I lived my early childhood in the coal region community of Gary in McDowell County, where we all worshipped the Gary High School Coaldiggers and were fierce rivals with the Welch Maroon Wave, the Big Creek Owls, the Northfork Blue Demons and the "big city" Bluefield Beavers.
Every school had a star. Welch had Jimmy Smithberger, who went on to Notre Dame and won a football national championship under Ara Parseghian.
Gary had Gordon "Pig" Lambert, and he was our hero. "Pig' went on to play at WVU, transferred to Tennessee-Martin and became a star as a big pass-rushing defensive end. He later played in the AFL for the Denver Broncos and has a rooting interest in today's Super Bowl.
Lambert is now a county commissioner in McDowell County, but remembers a time when he was sacking Joe Namath, Len Dawson and Daryle Lamonica.
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The late 1960s were a good time for high school basketball in Kanawha County. Fan interest was high, rivalries were heated, gymnasiums were packed on Tuesday and Friday nights and most schools did not go outside the county to play games. Here some of the names I think about from this special time:
Charleston and Dunbar: These teams were basketball royalty in the Kanawha Valley Conference in the '60s. The Mountain Lions of Lou Romano won a AAA state title in 1968 with Curtis Price, Levi Phillips, Larry Harris and company. At one point from 1967-69, the CHS won almost 50 straight games. Dunbar won the AAA state title in 1966 with a resounding 87-62 thrashing of Moundsville. The Bulldogs were coached by Bill Young and were led by one of the best starting fives in state history, Melvin Walker, Jim Woodall, Gary Bird, Eddie Clark and Larry Carter. Walker went on to Wisconsin while Woodall went to Tennessee. The Dunbar-South Charleston six-overtime game remains one of the most memorable games in county history.
Jim Fout: A three-year starter at DuPont, Fout was one of the leading scorers in the KVC from 1965-67. He and teammates James Chambers, David Dorsey and Roger Shinn won a sectional title under Joe Snodgrass in 1967.
Gordie McClanahan: He was an outstanding scorer at Nitro in 1969. He would go on to star at Alderson-Broaddus in the West Virginia Conference.
Gary Monk: Monk played on good teams at Stonewall Jackson under John Pisapia. The Generals had a 6-foot-11 center in John Blessing, who went on to Virginia Tech. Monk also was a teammate of Bobby Wesley, one of the better players in the state who went on to star for Rich Meckfessel at Morris Harvey. Those Generals teams had the misfortune of being in the same sectional as the great Charleston High teams. In today's playoff system, they would have made a run at the state tournament.
Skip Noble: The St. Albans star was a great player for Tex Williams. He would go on to play for state native Sonny Allen at Old Dominion.
Charles Rush: He was the sixth man on a great Charleston High team, but would have been a starter and a star at other teams in the Valley. He led the All-KVC team to a win over the all-state team in a postseason all-star game.
Gary Selbe: Many people forget about Cedar Grove High School, which closed in 1970. In the mid-1960s, Selbe was a star for the Trailblazers. Had the school not closed, former DuPont star Greg Bell would have gone to Cedar Grove.
Tex Williams: Tex was a young coach building a great program at St. Albans. For some reason, there always seemed to be a special buzz in the air when "Coach Tex" brought his Red Dragons into your gym.
