play, you know, and kind of shove it
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in Woody Crumb's face that he didn't keep us to play on his team.
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But Woody did a good job with the guys.
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You know, we had several, Larry Jacobs and Darrell Gill, both of those boys
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played and were successful in playing basketball.
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So I'm sure Woody did the right thing, but at the time, you know, It didn't go well for us.
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Yeah, I found a summer league, which Woody ran.
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You were on the Outlaws and listened to these teammates, Dwight Murphy,
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George Green, others in the league, Robert Alexander, Daryl Hill,
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Dwayne Ferris, George Davis, many of those guys I've recorded episodes with.
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But really, the talent pool throughout Maysville's time, especially there in the late 50s, early 60s.
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Yeah, you know, I mean, you just mentioned off players
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players who could play for any team in the state of
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Kentucky and and Darrell Hill you know he went
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to play at the University of Kentucky for a while played on the freshman team
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at that time so uh uh George Davis Dwight Murphy Dwight Murphy not only was
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a good basketball player he was a excellent baseball player yeah matter of fact
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I think maybe that could have been his popular Their sport was baseball.
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He was a kid that was fast, and I think he pitched some.
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So, yeah, those were good names and good players for Maysville.
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Another boys' club game, and the newspapers really covered all kinds of sports.
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1960, your Hawks beat the Warriors 69-51. You had 28 points.
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This was a championship game.
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T.A. Porter with 23. Oh, my gosh.
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That's something I had never even thought about, Danny.
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But it was fun to play with these guys because, you know, we had nothing but
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to play for the boys' club. That's all.
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It wasn't like the fans from Maysville behind them.
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We were just a bunch of group of guys that loved to play the sport,
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and that's what we wanted to do.
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And I can't remember the guys on the team, but I know that we had a really good team.
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And matter of fact, we even went to—they had a tournament for all the boys'
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club in the state of Kentucky, and it was held in Louisville.
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And we got up there. They invited us to gun, and we went up there,
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and we played up there. We won a couple, two or three games up there,
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but those inner city kids, man, they were just big and tall and fast.
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But we did quite well for ourselves at the time we went to Louisville that one
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time. Yep. Who were your coaches at the boys' club?
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Danny, for the life of me, you know, it seemed like to me Earl Holland was with us.
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Jack, there was a Jack Manley, maybe.
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Danny, it's 60, 70 years ago. I'm sorry. That's all right. But somebody who
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cared about kids and wanted to keep us off the streets. Right.
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And that's what it was all about, you know, keeping us off the streets, keeping us occupied.
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Anytime kids can play sports or any something, organize whatever,
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it's best for them to keep them involved in something.
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I know that sometimes the parents really get out of whack because they've got
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to take them here or take them there.
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But I don't think there's any regrets that parents keeping their kids involved
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always did a good job for the kids and the parents.
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And then the band and the chorus, your Allstate Chorus. I did. I did.
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Once I saw that Woody Crum didn't want me anymore, Don K.
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Ferris had a tryout, and I went and I tried out, and I started playing the drums. and.
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Stood there and beat around on the pad for a period of time to see if I had
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rhythm and then from there we started going to the band and had a really good time.
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John K. Ferris was just an exceptional
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music director and you know Maysville you know they had John K.
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Ferris and then they had Miss Denny as music.
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And their choir, Maysville's choir, always was good.
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I was fortunate enough to go to the Kentucky State All Chorus in Lexington.
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We sang in the Memorial Coliseum for two or three days, a couple of days up there.
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And so it was a good experience for me to be down there at Maysville.
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And like I said, it kept me occupied.
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And that's the most important thing. One of the guys in your drum quartet is
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a guy I had on an episode a few months ago, maybe a year ago now, Ernie Robbins.
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Ernie was a good guy. You know, he came behind me, and there was Ernie and myself
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and a girl named Molly Cablish.
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Well, bless her heart, Molly always took the blunt of all the things that young
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boys do to girls in school, but she was a good sport about it.
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And then there was one more, Whitlow White, I think was his name,
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and his father was a drummer.
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His father played in a little combo band here around Maysville and around the
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community, and Whitlow picked it up from him.
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So we had a really good drum quartet, I guess you could say.
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And then when all of a sudden, we got tempesty drums to put in there,
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and you had to tune them as you played them.
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Well, you know, as drummers, we don't know tunes. All we know is rhythm.
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So it was a hard learning experience to play on the tempesty drums.
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But we made it through there. It was fun.
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Band was good. John K. Ferris was good.
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And then, you know, back in the 90s, they had a recall of everybody wanting to come to play.
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And we had several practices, and it was good to see all the classmates again.
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And it was fun. The band was really, really good to me. Did you play in a pep band?
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At that time, there was no pep band.
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You know, he tried to get us to march, to learn to march and play,
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Because at that time, the band didn't do that, you know, from parades and whatever.
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And we got out and at that time, the board of ed office down there was just
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a playground. It wasn't there anymore.
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So we would get out there and practice in the gravel and try to,
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he tried to get us to march.
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But we never did a very good job playing and marching at the same time.
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We were judged like a concert. Yeah.
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Now, did you go to the state tournament those years Maysville went? I did. I did, Danny.
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I distinctly remember going, I guess it was my senior year, and we went up there,
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and there was five or six of those boys all got together.
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And we went up there, and we stayed in a hotel room.
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Of course, only one person signed up, but five other ones were all within the
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room together and filed in there.
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And it was a lot of fun. And I remember going to the game, and,
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of course, they were at the Memorial Coliseum.
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And the game that I distinctly remember was that Dunbar, which at that time
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was an all-black school in Lexington, and they were playing Ashen.
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And Sid Mead was the official.
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And I see you chuckling, so you know where I'm going with Sid Mead.
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Bless his heart, if everyone was a little biased, Sid was that way,
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and Dunbar was an excellent team.
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And, of course, Ashland, you know, they had Sargent and those boys on there, but Larry Conley.
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Sid made sure that Ashland won the team, and it was pretty obvious.
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And there were a lot of disgruntled people about the way that Sid represented that dog.
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That's a well-documented game. Now, here's an interesting tidbit I found. You were also a dancer.
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1960s psychop at the Maysville Gym. You were second in slow dance,
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first in fast dance. Now, your kids may get a kick out of that. Yeah, it was.
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I tell my kids all the time how good of a dancer I was, and they didn't believe
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it. I thought that might be a mistake.
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Yeah, you know, we used to go. It was called the Teen Canteen at the Boys Club.
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And every Saturday night, man, you know, I started like at eight o'clock at
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night and six o'clock, everybody was getting ready to go.
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It was fun. And we'd go up there and it's just like something you'd see in the movie.
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The girls would stand on one end. The boys would stand on the other,
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unless you were fortunate enough to take a day to the thing.
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And Don Howes was the disc jockey and he would play, you know.
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And you'd go and you'd find somebody and dance with them, go pick and walk across
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the gym floor and find somebody and dance with them.
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But one of the probably, I think, one of the probably the best dancers that
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I had to dance with was Judy Hall.
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She was probably 5'9", 5'10", big, tall girl, but she surely had rhythm,
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and Judy and I danced a lot together.
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And there was another boy in my class, Charlie Bowden, who lived down there
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across from the Maysville gym.
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And he also was a good dancer. So on some of these fast dances,
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you know, it was either Charlie or myself was going over to get Judy.
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And then the slow dances, well, when you got to the slow dances,
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you were a little selective on who you wanted to dance with.
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You know, you're trying to make some headway maybe with one of the girls.
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But, yeah, and they would have contests, and I won a few of them.
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And, of course, the reward was you'd get a certificate for bizotis or fresh
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as a big boy or, you know, something such as that. It wasn't anything that,
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but it was food, and that's what young kids like is food.
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So we would win some kind of certificate for that each time.
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So it was fun. It was a good time in life. It was a good time.
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And then off to college, Moorhead State and Lindsey Wilson. Yep.
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Myself and Donnie Tucker and Jimmy Brothers, we were just average students,
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and we wanted to go to college.
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And we decided to go down to Lindsay Wilson, which is down in Columbia, Kentucky.
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And none of the three of us had a car. So our parents brought us down.
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And at that time, Lindsay Wilson was starting to grow.
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And when we got down there to sign in, they didn't have any rooms in a dorm.
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So there was, I guess, a maintenance house that they had turned into.
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It's a type of a place where you can house kids. So that's what they put us
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in. They put us in a house.
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And we kind of stayed off campus and lived in that house over there.
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And I went out for the basketball team, and I played on the freshman team for Nancy Wilson.
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And matter of fact, we even went to UK and played the UK freshman team.
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Daryl Hill was there playing there. So I got to play against him.
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And then at the second semester.
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Donnie Tucker and Jimmy Brothers didn't like it because they were too far away
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from home, and it didn't seem to bother me. So they left, and I finished out the year there,
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All the rest of my buddies were at Moorhead, and they wanted me to come up there.
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So I went up there and spent a year up at Moorhead, and I stayed there.
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And at that time, Danny, the Vietnam War was starting to come on,
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and so we were a little concerned about being drafted.
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So I dropped out of school, and I joined the Army Reserves out here,
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and I stayed in there for six years. in 63.
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I joined in 63 and stayed in there for six years in 69.
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Ronnie Ryan, what was the captain of the outfit out there.
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So, and also at that time, I was starting to get serious about with my wife. So we had plans.
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And I was working for Parker. I got to work for Parker, especially in the wintertime.
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Jimmy Brothers, again, who was one of my best friends. We grew up together.
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And his father was a vice president up there.
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So we got together, and they got me to come up there to work up there.
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And I would work up there at the beginning of the season, and I would stay to the very end.
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And then Sharon's father was a brick mason, and I would go and I would work
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for them during the summer months for a while.
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And then finally, I got back on again at Parker's in the winter,
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and then they told me they wanted to keep me.
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And so that's kind of how my extent with Parker's got is that I got to stay
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there and work during the summer months in the storage houses,
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whether the barrels were at the back of a store,
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and that's kind of how we worked during the summer months.
00:17:47.770 --> 00:17:52.230
Did you travel with Parker? Yeah, well, not in the beginning I didn't,
00:17:52.310 --> 00:17:57.210
but then, Danny, as time went on, I kept progressing with Parker.
00:17:59.210 --> 00:18:05.210
And, you know, working and traveling, I always tell everybody,
00:18:05.210 --> 00:18:08.270
it was like being a migrant worker, Danny,
00:18:08.850 --> 00:18:13.670
as the tobacco people are, because you would always follow the crops the same
00:18:13.670 --> 00:18:18.170
way as the Mexicans would. And, you know, they'd be in Michigan with apples.
00:18:18.350 --> 00:18:22.350
They'd come to Kentucky for the tobacco, and then they'd go to Florida for the oranges.
00:18:22.550 --> 00:18:26.770
That's kind of followed the props. And that's kind of how the tobacco industry
00:18:26.770 --> 00:18:29.790
was for a lot of people. Yes, I started traveling.
00:18:30.390 --> 00:18:35.970
My first time, I went to Lake City, South Carolina, and I worked in a factory down there.
00:18:36.290 --> 00:18:42.850
I probably had 100 women that I was working down there, ladies in the factory with the tobacco.
00:18:43.210 --> 00:18:48.790
It was funny. The first year I went down there doing that, we got to sit with
00:18:48.790 --> 00:18:53.570
the plant supervisor, and he told us, he said, now, we don't want any of the
00:18:53.570 --> 00:18:56.510
women talking to one another, because if they're talking,
00:18:56.750 --> 00:18:58.950
they're not paying attention about picking tobacco.
00:18:59.170 --> 00:19:03.170
They were picking out the inferior tobacco going across the conveyor.
00:19:03.710 --> 00:19:09.590
So we got, and he said, if you catch them, fire them. Send them right out.
00:19:10.530 --> 00:19:14.930
And the thing was, Danny, so you'd take the lady and you'd fire and you'd carry
00:19:14.930 --> 00:19:16.090
it, take her to the front door.
00:19:16.510 --> 00:19:21.070
And there were 15 standing ready to come back in to take their place.
00:19:21.450 --> 00:19:25.590
And the funny thing was that there were a couple of times that I would fire a woman.
00:19:26.850 --> 00:19:32.290
And all of a sudden that afternoon, she'd come back with the plant supervisor again.
00:19:32.510 --> 00:19:36.170
And he would come in. He'd say, Jared, you fire her? I said, yeah.
00:19:36.590 --> 00:19:40.490
She was conversing with some of the other women. He said, well,
00:19:40.670 --> 00:19:43.150
and we'd step off to the side.
00:19:43.250 --> 00:19:47.050
He said, well, this company that you're working for owns a finance company.
00:19:48.068 --> 00:19:53.828
And these people borrow money from them. So we got to keep them working so they'll
00:19:53.828 --> 00:19:55.548
pay off their finance notes.
00:19:55.688 --> 00:19:58.928
So I said, okay, whatever, you know, bring her back in.
00:19:59.048 --> 00:20:02.168
I'd bring her in and, you know, put her doing something back in there.
00:20:02.248 --> 00:20:06.808
But that was kind of funny that they did things like that. But we stayed there
00:20:06.808 --> 00:20:08.948
for a couple of years to Lake City, South Carolina.
00:20:09.248 --> 00:20:13.828
And then from there, I became a tobacco buyer for Parker.
00:20:13.828 --> 00:20:23.028
And then what Parkers would do is that they would go to a company in the South,
00:20:23.148 --> 00:20:25.648
and they would hire us out.
00:20:25.948 --> 00:20:31.288
In other words, they would tell the company, you have to pay Jerry so much money.
00:20:31.848 --> 00:20:38.128
And I would continue getting my salary from Parker, and they would negotiate
00:20:38.128 --> 00:20:41.188
my salary for me working down there.
00:20:42.428 --> 00:20:45.848
Started off going down to in Valdosta, Georgia.
00:20:46.328 --> 00:20:52.048
I was in Valdosta, Tifton, Thomasville, Moultrie, all over the south.
00:20:52.928 --> 00:20:59.048
And it got to all of a sudden, you know, here came Abby, my first child.
00:20:59.268 --> 00:21:03.988
And we decided, and Sharon had been working at Browning's,
00:21:04.108 --> 00:21:07.108
and when she had Abby, she quit
00:21:07.108 --> 00:21:10.328
working so we decided that they
00:21:10.328 --> 00:21:13.108
were going to go with me and and uh
00:21:13.108 --> 00:21:15.868
danny we'd load up our car you just
00:21:15.868 --> 00:21:19.308
can't imagine what because we would leave in july and
00:21:19.308 --> 00:21:25.008
wouldn't come home to november so you had to take clothes uh for the whole season
00:21:25.008 --> 00:21:31.008
and and uh at that time you had to take toys for abby and things such as that
00:21:31.008 --> 00:21:36.428
so my car we would look like the clamp that's going down the interstate It was funny,
00:21:36.808 --> 00:21:40.288
a story I just had bought where I had.
00:21:41.181 --> 00:21:46.541
I bought a car. It was three years old, and I bought it from Franklin D. Franklin.
00:21:46.781 --> 00:21:51.821
It was a big old Oldsmobile, and we were going down the highway,
00:21:51.821 --> 00:21:56.821
and I had Abby with us and Sharon, and all of a sudden, I noticed my car was
00:21:56.821 --> 00:21:58.861
acting up. I thought, what in the world is going on?
00:21:59.361 --> 00:22:04.041
So I pulled off and I looked and raised the hood, but I didn't know anything. I'm not a mechanic.
00:22:04.221 --> 00:22:09.041
So I raised the hood, but you could see some oil starting to seep out, and I thought, oh, Lord.
00:22:09.781 --> 00:22:14.741
So when I put it in drive, it wouldn't hardly go. So I knew it was a transmission.
00:22:15.541 --> 00:22:21.441
So I called an Amco dealership there in Macon, and they said,
00:22:21.601 --> 00:22:23.161
well, yeah, this is what you want to do.
00:22:23.281 --> 00:22:28.961
You want to fill it up with as much transmission fluid as you can, and this is our address.
00:22:29.481 --> 00:22:37.341
So I did that. I did that, and we limped into Macon.
00:22:38.281 --> 00:22:45.221
And we got there, and it must have been 100 degrees down there that way.
00:22:45.401 --> 00:22:50.801
And we got in there, and Sharon and Abby was in the waiting room,
00:22:50.801 --> 00:22:53.761
and I was kind of milling around with the mechanic out there,
00:22:53.801 --> 00:22:57.981
and they finally got it in. Oh, no, I beg your pardon.
00:22:58.201 --> 00:23:02.101
They said, okay, this is what you have of transmission. It's gone.
00:23:02.421 --> 00:23:08.441
So you could pay $450 and it'd be guaranteed for six months.
00:23:09.081 --> 00:23:14.941
Or you can pay $600 and you're guaranteed for as long as you own the car.
00:23:15.401 --> 00:23:22.381
I said, okay, that sounds like a deal to me. So they put in the new transmission.
00:23:23.341 --> 00:23:28.161
And so I went to pay and I got out my visa card and they said,
00:23:28.241 --> 00:23:29.741
oh, I'm sorry, we don't talk visas.
00:23:31.369 --> 00:23:36.669
Okay. So I said, Sharon, just write him a check. And they said, I'm sorry.
00:23:37.869 --> 00:23:42.609
And I said, sir, I think we've got a problem here. I said, I've tried to pay
00:23:42.609 --> 00:23:43.669
you two different times.
00:23:44.429 --> 00:23:49.009
You've got the transmission in my car. So what are we going to do here?
00:23:49.069 --> 00:23:52.249
And he said, well, do you have anything else? You have any cash?
00:23:52.609 --> 00:23:57.529
Quite honestly, I did. I had about $700, $800 because to go down there,
00:23:57.729 --> 00:24:01.049
you've got to start paying rent as soon as you get there and buy groceries.
00:24:01.049 --> 00:24:04.889
You know, got to live for a couple of weeks until you start getting some money
00:24:04.889 --> 00:24:06.029
coming in from the company.
00:24:06.509 --> 00:24:09.349
So I said, no, I don't have that much money.
00:24:09.949 --> 00:24:12.749
So then I said, they said, well, what about your bank? I said,
00:24:12.849 --> 00:24:16.769
well, let me check. So I called at that time the State National Bank.
00:24:17.369 --> 00:24:21.689
Curran McHugh was working there. And Curran had, I had dealt with him on some
00:24:21.689 --> 00:24:27.689
other previous business loans and stuff. So I called Curran and told him what
00:24:27.689 --> 00:24:30.849
the situation was. And he said, well, let me talk to this guy.
00:24:31.409 --> 00:24:36.189
So I put him on the phone. The guy said, yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay. Yes, sir.
00:24:36.649 --> 00:24:41.389
Thank you very much. And we hung up the phone. He said, well, you're ready to go.
00:24:41.569 --> 00:24:44.789
Kern said he's going to send me a certified check.
00:24:45.369 --> 00:24:50.109
And I'm thinking, to this very day, do you think there is no way in God's green
00:24:50.109 --> 00:24:53.949
earth that a bank would do something like that? And I called Kern later.
00:24:54.189 --> 00:24:56.869
And he said, oh, don't worry about it, Jerry. He said, whenever you get back,
00:24:56.969 --> 00:24:58.329
you can pay me when we get back.
00:24:58.549 --> 00:25:03.949
I said, well, thank you so much. But it was really something that's how they operate.
00:25:04.509 --> 00:25:09.729
And so, you know, Abby and then Amy came along, and we were still going.
00:25:10.129 --> 00:25:17.029
And the way it worked, you go to Georgia about, oh, for five weeks or something.
00:25:17.109 --> 00:25:20.429
And that was always difficult to find a place to rent.
00:25:20.549 --> 00:25:23.269
Nobody wanted to rent your place for five weeks, you know.
00:25:23.489 --> 00:25:27.329
And again, we were like migrant workers, you know, in and out.
00:25:27.329 --> 00:25:33.649
So then from there, we would move up to the Carolinas, Greenville,
00:25:33.769 --> 00:25:37.329
South Carolina, Kenston, I mean, North Carolina, Kenston, North Carolina,
00:25:37.509 --> 00:25:41.269
Rocky Mount, just wherever they was going to place you.
00:25:41.769 --> 00:25:47.029
And that was called Eastern North Carolina for us. That's where they would put
00:25:47.029 --> 00:25:48.469
us up in Eastern North Carolina.
00:25:48.909 --> 00:25:52.249
And then it got to where Abby and Amy started in school.
00:25:52.909 --> 00:25:57.969
So Sharon decided to stay home with the kids. And so then, and there I was,
00:25:58.029 --> 00:26:02.869
you know, I was down with, uh, Bibby Green and myself and Jimmy Brothers and
00:26:02.869 --> 00:26:07.149
Jackie Sapp, Butch Bramwell, all the, all of us that were Parker boys.
00:26:07.609 --> 00:26:12.669
And, and we were, and we were all kind of scattered around with maybe a couple
00:26:12.669 --> 00:26:17.529
of us would be in one place, uh, Wilson, North Carolina. That was a big market.
00:26:18.676 --> 00:26:23.536
And there would be times like two of us would be in Wilson there working.
00:26:24.156 --> 00:26:31.356
But then we decided that we would drive home on the weekends and we would get finished.
00:26:32.256 --> 00:26:35.856
They sold four days a week, Monday through Thursday.
00:26:36.196 --> 00:26:40.596
And then late Thursday afternoon, after we got our work all fixed up,
00:26:40.616 --> 00:26:48.136
we would jump in a car and three or four of us would. and we would drive home at that time.
00:26:48.376 --> 00:26:52.276
You know, the West Virginia Turnpike wasn't open at the time,
00:26:52.296 --> 00:26:56.096
so we had to go through the mountains to West Virginia to get through there.
00:26:56.296 --> 00:27:03.116
And we would get home 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning and get to stay a day and
00:27:03.116 --> 00:27:07.816
a half, and then Sunday get back in the car and drive back down to the Carolinas.
00:27:08.336 --> 00:27:11.356
It was funny. When the turnpike opened up,
00:27:11.356 --> 00:27:19.296
There would always be some soldiers there hitchhiking at the time and trying
00:27:19.296 --> 00:27:23.676
to get back to Camp Lachoon, I think, down in North Carolina.
00:27:24.116 --> 00:27:26.796
The Marines. The Marines down there, and they would be there.
00:27:29.476 --> 00:27:32.756
We had room in the car. We would always pick up one of them.
00:27:34.656 --> 00:27:39.876
We would drive them to Wilson or Kinston or somewhere relatively close to where
00:27:39.876 --> 00:27:43.396
they were going. And, you know, they'd be with us the whole time and we enjoyed
00:27:43.396 --> 00:27:44.696
listening to their experiences.
00:27:45.036 --> 00:27:50.836
But, you know, nowadays you just can't do that. You just drive by and then think
00:27:50.836 --> 00:27:52.476
about what you used to do.
00:27:52.656 --> 00:27:57.156
You know, of course, everything's changed now, but we would do that for the guys.
00:27:57.496 --> 00:28:03.096
And then I got to where all of a sudden, come spring, we started,
00:28:03.436 --> 00:28:06.476
Parker's started raising tobacco in Honduras.
00:28:07.730 --> 00:28:11.570
And we needed some representatives down there.
00:28:11.750 --> 00:28:17.910
So myself and Jimmy Brothers would go down, maybe Bibby would go down, Bibby Green.
00:28:18.330 --> 00:28:21.890
And we would stay down there, gosh, a couple of months.
00:28:22.430 --> 00:28:28.990
Yeah. And then how it worked is that they would grow, the farmers would grow tobacco.
00:28:29.490 --> 00:28:33.390
We would loan the farmers money to grow the tobacco.
00:28:33.550 --> 00:28:38.950
They never had it, or to buy tractors, to buy equipment. and we would loan them that money.
00:28:39.250 --> 00:28:43.330
And then when they would grow their tobacco, they would bring it into a receiving
00:28:43.330 --> 00:28:47.430
station and we would grade it and look at it and accept it.
00:28:47.710 --> 00:28:52.190
And then we would take that and sell that tobacco.
00:28:52.390 --> 00:28:56.270
And that's how we got reimbursed. Those farmers, you know, wouldn't get as much
00:28:56.270 --> 00:29:02.710
money, but we were being paid back by the tobacco that they were bringing in. So that went on.
00:29:03.050 --> 00:29:08.550
Then we got to where we would go to Maryland. We went to Maryland on the tobacco market up there.
00:29:09.370 --> 00:29:13.950
It was up there. We would stay probably a month, a month and a half in Maryland.
00:29:15.310 --> 00:29:19.310
Then at that time, it was time to go back to come home. We'd stay a month,
00:29:19.410 --> 00:29:21.670
and then it was time to go back to the Carolinas again.
00:29:23.090 --> 00:29:28.750
And then we got to where we were buying tobacco for the Japanese,
00:29:30.370 --> 00:29:34.450
and I was kind of the representative for Parker's for the Japanese.
00:29:35.410 --> 00:29:38.830
We would process their tobacco. We would buy their tobacco, a lot of tobacco.
00:29:38.970 --> 00:29:40.630
They were a big customer to Clarkers.
00:29:41.170 --> 00:29:46.790
We would buy their tobacco and we would ship it, and everything had to be just
00:29:46.790 --> 00:29:51.490
perfect for the Japanese, more so than some of the other companies.
00:29:53.450 --> 00:29:57.650
And when we would process it, you know, they were there and they were watching
00:29:57.650 --> 00:30:00.430
us, and we would put it in wooden hogs,
00:30:01.527 --> 00:30:04.987
barrels wooden barrels and these barrels were
00:30:04.987 --> 00:30:08.507
made up of staves wooden staves and and
00:30:08.507 --> 00:30:11.447
if when you got ready to send it
00:30:11.447 --> 00:30:18.427
overseas to japan if any staves or slats of wood were broken we had to replace
00:30:18.427 --> 00:30:23.267
all of it you know you just couldn't it had to be perfect and then when they
00:30:23.267 --> 00:30:30.267
would get to the port in japan i would have to be there so i would have to travel to japan,
00:30:31.967 --> 00:30:34.627
And they would unload it off the ships.
00:30:36.587 --> 00:30:42.987
They would take random samples out of the barrels, and there would be five or six, seven guys,
00:30:43.967 --> 00:30:49.287
and they would take some tobacco out of the barrels, and we would go into like
00:30:49.287 --> 00:30:53.227
a little conference room, not much bigger than a walk-in closet,
00:30:53.427 --> 00:30:55.167
because it's right there on the port.
00:30:56.027 --> 00:31:00.227
And they had a little cigarette maker,
00:31:00.227 --> 00:31:02.947
and they would chop the vodka up and put it in
00:31:02.947 --> 00:31:08.207
like the old farmers used to do and roll one up and there was four or five of
00:31:08.207 --> 00:31:13.207
them on one side of the table and then myself and we always had an agent with
00:31:13.207 --> 00:31:17.807
those representatives and a translator he was a translator as well and they
00:31:17.807 --> 00:31:22.147
were on they were one side smoking and we were sitting over there waiting for their comments,
00:31:23.067 --> 00:31:27.447
and i'm telling you danny they they would just take a couple of drags off the
00:31:27.447 --> 00:31:31.767
cigarette and they would taste the smoke, and they would blow it in their face.
00:31:31.947 --> 00:31:35.727
And each one of them made four or five cigarettes a piece.
00:31:36.247 --> 00:31:38.727
The room would be blue from the smoke, you know.
00:31:40.287 --> 00:31:43.987
And you could hear them talking, and he was always curious what they were doing.
00:31:45.819 --> 00:31:51.939
And one time they asked me, here, you want to smoke? And I told them that I did not smoke.
00:31:52.519 --> 00:31:55.959
Well, that didn't sit too well, I don't think.
00:31:56.259 --> 00:32:02.879
So they started talking back and forth. And then finally, I told my ancient
00:32:02.879 --> 00:32:07.779
erythroes, I said, tell them that I chewed about that like a baseball player.
00:32:08.199 --> 00:32:12.639
Well, he told them that. And they started talking and laughing.
00:32:12.639 --> 00:32:16.779
And then, so that really pacified then that I used the backpack.
00:32:17.319 --> 00:32:21.079
Yeah. And which I really didn't see the backpack, but they didn't know any different.
00:32:21.299 --> 00:32:25.859
And then of course, baseball was a big thing in Japan. So I would,
00:32:25.919 --> 00:32:28.219
I would go over there. I went over there several years.
00:32:28.439 --> 00:32:31.219
I said, well, it's a plan. And then I would travel to Mexico.
00:32:31.499 --> 00:32:36.039
I would travel to the Philippines. I went to several different countries representing partners.
00:32:36.359 --> 00:32:40.659
And then, then my biggest other stay would put, I would go to Brazil.
00:32:41.059 --> 00:32:43.699
Wow. I'd stay in Brazil. two and a half months.
00:32:44.319 --> 00:32:47.459
And I couldn't speak any Portuguese.
00:32:47.879 --> 00:32:53.319
It was tough down there. We were in partners with a company down there.
00:32:53.739 --> 00:32:59.319
I sent a company out of South Africa and a country from, I made a group out
00:32:59.319 --> 00:33:02.519
of Norwegian, maybe Sweden or somewhere.
00:33:02.739 --> 00:33:08.539
All of us together made up a conglomerate that we had a factory down there. We processed tobacco.
00:33:08.819 --> 00:33:13.779
And the domestic companies, Philip Morris and Reynolds, they would come down
00:33:13.779 --> 00:33:19.459
to Brazil and Argentina, and they would come through and buy tobacco from all
00:33:19.459 --> 00:33:22.899
those to, you know, they use the tobacco in their plans.
00:33:23.159 --> 00:33:28.619
So we would make process in the backyard, and I would have to kind of watch them process some ours.
00:33:28.999 --> 00:33:33.479
And then when they would come through into our place, we would make appointments
00:33:33.479 --> 00:33:38.739
and they would come, and I would court them and try to sell them our products.
00:33:41.570 --> 00:33:47.030
At that time, Brazil, it wasn't anything like, you know, everything was Portuguese.
00:33:47.550 --> 00:33:51.750
Did a lot of sign language when I'd go eat because I couldn't read anything.
00:33:52.090 --> 00:33:56.670
You know, you turn the TV on, everything was in Portuguese.
00:33:57.130 --> 00:34:02.950
So it was, it was a tough time, but, uh, and of course, Sharon was home,
00:34:03.130 --> 00:34:05.470
raising my kids, raising our kids.
00:34:06.170 --> 00:34:11.130
Uh, so, you know, it got to where I was, I was gone probably.
00:34:11.910 --> 00:34:13.590
Five, six months out of the year.
00:34:14.490 --> 00:34:18.210
And I'm going to tell you, you know, you talk about, you talk to guys and,
00:34:18.350 --> 00:34:25.890
yeah, I lived in the Holiday Inn from August to November, you know,
00:34:25.990 --> 00:34:27.250
and all that would be good.
00:34:27.390 --> 00:34:31.490
They'd say, well, let me tell you, Danny, all glitters isn't gold, you know.
00:34:32.030 --> 00:34:35.470
Walk in that day after a hot day in the warehouse behind the back of it.
00:34:36.170 --> 00:34:41.390
Nobody can talk to, you know, so when you jump in the shower and get cleaned up, and there you are.
00:34:41.570 --> 00:34:44.710
Uh, and until the next day, you talk to somebody.
00:34:45.250 --> 00:34:51.750
So it, it, it was, uh, it was tough, uh, working at the tobacco industry, but it was good.
00:34:52.670 --> 00:34:59.290
If I, I really enjoyed my experience working under the tobacco business, but it was tough.
00:35:00.610 --> 00:35:04.550
I told you did more than officiating coach basketball. We're going to get into that here in a minute.
00:35:04.750 --> 00:35:08.570
Uh, I saw an article where you were there, the, when the Parker DeBacca company
00:35:08.570 --> 00:35:10.090
got on fire and that was a sad time.
00:35:10.090 --> 00:35:13.210
You said a lot of memories lost there absolutely it really was
00:35:13.210 --> 00:35:21.030
didn't you uh you know not only that time but because of so much dust in processing
00:35:21.030 --> 00:35:27.630
tobacco it created a lot of dust and there was there was a time we were up there
00:35:27.630 --> 00:35:32.030
and it was during the summer months and and we were storing,
00:35:32.670 --> 00:35:38.470
bales of cotton for january wood at the time we'd have hundreds of bales up
00:35:38.470 --> 00:35:44.710
there on both floor the first floor and the second floor and uh and myself and
00:35:44.710 --> 00:35:46.210
jimmy tarnie and debbie green,
00:35:46.890 --> 00:35:54.750
and jimmy brothers and myself we were we were building a metal wall yeah for
00:35:54.750 --> 00:36:01.870
a room to contain the dust and it was all it was metal and and we were we were
00:36:01.870 --> 00:36:04.270
doing the welding and the cutting know how it works.
00:36:04.430 --> 00:36:11.870
And Mr. Brothers had told us, do not weld or cut anything close to these bales.
00:36:11.950 --> 00:36:15.110
These bales were wrapped in verlan. And.
00:36:16.886 --> 00:36:22.246
We were finishing with the wall. There was a latch that we needed to cut,
00:36:22.446 --> 00:36:27.986
and Jimmy Tierney had the welder, and he did it, and the spark flew off,
00:36:28.606 --> 00:36:31.686
hit one of the burlaps, and caught on fire.
00:36:32.306 --> 00:36:35.686
And all of a sudden, it was like a blaze of everywhere.
00:36:36.206 --> 00:36:42.526
Oh, my gosh. So, you know, we were trying to put out. It just kept getting bigger and bigger.
00:36:42.846 --> 00:36:47.626
So we tried to put it out, and all of a sudden, and I was up and looked close
00:36:47.626 --> 00:36:51.706
to the ceiling trying to, and the sprinklers went off, and I thought,
00:36:51.826 --> 00:36:56.106
oh my gosh, the fire department's already, I never seen so much water coming out of a sprinkler head.
00:36:57.066 --> 00:37:02.126
And it was more of a mess than it was destroying a lot of cotton,
00:37:02.586 --> 00:37:06.226
because what was burning basically was the burlap around the cotton.
00:37:06.506 --> 00:37:10.326
Now, there were a few bales that got destroyed, but it was a mess,
00:37:10.446 --> 00:37:13.726
a lot of water, the fire department came and helped us and put it out.
00:37:14.666 --> 00:37:21.566
And Mr. Gruthers, that was Jimmy's father, he was the vice president. He kind of ran the place.
00:37:21.966 --> 00:37:24.706
And he called us into the office after it was over.
00:37:26.106 --> 00:37:30.726
And he said, guys, I want to tell you something. He said, I think I remember
00:37:30.726 --> 00:37:33.966
I told you all not to do that. And I said, what's it?
00:37:34.406 --> 00:37:38.446
And he said, well, let me tell you this. He said, the next time something like
00:37:38.446 --> 00:37:45.266
that happens, and you don't listen to me, and we get something going and the
00:37:45.266 --> 00:37:46.506
fire department has to come.
00:37:46.706 --> 00:37:49.726
He said, I want you all to help put out the fire.
00:37:50.326 --> 00:37:54.006
But when you get the fire out and the fire department leaves,
00:37:54.186 --> 00:37:59.046
he said, get on the truck and you go down to the unemployment office because
00:37:59.046 --> 00:38:00.706
you won't have a job here anymore.
00:38:01.206 --> 00:38:06.266
And he pretty much said it, you know, wasn't screaming, he just honchalantly
00:38:06.266 --> 00:38:09.966
said, just get on the truck and ride down and let's put another job. Yeah.
00:38:10.746 --> 00:38:14.086
Now the fire, I believe I was talking by the newspaper, was in 2007.
00:38:14.486 --> 00:38:20.386
Yeah, that's right. And at that time, Danny, I had left Parker's.
00:38:20.506 --> 00:38:25.226
At the time, I was a vice president at Parker's, and financially,
00:38:25.266 --> 00:38:27.306
I knew that Parker's was really struggling.
00:38:27.566 --> 00:38:32.446
I had two girls who were middle school and freshmen in high school,
00:38:32.506 --> 00:38:39.266
and I knew that things were going bad, so I felt like I needed to do something else.
00:38:39.826 --> 00:38:45.846
I talked to Sharon about But I really didn't have any profession to do but the BALFA.
00:38:46.426 --> 00:38:49.666
So she said, well, talk to them about it and see. So I did.
00:38:49.846 --> 00:38:55.066
I went down and I was down there working and I asked a company that I was buying
00:38:55.066 --> 00:38:59.126
the bank for if they had any opening. And they said, yes, they did.
00:39:00.286 --> 00:39:04.686
And I said, well, I'm interested. So they said, okay.
00:39:04.986 --> 00:39:09.606
He said, next week we'll talk with you. Well, I went home. I came home that
00:39:09.606 --> 00:39:11.106
weekend. I talked to Sharon about it.
00:39:13.096 --> 00:39:17.796
And one of the things they asked me, would I want to relocate to the Carolinas?
00:39:18.536 --> 00:39:21.936
Well, when I talked to Sharon about it, you know, reluctantly,
00:39:22.176 --> 00:39:24.356
like I said, I knew where Parker's was headed.
00:39:25.156 --> 00:39:28.416
And so I said, we may have to leave.
00:39:28.476 --> 00:39:33.276
And she said, well, if we're going to leave, now is the time to leave. The kids were younger.
00:39:33.796 --> 00:39:39.736
So I went back and I told the people I would relocate down there.
00:39:40.176 --> 00:39:43.056
And they said, well, you're going to have to do some traveling.
00:39:43.356 --> 00:39:47.076
And I said, well, you know, I have a valid passport.
00:39:47.316 --> 00:39:51.576
I've been traveling, you know, for parking for a while, going to different countries and stuff.
00:39:51.696 --> 00:39:54.616
And they said, well, have you ever been to Africa? And I said,
00:39:54.976 --> 00:39:57.176
no, I haven't been to Africa.
00:39:57.636 --> 00:40:01.216
I said, normally Brazil, to go there.
00:40:01.416 --> 00:40:06.496
And they said, well, what we like for our people to do is leave Brazil,
00:40:06.496 --> 00:40:09.096
then go to Africa when the crops are starting to.
00:40:09.736 --> 00:40:14.076
And I said, well, so, you know, I said, so could I come home for a couple,
00:40:14.196 --> 00:40:16.196
two or three weeks before I leave to go there?
00:40:16.336 --> 00:40:20.236
And they said, no, we'd like for you to leave Brazil and just move on down to
00:40:20.236 --> 00:40:22.576
Africa. And I said, you know what?
00:40:22.656 --> 00:40:28.236
I said, I think you need a young guy that hasn't the responsibilities that I have.
00:40:28.396 --> 00:40:36.496
I have two girls at home, and I'm not interested in going to Africa for another two or three months.
00:40:36.896 --> 00:40:44.376
And so that didn't pan out. So when I got home, I left Parker's and I found
00:40:44.376 --> 00:40:46.496
a job with Phillips Supply.
00:40:46.676 --> 00:40:53.816
And so that started me on a whole new, different venture of my life.
00:40:54.016 --> 00:40:58.076
Phillips Supply was a janitorial supply company that sold.
00:40:59.422 --> 00:41:02.802
Different industries and hospitals. They had disinfectants and such.
00:41:03.222 --> 00:41:06.942
So Sharon asked me, she said, well, what do you know about cleaning supplies?
00:41:07.162 --> 00:41:11.662
I said, nothing, but I know how to smile and I know how to help people.
00:41:12.322 --> 00:41:18.662
And I think that'll work for me. So I got on with Phillips and stayed with them for 29 years.
00:41:19.442 --> 00:41:23.022
You told me the story before we started reporting when you turned in your notice,
00:41:23.122 --> 00:41:23.782
you told them it was time.
00:41:24.182 --> 00:41:29.162
Yep. I worked with them for that period of time. And I had this area all around
00:41:29.162 --> 00:41:33.702
Maysville over in Brown County, Southern Brown County, and Finanagan, Brock, and that area.
00:41:34.722 --> 00:41:42.262
And, you know, I told you earlier that I really, really liked the tobacco business that I was in.
00:41:42.602 --> 00:41:49.842
And I have to say, it was just the opposite for me for selling janitorial supplies.
00:41:50.762 --> 00:41:55.922
Every morning I got up and I didn't want to go to work. But I did because I
00:41:55.922 --> 00:42:00.182
had responsibilities, and it was a good life. It was good.
00:42:00.342 --> 00:42:07.662
It kept the wolves away from me and my family, but it just didn't go well for
00:42:07.662 --> 00:42:10.342
me working for them for 29 years.
00:42:10.522 --> 00:42:15.762
So think about it, doing something for 29 years that you didn't like,
00:42:15.942 --> 00:42:19.882
and that's the kind of way it was for me, for Phillips. They were nice people.
00:42:20.342 --> 00:42:25.162
I did not say anything bad about them. And it was just the type of job that I had.
00:42:25.742 --> 00:42:29.402
And finally, I told Sharon, I think it was 2017.
00:42:30.222 --> 00:42:35.942
I said, you know, at that time, I was like 70, 71, 72 or something like that.
00:42:36.042 --> 00:42:41.582
And I said, I've had enough, and I'm ready to retire. And she said, really? I said, yeah.
00:42:41.922 --> 00:42:45.122
So I wrote the letter. I wrote the letter to them.
00:42:45.762 --> 00:42:50.102
And we would have a sales meeting every month, once a month,
00:42:50.162 --> 00:42:52.362
in Portsmouth. I go, wow, that's where I worked out of.
00:42:52.982 --> 00:42:56.962
And I took the letter up to the lady who was the owner of the company,
00:42:56.962 --> 00:43:01.082
and she was there, and she said, oh, what's this?
00:43:01.202 --> 00:43:04.282
And I said, you just read the letter, and she did. And she said,
00:43:04.342 --> 00:43:06.542
oh, my gosh, what's going on?
00:43:06.622 --> 00:43:10.602
And I said, well, Pam, it's time for me to retire. And she said,
00:43:11.222 --> 00:43:12.902
well, what do you want to do?
00:43:13.022 --> 00:43:18.262
And I said, Pam, I've only had two jobs in my life, young, working for Parker's and working for you.
00:43:18.822 --> 00:43:22.002
And I'm to the point now where I don't think I want to do anything.
00:43:23.737 --> 00:43:28.797
I told her that I would stay, and if they hire somebody for this area,
00:43:29.237 --> 00:43:33.477
that I would work with them and stay with them and kind of show them to the
00:43:33.477 --> 00:43:35.217
new customers and such as that.
00:43:35.297 --> 00:43:40.677
But I was glad that I was able to leave on good terms, on good terms, Sammy.
00:43:41.297 --> 00:43:44.777
Okay, let's talk about getting into the basketball officiating. How did they come about?
00:43:45.257 --> 00:43:48.637
Well, it was funny. Abby at the time was a teacher at St.
00:43:48.737 --> 00:43:57.737
Pat, And she said, and I was refereeing, and I got ahead of myself.
00:43:57.897 --> 00:43:59.537
I got ahead of yourself. Yeah, yeah.
00:44:00.557 --> 00:44:06.217
John Chamberlain and Jerry Fields and Jimmy Powell, they were all officiating
00:44:06.217 --> 00:44:07.917
around here and doing stuff.
00:44:08.237 --> 00:44:12.137
And I told Sharon, I said, you know what? I think I might like to do that.
00:44:12.517 --> 00:44:20.017
And so I started doing these little peewee games, and stuff such as that.
00:44:20.797 --> 00:44:26.997
And then I decided that I wanted to go in and get full force and go ahead and start officiating.
00:44:27.477 --> 00:44:32.637
So what you had to do, you had to go to Lexington, and they had meetings once
00:44:32.637 --> 00:44:40.737
a month prior to the season starting and I filled out the papers and started
00:44:40.737 --> 00:44:42.857
reading the manuals and this sort of stuff.
00:44:43.137 --> 00:44:49.677
I started doing freshman games and JV games. And my first varsity game, Danny, at the time,
00:44:50.377 --> 00:45:00.917
the Bluegrass Association out of Lexington, they serviced the 10th and the 11th.
00:45:01.297 --> 00:45:07.177
And at the time, Lee County was in the 11th region.
00:45:07.437 --> 00:45:13.617
So I got my first varsity job to go to Lee County to do a varsity game.
00:45:15.277 --> 00:45:22.037
So i i left here i left here at maynsville like three or three thirty in the
00:45:22.037 --> 00:45:28.717
afternoon got up there and i did the game and i got home and it was gosh it
00:45:28.717 --> 00:45:31.417
was 11 30 12 o'clock and i got home,
00:45:32.177 --> 00:45:35.777
and and i made 40 and and
00:45:35.777 --> 00:45:40.257
and the thing was you know hard telling i had to fill my car up with gas I had
00:45:40.257 --> 00:45:45.977
to eat and go all the way up there and took all that time but it got better
00:45:45.977 --> 00:45:47.877
it got better because they finally
00:45:47.877 --> 00:45:54.617
dropped out of the tenth to the 11th region and then I got busy and.
00:45:56.362 --> 00:45:58.142
During the summer months, they would
00:45:58.142 --> 00:46:01.482
always have these little basketball tournaments and stuff around here.
00:46:01.862 --> 00:46:05.602
And I distinctly remember one time they were going to have something over here
00:46:05.602 --> 00:46:08.702
at Mason County, had a bunch of teams coming in.
00:46:09.062 --> 00:46:17.582
And I think it was Tony Sapp maybe called me and said, Jerry, we need some referees.
00:46:18.262 --> 00:46:23.862
We got this fundraiser thing, and it's going to be a three- or four-day event.
00:46:23.862 --> 00:46:26.462
Would you be interested in officiating some?
00:46:26.702 --> 00:46:29.262
I said, yeah, yeah, okay.
00:46:29.802 --> 00:46:32.822
And he said, now, could you just donate your time?
00:46:33.902 --> 00:46:44.362
I said, Tony, I said, you know what? This referee shirt that I wear, it costs $50 or $60.
00:46:45.042 --> 00:46:50.202
My shoes, so all that stuff that I'm wearing, it's expensive.
00:46:50.882 --> 00:46:55.182
And no, I can't do it for free. I'm sorry, you baby." So he said,
00:46:55.262 --> 00:46:57.202
well, would you do it for $20?
00:46:57.662 --> 00:47:00.742
I said, yeah, I'll do it for 20 bucks, you know.
00:47:00.882 --> 00:47:05.742
So I got to doing that as well. So it was fun, but you know what?
00:47:05.742 --> 00:47:10.902
It was really tough because every parent thought their kid was the best,
00:47:10.942 --> 00:47:15.122
and you got to listen to them during the games.
00:47:16.905 --> 00:47:20.785
I got a game one time that they sent me to Tollesboro.
00:47:21.465 --> 00:47:25.465
St. Pat was going to play Tollesboro at Tollesboro.
00:47:26.905 --> 00:47:32.625
So I drove up there and I got the game and it was terrible.
00:47:32.965 --> 00:47:37.325
It was terrible because everybody knew me. They knew my first name.
00:47:37.685 --> 00:47:41.385
So, you know, they were hollering me the whole game, you know,
00:47:41.585 --> 00:47:47.945
Jerry this, Jerry that. And so after the game, I called the commissioner, the signing secretary.
00:47:48.185 --> 00:47:51.665
I said, don't you ever send me someplace like that again.
00:47:52.025 --> 00:47:54.125
So it got to where.
00:47:54.745 --> 00:47:59.525
And refereeing is really political. I've always said this.
00:47:59.625 --> 00:48:07.785
And because the Lexington officials up in that area, they were always around the signing secretary.
00:48:07.785 --> 00:48:13.085
So those guys in Lexington would always get the Lexington gates.
00:48:13.745 --> 00:48:15.705
You know, inside the circle there.
00:48:15.885 --> 00:48:19.845
And, of course, us down here in this area, myself, Lou Cook,
00:48:20.245 --> 00:48:25.865
Jerry Fields, Jimmy Powell, all these boys, we would have to go to Berea,
00:48:26.165 --> 00:48:29.525
Frankfurt, you know, places such as that we would have to drive.
00:48:29.945 --> 00:48:34.825
And we always complained about the fact that it was pretty political.
00:48:34.825 --> 00:48:41.305
I don't hardly ever remember refereeing up in the Lexington area.
00:48:41.545 --> 00:48:46.465
I was always somewhere around here. I did get to referee the,
00:48:46.465 --> 00:48:55.825
they had the AAU tournament here, or they had it in Frankfurt and 14 and under, that's what it was.
00:48:56.125 --> 00:48:59.905
So they invited us to come up there and we went up there and.
00:49:00.926 --> 00:49:08.346
We were in Frankfurt, and there was a team that came out, and they were from
00:49:08.346 --> 00:49:10.486
Detroit, Michigan team.
00:49:10.926 --> 00:49:17.446
And they came out, and they had do-rags on. They had things around their wrist
00:49:17.446 --> 00:49:20.566
and just all sorts of crazy stuff they had.
00:49:21.186 --> 00:49:28.026
And I went up to the coach, and I said, Coach, they're going to have to take off all this stuff.
00:49:28.126 --> 00:49:32.746
And he said, Well, why was that? And I said, well, that's not part of the uniform, you know.
00:49:33.706 --> 00:49:37.106
And he said, well, this is what we wear.
00:49:37.246 --> 00:49:40.166
And they let us wear it when we played over in Lexington. I said,
00:49:40.246 --> 00:49:42.126
well, we're not in Lexington today.
00:49:42.706 --> 00:49:46.366
And I'm going to fissate this game. And you're going to take this stuff off.
00:49:47.346 --> 00:49:51.106
Or you can forfeit the game. I really don't care. And he said,
00:49:51.146 --> 00:49:53.086
oh, no, no, no. We're not going to forfeit it.
00:49:54.066 --> 00:49:57.366
Well, they were terrible. They were the terrible team. I mean,
00:49:57.526 --> 00:49:59.806
I don't think they scored 20 points the whole game.
00:49:59.906 --> 00:50:04.166
So, uh, you just, you just ran into a lot of things like that during the,
00:50:04.206 --> 00:50:08.606
during the summer, doing, uh, summer leagues for places or going to,
00:50:08.726 --> 00:50:11.706
you know, Mason used to have a varsity.
00:50:11.826 --> 00:50:13.286
They used to have stuff over here.
00:50:13.526 --> 00:50:18.946
And then they still be best to have their camps over here and we'd go over and referee all the games.
00:50:19.406 --> 00:50:23.846
You know, you'd, you know, in the day's time, you might referee five, six games.
00:50:24.266 --> 00:50:30.926
And, uh, it was pretty tough, but I enjoyed it. And we got to where what you
00:50:30.926 --> 00:50:34.686
would do is that you got raided by the coaches.
00:50:35.146 --> 00:50:40.106
And that's how it predetermined about your tournament games at the end,
00:50:40.206 --> 00:50:46.406
the district and regional and whatever, and how they did it at that time.
00:50:46.506 --> 00:50:53.186
At the last meeting, Referee's Man in Lexington, they would put the list on the wall.
00:50:53.546 --> 00:50:56.626
And after the meeting, you would go over and you would look down.
00:50:56.626 --> 00:51:00.266
And if your name is on that list That meant that you were going to get some
00:51:00.266 --> 00:51:03.626
Tournament games And I was fortunate up then to.
00:51:05.284 --> 00:51:10.064
Games the whole time that I was officiating. And it was funny,
00:51:10.244 --> 00:51:14.544
because it seemed like I would always have to go down to Pendleton County and
00:51:14.544 --> 00:51:19.244
refer in, as you know, Pendleton County is a tough drive down there,
00:51:19.344 --> 00:51:20.204
but I was always getting.
00:51:20.604 --> 00:51:24.824
And then one of the last years that I was a real officiating,
00:51:24.944 --> 00:51:29.064
I was there and I knew that I should be in there.
00:51:29.384 --> 00:51:38.904
And I went down, and there was a guy in Lexington asked me that summer, Bernie Jenkins.
00:51:39.224 --> 00:51:45.624
Bernie was the signing secretary, and he called me that summer, and he said, Jared,
00:51:46.084 --> 00:51:49.744
he said, I need somebody over to Lexington,
00:51:50.064 --> 00:51:54.744
to Georgetown for the camp they had over there, and it was for young officials,
00:51:54.804 --> 00:51:59.904
and he said, I'd like for you to come over and help and critique these young
00:51:59.904 --> 00:52:01.724
officials. Okay, Bernie.
00:52:02.924 --> 00:52:08.024
So I said, so the days that I'm over there, what about, would that kind of suffice
00:52:08.024 --> 00:52:09.444
me coming to our meetings?
00:52:09.664 --> 00:52:14.904
He said, yeah, I'll fix it so you won't have to come to some of those meetings. I said, right.
00:52:15.644 --> 00:52:19.884
So I went over there for Bernie and worked him over there and worked the camp.
00:52:20.224 --> 00:52:22.984
Well, and then I went through the regular season.
00:52:23.364 --> 00:52:27.744
And then when the list come up at the wall, I went down there.
00:52:27.824 --> 00:52:29.464
My name wasn't on there anywhere.
00:52:29.964 --> 00:52:34.864
So I thought, well, what's going on? So I went to the secretary and he said,
00:52:35.024 --> 00:52:38.264
I see where your name, you missed some meetings.
00:52:39.204 --> 00:52:43.784
I said, well, I worked for Bernie this summer, and he said, well,
00:52:43.944 --> 00:52:47.084
it's too late now because we already got everybody in this too.
00:52:47.524 --> 00:52:52.784
So needless to say, I went and had a few words with Bernie about this,
00:52:52.804 --> 00:52:56.164
and after that, I said, that was enough.
00:52:56.484 --> 00:52:59.204
I got out of officiating.
00:53:00.873 --> 00:53:05.353
It just, it got too political, and I just felt like they weren't treating us
00:53:05.353 --> 00:53:07.613
down here the way we should have been treated.
00:53:07.653 --> 00:53:12.013
So I got out of the officiating, and then it was funny.
00:53:12.233 --> 00:53:14.733
It kind of led right into coaching for me.
00:53:15.553 --> 00:53:22.173
Again, Abby was down at St. Pat, and she came to me, and she said, Dad, she said, St.
00:53:22.253 --> 00:53:26.313
Pat needs a middle school coach, a girls' middle school coach.
00:53:26.333 --> 00:53:33.033
I said, oh, Abby, I don't want. She said, it'll be over with before basketball season starts.
00:53:35.033 --> 00:53:39.553
Well, all right. So I agreed to it. So I took the middle school team,
00:53:39.653 --> 00:53:42.133
and we were quite successful.
00:53:42.693 --> 00:53:46.853
And we did it for two years. And then Lex came to me and said,
00:53:46.973 --> 00:53:51.193
Jerry, he said, would you be interested in coaching the varsity squad?
00:53:51.593 --> 00:53:55.713
And I said, no, Lex, that's a big step. He said, yeah. He said,
00:53:55.773 --> 00:53:56.853
but I believe you could do it.
00:53:59.093 --> 00:54:03.093
Whitehead was her name, she was leaving, and they needed somebody.
00:54:03.853 --> 00:54:10.313
And he said, now you won't have a JV team. I said, well, what do you mean?
00:54:10.613 --> 00:54:13.933
He said, well, we don't have enough girls for a JV team.
00:54:14.373 --> 00:54:17.073
I said, do you have seventh and eighth graders? And he said,
00:54:17.193 --> 00:54:21.533
well, yeah. I said, if you want me, we're going to have a JV team.
00:54:22.753 --> 00:54:26.393
And he said, okay. So, I got them and brought them in.
00:54:26.713 --> 00:54:31.853
And prior to that year, I think they only won like two or three ballgames.
00:54:32.213 --> 00:54:34.253
And I had a pretty good bunch of girls.
00:54:34.753 --> 00:54:39.553
And I ended up the first year, I won like 16 or 17 ballgames.
00:54:39.733 --> 00:54:43.173
Had Margaret Cleo, who went to Moorhead and played.
00:54:44.693 --> 00:54:49.513
We did pretty good. And then the next year, we won somewhere around that same amount.
00:54:49.653 --> 00:54:52.953
So, it became a full-time coaching job.
00:54:53.493 --> 00:54:56.973
Hey, you really had a great run. You actually won 17 that first year,
00:54:56.993 --> 00:54:59.333
and Margaret had a 44-point game.
00:54:59.413 --> 00:55:02.153
Against Campbell County. Yeah, one-point loss to Campbell County. Yep, yep.
00:55:03.233 --> 00:55:09.513
Mason had a Christmas tournament. They had six teams, and it was like a round robin.
00:55:09.633 --> 00:55:16.353
You'd play the other two teams, and how it worked out was you would get so many
00:55:16.353 --> 00:55:20.213
points if you won a game, and that's kind of how it worked out then.
00:55:20.213 --> 00:55:27.353
But we never won the three-day event, but we showed up.
00:55:27.473 --> 00:55:32.933
And like I said, like you just said, Margaret Plea, she was one of a kind.
00:55:33.193 --> 00:55:38.873
Matter of fact, I even encouraged her to go try out for the Kentucky-Indiana
00:55:38.873 --> 00:55:41.353
All-Star, and she did. Bless her heart.
00:55:44.030 --> 00:55:48.970
And the whole time she was trying out that day, she never would want to shoot
00:55:48.970 --> 00:55:51.590
the ball. She always want to assist somebody else.
00:55:52.010 --> 00:55:57.410
And afterwards, you know, and I said, Margaret, I said, you need to shoot the
00:55:57.410 --> 00:56:01.270
ball every time you got it, because that's how you get recognized, shooting the ball.
00:56:01.450 --> 00:56:07.910
And she did. And she didn't make it. But she did get to Rota Moorhead and played up there.
00:56:08.030 --> 00:56:12.770
But then she got injured. I think she cracked her back or her neck or something,
00:56:12.930 --> 00:56:18.070
and they kept her on, but they kept her doing the videography and things like that with the program.
00:56:18.370 --> 00:56:25.510
But, yeah, Margaret was a good one. The 99-2000 season, 24-9, district champions.
00:56:25.790 --> 00:56:29.430
You beat Bourbon County 34-32 for the first region win for the Lady Saints.
00:56:29.590 --> 00:56:30.470
I actually called that game.
00:56:31.250 --> 00:56:36.510
Danny, that was the first time that St. Pat girls had ever won a game in a regional
00:56:36.510 --> 00:56:41.130
tournament. I think we played over it at Clark County, I think, where the game was.
00:56:41.970 --> 00:56:46.610
And we were playing it. And Macy Conway, I think, was right at the very end.
00:56:46.710 --> 00:56:47.890
And there had been a timeout.
00:56:48.230 --> 00:56:54.150
And I told Macy, I said, Macy, because she was a hiker, she would foul anybody.
00:56:54.590 --> 00:57:00.490
And I said, Macy, don't foul. Whatever you do, if they're going to shoot, don't foul them.
00:57:00.510 --> 00:57:03.530
Because I think we had a two-point lead or one-point lead or something.
00:57:04.190 --> 00:57:08.510
And she went down there and Verbin had the ball and they went down and drove
00:57:08.510 --> 00:57:12.230
the baseline and I saw Macy go up and the girl go up and I said oh my god,
00:57:12.790 --> 00:57:15.590
and she didn't foul her and the missed a shot
00:57:15.590 --> 00:57:18.470
and we ended up winning that game and it was
00:57:18.470 --> 00:57:24.350
just so exciting Danny and then we had to play Estill County at that time Estill
00:57:24.350 --> 00:57:30.350
was in the 10th region and they had a pretty good girl on there and played them
00:57:30.350 --> 00:57:35.350
and they beat us and then I think Bishop Brossard to end up beating Estor for
00:57:35.350 --> 00:57:37.710
the finals for that year.
00:57:39.034 --> 00:57:42.234
It was a good year. Won another district championship in 2002.
00:57:42.554 --> 00:57:45.894
Yeah, it was funny. We beat Fleming County.
00:57:46.054 --> 00:57:52.214
Fleming County had beaten us twice in the regular season and double figures both times.
00:57:52.374 --> 00:57:56.214
And we thought, you know, we were fortunate enough to beat, I think we beat
00:57:56.214 --> 00:57:59.114
Mason that game during the tournament.
00:57:59.494 --> 00:58:06.294
And then Fleming County came out in the finals and they already had their t-shirts. I know.
00:58:06.554 --> 00:58:08.634
That they won the district tournament.
00:58:09.034 --> 00:58:12.754
The girls came out, and they had a little makeup on and lipstick,
00:58:13.454 --> 00:58:16.294
and it was really funny that we'd seen them all.
00:58:16.554 --> 00:58:20.914
And we ended up, it was funny, we ended up beating them, I think the very same
00:58:20.914 --> 00:58:27.714
score that we beat in the first district that I won, I think it was Fleming County then.
00:58:28.454 --> 00:58:33.154
It was almost identical, same score. It was Mason County the first time,
00:58:33.214 --> 00:58:39.554
and then the second time it was almost 44 to 39 or something such as that. the score was.
00:58:39.994 --> 00:58:46.114
And then we got to go to come here to Mason County to play in the regional tournament there.
00:58:46.674 --> 00:58:50.634
And we played Paris. I believe it was Paris. Me number two.
00:58:51.014 --> 00:58:57.094
And then we got hooked up with Bourbon County and, I mean, Bishop Brosser.
00:58:57.254 --> 00:58:59.574
And it was right at the very end of the game.
00:58:59.854 --> 00:59:03.614
And it was really, really close. And they called a foul.
00:59:04.474 --> 00:59:08.594
The foul was on Elizabeth's clee, not Elizabeth.
00:59:08.874 --> 00:59:15.114
Mary's? No, not Mary. There's her other sister. There was two or three clees.
00:59:15.774 --> 00:59:17.194
Rebecca. Rebecca.
00:59:17.894 --> 00:59:21.794
Well, when they came over to the official who called the foul,
00:59:21.934 --> 00:59:26.874
when he came over to report to Tony Sapp, he gave them Whitney Owens' number.
00:59:27.654 --> 00:59:33.074
And that was Whitney's fifth foul. And I said, whoa, whoa, wait a minute here.
00:59:33.294 --> 00:59:38.354
I said, that's not right. It's because they was moving underneath of the basket.
00:59:38.534 --> 00:59:41.694
An official, quite honestly, had to turn around to look and see,
00:59:41.834 --> 00:59:45.274
and he just happened to see Whitney and gave him that number.
00:59:45.754 --> 00:59:49.554
I complained quite a bit to Tony, and I beat on the table.
00:59:49.734 --> 00:59:53.314
It's one of them sold me out, but it didn't do anything happen,
00:59:53.454 --> 00:59:57.934
and we ended up getting beat by Bishop Brossard in the second game.
00:59:59.414 --> 01:00:04.514
And a couple weeks later, I saw Tony, and I apologized to him for my actions.
01:00:04.514 --> 01:00:06.454
Because it wasn't his fault.
01:00:06.574 --> 01:00:09.714
He was just putting the score down or the numbers down, but, uh,
01:00:10.515 --> 01:00:16.955
I saw the official later on, and we talked about it, and he apologized if he did the wrong thing.
01:00:17.135 --> 01:00:21.815
But that was my only other chance to really move on and maybe even get into
01:00:21.815 --> 01:00:23.875
the finals of the region. We never made it.
01:00:24.075 --> 01:00:29.315
And I think I was the only coach at St. Pat's so far that has won regional games,
01:00:29.915 --> 01:00:34.215
a regional game, normally, you know, winning the district or runner-up.
01:00:34.315 --> 01:00:38.435
But so far, St. Pat has never won a regional game, I don't think.
01:00:38.435 --> 01:00:44.975
You had four of the Lady Saints' top all-time leading, four of the top six. You got Margaret Klee.
01:00:45.235 --> 01:00:47.855
You had her one for one season, her senior season. Joanna Best,
01:00:48.035 --> 01:00:51.315
Mary Klee, Whitney Owens, some real players. That was.
01:00:51.755 --> 01:00:56.215
You know, and coming from a small school, coming from a small school,
01:00:56.375 --> 01:01:02.615
you know, it goes in waves of talent up and down, up and down.
01:01:02.655 --> 01:01:08.975
And I was fortunate enough that I had some good talent. and it was funny.
01:01:09.595 --> 01:01:13.735
These girls, I always, these girls, I would really get after them,
01:01:13.815 --> 01:01:15.495
Danny, especially at summertime.
01:01:15.795 --> 01:01:21.315
I mean, halftime, I'd get after them in there, but at the end of the game,
01:01:21.455 --> 01:01:27.335
we would always hug, and to this very day, I see them, and we have a lot of
01:01:27.335 --> 01:01:28.655
comments to one another,
01:01:28.995 --> 01:01:36.455
and their kids, now they got kids, and I was fortunate enough to, after St.
01:01:36.455 --> 01:01:40.215
Pat it was funny how it happened i i
01:01:40.215 --> 01:01:43.195
didn't have a good season i think
01:01:43.195 --> 01:01:46.875
only won like seven or eight ball games and father hines
01:01:46.875 --> 01:01:52.675
called me and that was kind of unusual and he told me to sit down and i sat
01:01:52.675 --> 01:01:57.095
down in front of his desk and he told me he said jerry i i i think i'm going
01:01:57.095 --> 01:02:01.975
to make a change in bass stroke coaching i said well what's what's going on
01:02:01.975 --> 01:02:05.155
and he said well things have changed.
01:02:05.395 --> 01:02:07.555
He said, girls aren't like they used to be.
01:02:07.975 --> 01:02:11.455
He said, so we're going to make a change. I said, Father Heinz,
01:02:11.715 --> 01:02:15.895
I've been here long enough that I know these girls right now.
01:02:16.115 --> 01:02:19.475
I mean, I knew them when they were in kindergarten and first grade.
01:02:19.795 --> 01:02:22.655
I know their parents. I even know their grandparents.
01:02:23.215 --> 01:02:27.315
So these girls, you know, I know them all. I know their families.
01:02:27.755 --> 01:02:31.915
And he said, well, I've lost a lot of sleep over making this decision.
01:02:32.435 --> 01:02:36.715
So then I knew right then it was over, so I just took the keys and just led
01:02:36.715 --> 01:02:38.715
them across and walked out.
01:02:39.415 --> 01:02:44.735
Lex Turner was AD. He didn't have a clue what Father Hines had done,
01:02:45.335 --> 01:02:48.795
and he was quite upset, but I, uh.
01:02:50.341 --> 01:02:54.061
I left on with a bad taste in my mouth, unfortunately, because,
01:02:54.281 --> 01:03:00.101
you know, I had won 150-some games, I think. 146. Yeah.
01:03:01.081 --> 01:03:04.001
And that's pretty good for a small school like that.
01:03:04.321 --> 01:03:10.721
I beat every team in the 10th region except Harrison County and Bishop Brossard.
01:03:11.041 --> 01:03:14.601
Those are the only two schools that I never did beat. I mean,
01:03:14.761 --> 01:03:22.621
Mason, you know, Clark, Montgomery, big schools that I was able to beat them at one time or another.
01:03:23.261 --> 01:03:26.881
Had a great game over the first time I beat Clark County. We were at Clark County,
01:03:26.881 --> 01:03:28.621
and I beat them in overtime over there.
01:03:28.741 --> 01:03:33.101
It was really exciting for the St. Pat fans.
01:03:33.721 --> 01:03:35.181
Yep, it was good.
01:03:36.301 --> 01:03:38.681
So then for a couple of years, I didn't do anything.
01:03:40.181 --> 01:03:44.661
I sat around, and Roger Barnett called me. He wanted me to come out and coach,
01:03:44.981 --> 01:03:47.241
help them, you know, at the boys' club.
01:03:47.661 --> 01:03:51.341
So I said, oh, Roger. He said, dear, we need some coach.
01:03:51.521 --> 01:03:55.801
I said, all right, I'll come out. And he said, now, do you want boys or girls?
01:03:55.881 --> 01:03:57.841
I said, Roger, I don't know how to coach boys.
01:03:58.301 --> 01:04:01.261
I said, coach, girls. He said, good, we don't have it.
01:04:01.561 --> 01:04:06.761
So I coached the third and fourth grade.
01:04:07.601 --> 01:04:11.901
And I had one little girl, bless her heart, I'd see her and I'd talk to her.
01:04:12.281 --> 01:04:16.861
And she was playing, and I played all of them all the time. I played everybody, nobody.
01:04:17.801 --> 01:04:21.061
So she wasn't as athletic as some of the other ones, but I played her,
01:04:21.241 --> 01:04:24.321
and we were in one game, and she was out there playing.
01:04:26.179 --> 01:04:28.499
And we had a timeout, and she come over, and she said, Coach,
01:04:29.179 --> 01:04:32.999
I don't want to play anymore today. And I said, well, what's wrong?
01:04:33.439 --> 01:04:36.699
And she said, well, I got hit right here on my arm.
01:04:37.159 --> 01:04:41.999
I got hit on my leg, and I'm going to a birthday party this afternoon,
01:04:42.019 --> 01:04:46.019
and I don't want to play anymore. I said, okay. We'll sit down there on the end of the fence.
01:04:46.719 --> 01:04:50.179
She went down there and said, bless her heart. And then the very same girl,
01:04:50.279 --> 01:04:53.999
I think maybe the next week, she was out there playing, and she came over,
01:04:54.039 --> 01:04:56.079
and we had a timeout or order or something.
01:04:56.179 --> 01:05:00.579
And she said, Coach Arms, can I go out and get a cake? I have one of those cakes.
01:05:00.839 --> 01:05:05.939
And I said, Sarah, just go on out there. You know, somebody get in for her. Yeah, but it was fun.
01:05:06.139 --> 01:05:10.199
And then Fred Hester called me. And I thought, whoa.
01:05:10.639 --> 01:05:13.239
You know, I mean, that's big time for me.
01:05:13.939 --> 01:05:19.339
And he asked me if I'd be interested in helping Piper Lindsay at the time.
01:05:19.559 --> 01:05:23.059
She was young. She'd only, I think, had one year at Harrison Grand.
01:05:23.859 --> 01:05:26.779
And he said, we kind of need, he kind of chuckled.
01:05:26.859 --> 01:05:32.199
He said, we kind of need a fatherly instinct to help with her. And I said, oh, okay.
01:05:32.699 --> 01:05:39.519
So I said, well, I need to talk to Sharon about it. I thought it's a sacrifice. It's a commitment.
01:05:40.539 --> 01:05:43.499
And I'll just have to, I can't give you an answer for a day.
01:05:44.359 --> 01:05:47.259
And I talked to Sharon and I prayed about it.
01:05:47.499 --> 01:05:53.099
And a couple of weeks later, I told him and told him to help him. So, uh...
01:05:54.789 --> 01:05:58.469
It was totally different from coaching that same path.
01:05:59.229 --> 01:06:02.329
You know, you had janitors who took care of it.
01:06:02.669 --> 01:06:06.889
You know, Danny went, when I went the same path, every home game,
01:06:07.089 --> 01:06:13.709
every home game, I would go down and I would mop the gym floor.
01:06:14.209 --> 01:06:18.929
And I would go through and check all the restrooms, be sure they were clean, nothing was on it.
01:06:19.389 --> 01:06:22.109
Because I wanted us to represent something, you know.
01:06:22.449 --> 01:06:27.089
I did that every game. And, you know, we only had just a few balls at St.
01:06:27.189 --> 01:06:31.009
Pat, but, you know, here at Mason, it was a lot different and,
01:06:31.009 --> 01:06:35.049
uh, getting to work with Piper and, and of course, Joe McKay and,
01:06:35.089 --> 01:06:40.269
and, uh, we had a good time and I enjoyed working for Piper.
01:06:40.429 --> 01:06:45.269
Uh, we, we, you know, we got to go to the state tournament.
01:06:46.489 --> 01:06:49.229
Unbelievable experience. Do that. I just,
01:06:49.429 --> 01:06:55.569
I mean, it's something that as a young guy, you dream about wanting to do things
01:06:55.569 --> 01:07:01.509
like this in sports and to be able to go to the state tournament.
01:07:01.789 --> 01:07:07.669
I mean, hard telling how many coaches are out there that never has had that
01:07:07.669 --> 01:07:12.149
opportunity that have gone through their whole coaching career and never had
01:07:12.149 --> 01:07:13.909
that opportunity. And I got that.
01:07:14.029 --> 01:07:18.269
And so it was certainly was a blessing for me. And for whatever reason,
01:07:18.469 --> 01:07:23.409
after we went to the tournament, the administration got rid of Piper.
01:07:23.529 --> 01:07:26.169
And I never did hear the whole story on that.
01:07:26.409 --> 01:07:32.389
But anyway, and so then they told me that once the head coach leaves,
01:07:32.609 --> 01:07:35.789
all the assistants are automatically let go as well.
01:07:36.349 --> 01:07:42.409
So I thought, okay. So then I was in Atlanta, Georgia, and Brad Koch called
01:07:42.409 --> 01:07:47.069
me and asked me if I'd be interested in wanting to help him.
01:07:47.229 --> 01:07:47.989
And then I went to the hospital.
01:07:49.063 --> 01:07:53.463
And I said, Brad, I'm down here in Atlanta. Just give me a couple of days till
01:07:53.463 --> 01:07:55.243
I get home and we'll sit down and talk.
01:07:55.843 --> 01:08:01.163
And we did. And I went to work for Brad. I had a good experience with him.
01:08:01.583 --> 01:08:07.203
We got to go. He took us to the gym where Hoosiers played up in Indiana.
01:08:07.283 --> 01:08:10.323
That was quite an experience to be able to do that.
01:08:11.483 --> 01:08:16.943
We did a lot of good things. And Brad is certainly a great guy and a good basketball coach.
01:08:17.423 --> 01:08:24.863
And then finally came COVID, and it really got bad,
01:08:25.103 --> 01:08:33.003
and at my age, I was up in my 70s then, and we were going to have summer ball.
01:08:33.523 --> 01:08:37.503
And I said, Brad, I don't know if I want to be around these kids.
01:08:37.683 --> 01:08:40.563
And he said, well, they're all wearing masks. And I said, well,
01:08:41.243 --> 01:08:43.163
you think maybe they're wearing masks.
01:08:43.263 --> 01:08:46.703
You know, I don't know, and I just can't take that chance.
01:08:46.943 --> 01:08:48.943
So, I left on my own.
01:08:49.643 --> 01:08:54.123
I sat back and think about it at the time, maybe I should have hung around a
01:08:54.123 --> 01:08:56.903
little while longer, but I didn't.
01:08:57.163 --> 01:09:05.203
And it was just a kid's great experience to be a basketball coach and the things
01:09:05.203 --> 01:09:09.603
that I was able to experience. It was just, it was the best part of my life
01:09:09.603 --> 01:09:11.023
as far as sports were concerned.
01:09:11.503 --> 01:09:16.183
And in 2016, you were elected to the 10th Region Girls Basketball Coaches Hall
01:09:16.183 --> 01:09:21.563
of Yeah, I was totally surprised about it. It was for St. Pat.
01:09:22.343 --> 01:09:28.263
It was the St. Pat coach that I was elected to, and quite an honor for me to
01:09:28.263 --> 01:09:33.303
go up there. and I got to see some of my friends that I had coached against.
01:09:34.263 --> 01:09:40.443
The meeting was at Paris, and I ran into a couple of girls, Paris basketball
01:09:40.443 --> 01:09:46.183
girls, that they remembered that I beat them in the regional tournament that one game.
01:09:46.483 --> 01:09:51.103
And we talked about, I think one of the girls' names was Brown,
01:09:51.403 --> 01:09:59.163
was her name, but we talked about that game that we had at Mason County when I beat them out there.
01:09:59.603 --> 01:10:05.423
Paris had a really good team, but we talked about that, and it was quite an
01:10:05.423 --> 01:10:10.803
experience for me to be elected into the Coaches Hall of Fame for 10th Region.
01:10:11.043 --> 01:10:17.383
There's a lot of good people in there, and to have my name in there with it, it makes me feel good.
01:10:17.503 --> 01:10:20.283
I worked hard for something and got rewarded.
01:10:21.724 --> 01:10:25.824
Al, you're part of the Sprinkles of Hope lunch table. Talk about that group.
01:10:26.404 --> 01:10:29.384
Well, it is. We go down.
01:10:29.484 --> 01:10:33.984
We're down there about every day for lunch. Myself, Robert Walton,
01:10:34.464 --> 01:10:37.024
Kirk Clark, Owen McNeil.
01:10:37.804 --> 01:10:41.644
Sometimes David Carton will come in. Darren Felthouse, he comes in.
01:10:41.844 --> 01:10:45.264
So we're just there and sharing sports news.
01:10:45.584 --> 01:10:51.304
And we're kind of sometimes like women at the beauty shop. We kind of talk tales
01:10:51.304 --> 01:10:55.684
and share experiences, and it's for a good cause.
01:10:55.864 --> 01:10:59.924
The Sprinkles of Hope down there, they do a wonderful job with the people that
01:10:59.924 --> 01:11:06.784
they have, and we've got to know them really well, and they know us, and we feel good.
01:11:06.864 --> 01:11:11.984
And we're proud to be the lunch group down at Sprinkles of Hope. It's for a good cause.
01:11:12.644 --> 01:11:16.764
Well, Jerry, we appreciate you taking the time to share your stories and appreciate
01:11:16.764 --> 01:11:18.364
all you did for young people in the community.
01:11:19.124 --> 01:11:23.704
Danny, I cannot tell you the experience that I've had with young kids,
01:11:23.704 --> 01:11:30.024
and it has been an experience and something that I'll take with me.
01:11:30.304 --> 01:11:35.484
But just let me say I appreciate you, Danny, what you've done for the community
01:11:35.484 --> 01:11:37.804
as far as sports is concerned.
01:11:38.604 --> 01:11:44.384
You're a class act. You always have been. And I know that there's people out
01:11:44.384 --> 01:11:49.224
there right now miss you, not being on the end of the mic and bringing the games
01:11:49.224 --> 01:11:51.304
to us. I've listened to you numerous times.
01:11:52.204 --> 01:11:57.804
And I appreciate what you're doing here and talking to old timers like me that
01:11:57.804 --> 01:12:01.984
have got experiences and just keep up the good work, Danny.
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All right. Thank you. That's Jerry Orms. Stay tuned. Coming soon. Episode 53.