A second chance: Sportswriter finally gives old Dunbar a closing tribute

Editor’s note: As a rookie Lexington Herald sportswriter in 1967, Mike Ruehling covered the last basketball game ever played by the old Lexington Dunbar High School. Because of the way the game ended and “in total shock and pressed for deadline,” Ruehling did not write the story he now wishes he had written. With the new Paul Laurence Dunbar playing in the Sweet Sixteen this week, Ruehling took another shot at writing a final article on the old Dunbar. Here is his story:

Lexington’s Paul Laurence Dunbar High School is in the boys’ state high school basketball tournament for the fourth time in its history. That’s pretty good for a school that has only been around since 1990, but still short of what the school it’s named for, the old Dunbar High in the heart of downtown Lexington, achieved in the 10 years it was eligible for the tournament.

Under the legendary coach S.T. Roach, the original Dunbar made six state tournament appearances between 1957 — the year it became the first all-black school admitted to the Kentucky High School Association — and 1967 when its doors closed for good.

Coach Roach took Dunbar to the state tournament in 1958, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1964 and 1965. The team made it to the championship game twice, losing 69-50 to Ashland in 1961 and 72-66 to Louisville Seneca in 1963. Coincidentally, the new Paul Laurence Dunbar also has been state runner-up twice, first in 1993 and again in 1994.

After the 1965 season ended with a 55-49 loss to Covington Holy Cross in the state quarterfinals, Coach Roach retired. He started at Dunbar in 1941 and compiled a 512-142 record over a 22-year career. He was succeeded by Louis Stout, who had a 37-15 record in his two seasons and nearly took Dunbar to a seventh state tourney appearance in 1966, losing to Lexington Catholic 72-60 in the 11th Region championship game.

The new Paul Laurence Dunbar opened in 1990. It was named after the original Dunbar High, but called Paul Laurence Dunbar to differentiate between the old and new. Old Dunbar’s teams were known as the “Bearcats,” Paul Laurence Dunbar’s teams are the “Bulldogs.”

While the old Lexington Dunbar teams were known for their basketball prowess, they also were highly regarded for their sportsmanship. In fact, probably no single entity did more in the 1960s in Kentucky to further the cause of race relations, especially in sports, than Coach Roach and his Dunbar teams.

After admission to the KHSAA in 1957, Dunbar’s basketball teams regularly competed against schools from not only Lexington and Central Kentucky, but also the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and elsewhere across the state. They broke new ground in helping remove racial barriers and reduce prejudice from Kentucky high school basketball.

An article in the Kentucky High School Athlete magazine in April 1961 noted that Fairce Woods, longtime coach of mountain basketball power Breathitt County, had nominated Dunbar for a sportsmanship award for the “courtesy and hospitality school officials and fans extended to his team.” Other schools and coaches from around the state likewise publicly lauded the school’s sportsmanship. The implications of these words should not be discounted; remember, this was 1961, high school basketball had been integrated for only five years, and the concept of competing against all-black schools was new and unprecedented in many places around the state.

Dunbar High then, Paul Laurence Dunbar now: a unique blend of past and present. Without question the current Paul Laurence Dunbar High team will carry a rich heritage and special legacy into the 2016 tournament, the significance of which may not be fully appreciated by team members, coaches and the school’s student body. Much of the old Dunbar High legacy is something you can’t reconstruct even with a Google search. But what happened with the old school, what it meant for high school basketball and, yes, race relations in the state, was and is a big deal, something that should be celebrated and a continuing source of pride for them.

And, who knows? Maybe this will finally be the year that a Lexington school with Dunbar in its name will reach the mountaintop of Kentucky high school basketball and claim the state championship. Maybe the 10th time (six for the old Dunbar, four for the new) will prove to be the charm.

Postscript

The old Dunbar’s long and successful basketball history came to a stunning end on March 3, 1967. That Friday night, the Bearcats, an overwhelming favorite, were upset by cross-town rival Bryan Station 22-20 in the 43rd District Tournament semifinals at Lafayette High’s gym. Yes, that really was the final score.

The loss was entirely unexpected as Dunbar boasted not only a much superior record, but had crushed the Defenders 91-69 the first time the teams met earlier in the season. In throwing Dunbar off its regular game with a slowdown offense, Bryan Station led 3-2 at the end of the first quarter, trailed 6-5 at the half and 12-11 heading into the last eight minutes.

Coverage of the game centered on the upset no one saw coming. The shock factor was so great that there was no mention whatsoever that the game marked the end of the line for Dunbar basketball. The historic significance of the moment was completely overlooked as everyone focused instead on how in the world Bryan Station was able to pull off the upset. I know because I was the rookie sportswriter who covered the game for the Lexington Herald.

This story was originally published March 15, 2016 at 7:28 PM with the headline "A second chance: Sportswriter finally gives old Dunbar a closing tribute."