Martin County Kentucky High School Sports: Recent Episodes
Jack Sterling Ward
Semi-finals of the 2024 15th region boys tournament from Appalachian Wireless Arena.
Jack Ward on Play by Play
15th region semifinal from Appalachian Wireless Arena
Jack Ward and Scott Ratliff on the call.
Scott Ratliff on the call from Magoffin County High School
Sheldon Clark 5 Magoffin County 4 in 8 innings
57th district Tournament Girls championship game from Paintsville High School
Scott Ratliff and Jack Ward on the call
2023 57th District Tournament at Paintsville High School
Danny and Doc Johnson on the call
Martin County defeats Magoffin County 76-72 in a big district matchup at Magoffin County High School. Jack Ward on the call
Semi finals of the 2024 All A tournament from Appalachian Wireless Arena.
Jack Ward on the call
Belfry was 21-6 in 1970-71 and were one of the favorites to win the 15th region or at least to come out of the bottom bracket and face McDowell.
Warfield was coming off a very disappointing loss to Inez in the 57th district final.
Belfry double and triple teamed, Joe Stepp and held him to only 13 points. But Clay Maynard had 21 points and 20 rebounds and Ronald Workman chipped in with 9 points and 15 boards. Warfield had an amazing 50 team rebounds in this game!
John Horn had 15 clutch points but none more clutch than Gary Cox going to the line with 3 seconds left in a tie game shooting a one and one. He made them both and Warfield won 63-61! It was Clay Maynards block of a potential Belfry game winning layup that set up Gary's heroics!
Warfield was behind by 58-52 late in the game but kept battling and came up with the great win.
Unfortunately we only have the fourth quarter of this exciting game called by the great Jim Fyffe.
Thanks again to John Horn...
Enjoy!
Jack Ward
Warfield beat Louisa December 1st, 1970 at Louisa 99-89. Warfield beat Louisa in Paintsville Invitational Tournament January 13th 1971.... 65-49. On February 5th Warfield wins again at home 87-76. They met for the fourth time in the 57th District Tournament. It is hard to beat a pretty good team four times. Louisa beat Paintsville the night before 70-68 and were 11-12 on the season. Jack Lemaster, Keith Bradley and Bruce Jenks were really good players for Louisa.
This time it was no contest. Warfield showed their greatness that season by winning 84-47 in a game that they dominated in every way. Joe Stepp had 42 points. John Horn and Gary Cox played great games and Clay Maynard and Ronald Workman were beasts on the boards. I counted Clay with an unofficial count of 23 rebounds in about 3 quarters of play!
This just demonstrates how good Warfield was when they all played well in 1970-71. They would lose to Inez the next night but in the regional tournament they upset 21-6 Belfry and in the semi-finals had Pikeville on the ropes before emotions erupted in the last two minutes. I would have loved to have seen Warfield take on McDowell in the finals that year. Warfield finished 22-13 in 1970-71.
Johnson Central humiliated Inez in the Paintsville Invitational Tournament at Paintsville High on January 14th by a score of 98-58. The rematch occurred February 10th at Johnson Central High School. It was another complete embarrassment for Inez. Losing 111-59. It was the worst loss in the storied history of Inez High School. Now they meet again just three weeks later in the semi-finals of the district tournament again AT the Johnson Central High School fieldhouse.
No one gave Inez any chance at all. But miracles happen and one happened the night of March 5th, 1971.
We only have the first quarter, a tiny bit of the second quarter and all of the fourth quarter.
Jim Fyffe with the call of the most infamous game in East Kentucky high school history. Known as "the fight" game. One of the largest brawls in basketball history occurred with 25 seconds left in the game. It was a hotly contested game between two good teams. And it was nip and tuck, back and forth until Pikeville finally edged out to a seven point lead late in the game.
I was attending the game as a 14 year old freshman to root for Warfield who I loved to watch play. I was there with my dad and two sisters sitting in the lower level near the exits about eight rows up. It was the perfect spot to see the fight break out!
The reason for the fight....Hard fouls by both teams the last two minutes including a couple intentional fouls by Warfield as you will hear Jim Fyffe say. But the real reason was that many had begun to file out leaving a mass of people near the exits. They did not leave immediately but were standing there waiting to see if Warfield was going to rally. This pushed the crowd almost under the basket where the scuffle started.
It was a scary time that seemed to last forever. I thought Jim Fyffe did an excellent job of not going to a break during the fight and using poignant phrases that described it perfectly.
John Horn a Warfield player gave a copy of this recording to me that his mother made live while listening at home. We are so grateful for history's sake for her fore sight and that her son John kept them all these years and gave me a copy. Enjoy!
The great Jim Fyffe of WSIP in Paintsville calls the 57th district championship game of 1971 between Warfield and Inez.
Jim and his brother Paul were pioneering sports announcers of high school basketball. Jim and Paul were great play by play announcers. Jim was only 26 years old when he did this broadcast but by then he had been doing high school sports since his teens.
Jim Fyffe was the voice of the Auburn Tigers football and basketball from 1981 to 2003 when he died suddenly at the age of 57. He was inducted into the Auburn sports Hall of Fame.
Jack Ward on Play by Play from Cardinal Park in Inez, Ky. Home of Martin County Kentucky High school baseball.