FOUNDATIONS FOR

by Jerry Wallace

Who could have predicted that the 1956 Madison-Model football team would go on to win its conference and remain unbeaten until a “bowl game” loss in its season finale?

After all, its new coach took over just six days before the team’s first practice. The program, which had recorded only 23 victories over its previous nine seasons, was in its first year of racial integration. Only 13 players –– 11 seniors and two juniors –– would see significant playing time, and only one of those weighed 200-plus pounds.

Treat others as you would want to be treated

Be honest and sincere Choose your friends and associates carefully

Give every task your full effort

Be able to listen –– every person knows something you don’t

Pay attention to the little things

Be mentally tough –– learn to get up when you’ve been knocked down

Know your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses as well as your own

If you practice hard, you will play hard

But then, this was no ordinary group of young men, and it was certainly no ordinary coach who led the Royal Purples into battle. Roy Kidd, just 24 at the time, had never known anything but success as a three-sport high school star in his native Corbin and as a standout quarterback at Eastern, and he quickly built a winning culture with Madison-Model by modeling a combination of competitive fire, hard work, steely discipline, intense preparation, painstaking attention to detail and, of course, some x-and-o wizardry –– all the traits that would later make him a College Football Hall of Fame coach.

The ’56 team was anchored by seniors Jimmy Hinkle, quarterback; Johnny Greene, Charles Harkleroad and Allen Hughes (son of Eastern coaching legend “Turkey” Hughes), backfield; Harold Lane, J. I. Isbell, Ernest Aldridge, Cecil Curry, Fred Crump, Ralph Azbill and Richard Elam.

Lineman Wayne Bowlin was one of the two juniors on the MadisonModel squad, joining Sam Chambers, the first African American to play and start for the newly integrated program, which combined players from Richmond Madison and Model Laboratory high schools. The two went on to co-captain the ’57 squad, which also lost only one game. The race-related issues some expected never materialized. “The year went as smooth as silk,” Bowlin recalled, adding that Kidd “treated us all the same.”

Kidd commanded the respect of his players from day one. “When he walked into a room, he didn’t have to say a word,” Bowlin recalled. It was all business on the football field, though Kidd did bring in a jukebox to help loosen the players before practices and games. Curfew was strictly enforced, and the players were required to wear a tie to games and attend church. “He always felt if you looked sloppy, you’d play sloppy.”

Kidd’s Madison-Model teams amassed a 54-11-1 record in his six years at the helm, with his final team in 1961 finishing 13-1 as Kentucky Class AA runner-up. Kidd was consequently named Kentucky High School Coach of the Year and three years later began his historic run with the Colonels.

Bowlin, whom Kidd helped earn a scholarship to Eastern, went on to a distinguished career as a coach and educator, retiring in 1993 after 20 years as principal at Daniel Boone Elementary School in Richmond. His son, Mike, went on to play for Kidd at Eastern and has served as head football coach at East Jessamine High School since 2005.

A few years into his own professional career, Bowlin found himself on a recruiting trip with Kidd, by that time head coach at Eastern. This would be the perfect time, Bowlin thought, to thank his former mentor for all he had done to spur his own success. He struggled to find the right words but never forgot Kidd’s response: “Don’t thank me. Just go help somebody else.”

So, just as he had done so many times on the football field, Bowlin heeded that play call, recalling how he viewed his Daniel Boone students as “little Wayne Bowlins” who needed his support and encouragement.

Of course, Kidd offered the same counsel to countless others, and it’s why his legacy lives on far beyond the confines of football, the stadium that bears his name and the years he coached young men to be the best they could be and then make a difference in the lives of others. n

PREVIOUS PAGE: Co-captains Wayne Bowlin, left, and Sam Chambers hold the Recreation Bowl championship trophy, with MVP Jerry Woolum kneeling in front. THIS PAGE: above left, Wayne Bowlin; above right, Coach Kidd; and, at left, starting lineup, back row, from left, Jerry Walker, Bill Putteet, Jerry Woolum, Orville Abner, Allen McCracken and Pearl Cowan; front, from left, Ed Klatte, Shirley Smith, Sam Chambers, Richard Elam and Wayne Bowlin.