High school basketball used to be an exciting time of the year in the Kanawha Valley. In the 1960s and '70s, we had more schools and more population. The games were played on Tuesdays and Friday nights and the gyms were usually full.
On Saturdays during the Christmas season, downtown Charleston streets were packed, and if you were a player, you proudly wore your varsity jacket as you strolled through The Diamond, Montgomery Wards, Frankenbergers, Silverbrand Clothes and Sears.
Every school had its share of stars and a player could play for three years and rarely had to play a game outside of Kanawha County.
Here are the names of some of the players from around the region that I am thinking about today.
n Joey Caruthers: A 1973 graduate of DuPont, Caruthers led his team to its first trip to the state tournament since 1959. He went on to play for state native Sonny Allen at Old Dominion, where the Monarchs won a Division II national championship. Allen left after Caruthers' sophomore season and always felt that if he had stayed, Caruthers would have been an NBA player.
n Charleston High, 1967-69: The late '60s Mountain Lions were the Kanawha Valley's version of the 1980s L.A. Lakers - Showtime! The players were celebrities in the city and played before large crowds in the old Civic Center and other gyms in the state. Names such as Curtis Price, Skip Mason, Levi Phillips, Larry Harris, Don Megginson, Sonny Burls, Terry Berkeley, Steve Parsons and Charles Rush played for coach Lou Romano
n Dunbar, 1966: The 1966 Bulldogs are one of the best teams in Kanawha Valley history. Led by Melvin Walker and Jim Woodall, Dunbar won the AAA state title and crushed Bob Hummell and Moundsville by 25 points in the state title game in Huntington. Walker went to Wisconsin to play football while Woodall went to Tennessee to play basketball for Ray Mears and Stu Aberdeen.
n Jim Fout: Most know him now as a former coach at South Charleston, DuPont and Riverside. In the 1960s, he was one of the more prolific scorers in the Valley and graduated from DuPont in 1967. I was young and naïve and I thought he invented the behind-the-back dribble and reverse layup. He went on to play for Rich Meckfessel at Morris Harvey.
n George Washington, 1971: Coached by Fred Aldridge, GW had not been a school for very long when the Patriots won the AAA state title, defeating Charles Town in Morgantown. The starters were Rick Greene, Ned Tilley, Albie Williams, Clyde Childers and Trippie Adams.
n Joey Holland: Today, Holland is a local businessman and a leader in the community, but many forget he was an outstanding basketball player at GW from 1971-73. He was a sophomore sixth man on the Patriots' AAA state title team in 1971. He went on to play at Kentucky and played for the Wildcats in their NCAA championship game loss to UCLA in 1975. That game was John Wooden's last as coach of the Bruins.
n Skip Noble: He was a star at St. Albans in 1967 and, like Caruthers, went to Old Dominion to play for Allen. Tex Williams would build a powerful program at St. Albans and in the next few years would have players such as Tom Neal, Paul Hurst, Richard Arthur and Wendell Morrison.
n Ricky Ray: He was an undersized guard for Huntington High, the Pony Express version in the early 1960s. He went on to play at WVU for George King from 1963-65 and averaged over 10 points a game in his junior season of 1964.
n Lanny Steed: From the minute he stepped on the court in December of 1968, Steed was a high-scoring star at East Bank. He was also a football talent and went on to play at Marshall in the fall of 1971, the first season after the plane crash.
n Stonewall Jackson: The Generals of the 1960s had lots of talent but they were geographically unlucky as they were in the same sectional as some of the great Charleston High teams. In the 1980s those roles would be reversed. Among the Generals standouts for John Pisapia were "Big" John Blessing, Gary Monk, Bobby Wesley, Curtis Brock and others. Blessing went on to Virginia Tech while Wesley was a star at Morris Harvey.
n Minor Woods: He was Steed's teammate at East Bank and the Pioneers' point guard. He played his final game of basketball in the spring of 1971, and, tragically, was killed in an auto accident near the Chelyan Bridge just weeks later. His death was a shock, and he's still remembered in the East Bank and Cabin Creek communities.
Contact Frank Giardina at flg16@hotmail.com.