More than a list: Herald-Leader Hundred helps mark high school football history

Before the advent of high school football recruiting rankings, before social media, before everyone became an expert on everything to do with high school sports, the Herald-Leader began what would eventually become its “Herald-Leader Hundred” preseason list of some of the state’s best prep football players more than three decades ago.

Hall of fame high school sports writer Mike Fields had been publishing a short list of top seniors for a while in the 1980s. He remembers the list growing to 30 at one point.

But in the summer of 1994, he asked coaches across the state in his annual preseason survey who they thought the 10 best players in Kentucky were, regardless of class.

From that, the Herald-Leader’s first “Fifty of Kentucky’s Top Players” list was born. Sometimes it was called the “Kentucky 50” or the “Kentucky Fab 50.”

And there was no going back.

“I think we just wanted to get more kids’ names in there,” Fields remembered. “It just blew up.”

You might recognize some of the names from that 1994 list:

• Shaun Alexander, senior running back, Boone County (Alabama, Seattle Seahawks).
• Tim Couch, junior quarterback, Leslie County (Kentucky, Cleveland Browns).
• Dennis Johnson, freshman linebacker, Harrodsburg (Kentucky, Arizona Cardinals).
• Chris Redman, senior quarterback, Male (Louisville, Baltimore Ravens, Atlanta Falcons).
• Craig Yeast, senior defensive back, Harrodsburg (Kentucky, Cincinnati Bengals, CFL).

Three years later, Johnson went on to become the Sports Illustrated national high school player of the year and 1997’s Mr. Football ahead of his standout career at the University of Kentucky and a short stint in the NFL. He’s been the head football coach and athletic director at Woodford County for the last several years.

Johnson said he doesn’t remember making anyone’s list way back then, but he appreciates the accolades now.

“I didn’t think I was any good,” Johnson said dryly. “Scholastic Sports America came and I was like, ‘Why are they following me?’ I’m dead serious. My dad (the late, great Harrodsburg coach Alvis Johnson) was just so hard on us that I didn’t know. … At the time, I definitely didn’t understand it because if I missed a tackle in practice the day before, my dad was riding me for 10 hours for missing ol’ Craig Yeast.”

Johnson certainly understands something about top player lists now. His son, Kentucky basketball freshman Jasper Johnson, was rated one of the best class of 2025 players in the nation by several recruiting outlets throughout high school career.

“I think there’s both good and bad, right? Because you want to recognize kids you see with potential, but sometimes we don’t see that potential in high school. Some kids are going to be better in college than high school. Maybe that’s more in basketball than football,” Johnson said. “But then, I think it’s good in the sense that it gives kids a chance to have a chip on their shoulder. Then you get a chance to go prove if you’re good.”

When the Herald-Leader’s Josh Moore took over the high school beat in 2015, he soon expanded the list to 50 “plus five more” from various parts of the state for a total of 85 players. Moore’s first list included Paintsville’s Kash Daniel (Kentucky) and Lafayette’s Landon Young (Kentucky, New Orleans Saints).

In 2019, I took over the preseason players list and soon found narrowing all of Kentucky’s talent down to 85 to be too tough a task.

So, in 2020, “The Herald-Leader Hundred” made its debut with Frederick Douglass’ Jager Burton atop the chart at No. 1. The future Kentucky offensive lineman went on to share Associated Press Mr. Football honors with Beechwood’s Cameron Hergott at the end of the season.

Hergott, who made the H-L Hundred top 50 that year, led the Tigers to a Class 2A state championship and won the coaches’ association Mr. Football vote outright.

His uncle, Beechwood offensive coordinator and former QB Greg Hergott, happened to be among those listed alongside Alexander, Couch, Johnson, Redman and Yeast as one of the H-L’s 50 top players in 1994.

So, too, was Bullitt East quarterback Brandon Egan, the father of Travis Egan, who made 2022’s H-L Hundred in the later-half “50 more.”

Travis’ name appeared on just two of 66 coaches’ top-10 lists that summer going into his senior year. He wouldn’t have been part of the old Fab 50 as it was.

Little did anyone know Egan would have a season for the ages in leading the Chargers to a stunning Class 6A state championship and earning Mr. Football honors in the process.

“More kids’ names …,” Fields said about expanding the list in 1994.

And “more kids’ names” is why we put 100 together today. The tradition rolls on.

So, who will be the names you remember from 2025’s Herald-Leader Hundred?

Let’s see.

This story was originally published August 14, 2025 at 10:00 AM.

Jared Peck

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-488-2883

Jared Peck, the Herald-Leader’s Digital Sports Writer, covers high school athletics and has been with the company as a writer and editor for more than 20 years. Support my work with a digital subscription