Their coach was drafted into World War II. The Sweet Sixteen delayed his enlistment.
The world is much different now than the last time Walton-Verona played in the boys’ Sweet Sixteen state basketball tournament.
Grant Brannen, in his sixth season leading the Bearcats, can go to bed reasonably expecting that he won’t be drafted into the U.S. military. Lewis Shields, Brannen’s counterpart for the 1942 Bearcats, who last represented the school at state, did not have that luxury.
Shields was drafted mid-season following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Then something happened that only could have in a place as basketball-obsessed as Kentucky.
“Our coach was drafted during the season,” Russell Groger, a now-deceased member of the 1942 team, told The Kentucky Post in April 2002. “But we looked like we had the potential to accomplish something so the people in Walton got up a petition and got him deferred until the end of the season.”
Shields joined the service following the season — Walton-Verona fell to Hartford in the first round at state — as did every graduating senior on the 1942 squad. Lewis died two years later during the Battle of the Bulge.
Charles “Hunky” Holder, 93, and the last surviving member of that Walton-Verona team, recalled the uncertainty about his coach’s status during the 1942 season.
“Naturally you missed him when he wasn’t there,” Holder said in a phone interview with the Herald-Leader as Walton-Verona prepared to open the Sweet Sixteen at noon Wednesday against Knox Central. “So you really looked forward to when he was there. It seemed like things clicked better when he was here cause we were used to his style of play and what he wanted us to do. ...
“It’s a shame we lost him, along with so many Americans who lost their lives. It was just a bad deal.”
Holder was a sophomore in 1942 but eventually joined the service himself as a senior two years later. He was young — 16 — and wasn’t sure if he was even eligible. His stepfather didn’t know, either.
“He said, ‘Come on, get in the car and we’ll find out,’” Holder said. They went to the head of the local draft board — a painter by trade — and he didn’t have a good answer, either. So he signed Holder up, and soon he was off to Naval Station Great Lakes, the States’ only Navy boot camp, in Chicago.
“About that time they were taking husbands with two children,” Holder said. “He said, ‘You’ll save a dad from going for a few days or a little while.’”
‘One more step’
The 2019 Bearcats — who brought an end to Walton-Verona’s 77-year drought of Sweet Sixteen bids — don’t have to worry about a Great War after their season ends. They can focus on basketball, a game that’s changed as much as the world in Holder’s time.
“One of the biggest changes is the speed that they use these days,” Holder said, noting that his teams held the ball more to look for a good shot and now teams can “pass the ball 12 times in a minute” to find a good look. “The players and officials have to be in good shape.”
But it’s still basketball, a sport with which Walton was as enthralled in the 1940s as it is today. Bearcats Athletic Director Kyle Bennett upon hiring Brannen in 2013 told him that “Basketball is a form of our identity.”
“I’ve gotten to learn that over and over again these last six years,” Brannen said.
Brannen before the 8th Region finals laid out newspapers, programs and photos of the 1942 team in the Bearcats’ locker room. He didn’t dwell long on the past or force his players to look at the documents, but encouraged them to have the same focus for the community that that team did.
Many of those documents were preserved for decades by Groger and another Walton-Verona fixture, Dennis Glacken, who’s also now deceased. Chris Grubbs, a current parent, is a caretaker now. He reached out to Glacken’s and Groger’s daughters recently.
“Their dads aren’t actually still around — and we don’t know, maybe they know what’s going on — but they’ve still been able to have an impact on this team and to have an impact on their opportunity to go to the state tournament,” Grubbs said.
Larry Gilliam, Holder’s step-grandson and in his 23rd season as Walton-Verona’s public address announcer, had the pleasure of honoring Holder two years ago during a home game in front of a packed house. He fought back tears.
How does a community stay so passionate when its last claim to statewide fame came when Franklin D. Roosevelt was in office?
“It’s the culture. It’s part of who you are, it’s part of the fiber of the town. It’s part of being there,” Gilliam said. “The reality is every year you get a little bit closer. You win a district tournament, or you get to the semifinals of the regional tournament. Every year there’s that hope that you can make it one more step. ...
“There’s always that hope for that opportunity. And now it’s here.”
Sweet Sixteen
What: Boys’ high school basketball state tournament
When: Wednesday through Sunday
Where: Rupp Arena
Radio: All games on WWRW-FM 105.5 in Lexington and on numerous stations across the state
Video livestream: All games available on NFHSNetwork.com (subscription required)
Tickets: $17-$21 (Available at Rupp Arena Box Office or online at Ticketmaster.com or KHSAA.org)
