Dr. Jim Gifford, CEO and senior editor of the Jesse Stuart Foundation, called me a few weeks ago with what I considered an unusual request. He said the foundation was in the process of compiling a book of essays about people from this region who should be remembered but have been mostly forgotten. He asked if I would write an essay about “King” Kelly Coleman. To which I said, “Who is Kelly Coleman? I’ve never heard of him.” I soon realized that if I had been a resident of the mountains in 1956, I surely would have heard of King Kelly Coleman and maybe even idolized him like many other young boys in Kentucky. But I did not live in Kentucky in 1956. Instead, I was an 8-year-old farm boy living on a 900-acre farm in Fayette County, Ohio. I had never even heard of the Sweet 16 and did not give squat about high school basketball in Kentucky. At the time, I probably had a vague idea about who Adolph Rupp was, but the only college basketball games I had ever watched involved the Ohio State Buckeyes, and that is only because Dad liked to watch the Bucks and we only had one TV. Despite my ignorance on the topic, I promised Dr…
Continue Reading: JOHN CANNON: King Kelly and hoops from long ago
