A full night of activities has been planned Friday, including some basketball, in the second Clash of the Cats for this season at Russellville High School.
Also on the docket are the following: 1) adding a new member to the Russellville Alumni Athletic Hall of Fame; 2) honoring a pair of former RHS coaches and administrators; 3) paying tribute to the first Panther regional championship basketball team; and 4) introducing, possibly, the new Panther football coach.
The Hall of Fame inductee is Thad Key, Class of 1998. He was a key player on that regional championship team his senior year. The administrator-coach duo consists of Wayne Mullen and Mickey Meguiar. The new coach is…well, we have to wait to find out.
Key played basketball four seasons, track his final three years of high school, soccer and baseball two each, and football his sophomore year. He won the state 400-meter championship in 1996. In basketball, he was all-district three years, all-region twice and all-state as a senior. He was also a Kentucky All-Star in the series with Indiana.
Greg Owens, the Russellville sports historian and creator of all things athletic alumni-related at RHS, says Key scored 1,521 career points, which puts him in the top 10 all-time.
Thad Key first played collegiate basketball at Pasco-Hernando Junior College in Florida. Then he was a member of Kentucky Wesleyan’s Division II national championship team in 2001.
He is one of five siblings who were outstanding basketball players at RHS.
His senior team 20 years ago finished 21-8, winning five postseason games. Coach Phil Todd’s squad beat Bowling Green in the regional championship game before taking on nationally ranked Lexington Catholic in the first round of the Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena.
Joining Key on the all-district team that year were Michael Morris and Marcus Gaines. At region, Anthony Woodard was also all-tournament. Morris and freshman teammate Nathan Thompson are already Hall of Fame members, and Todd has been inducted twice, both as an athlete and as a coach.
The basketball doubleheader has been dubbed the Mullen-Meguiar Cat Classic to honor two central figures in Russellville sports history in the third of the 20th century. Owens selected this name in the same way he did the Linton-Wren Kickoff Classic in football to honor the late coaches Buddy Linton and Howard Wren. Wayne Mullen and Mickey Meguiar were, in fact, Owens’ coaches when he played high school basketball for the Panthers.
Wayne Mullen has been associated with the Russellville schools all of his life. He was the center on Coach Jim Young’s basketball team for four years, culminating with Russellville’s first-ever appearance in the regional finals in 1961. He hit the most famous shot in Panther history, scoring the only goal in sudden-death double overtime against Auburn in the regional semifinals that year.
After playing collegiate basketball for Belmont, he came home to teach science at Russellville Middle School and Russellville High School. He had been coaching the junior high Panthers when RHS coach Denny Doyle had to resign not long before school started because Doyle’s professional baseball career was on the upsurge. Superintendent R.E. Stevenson called Mullen where he was a counselor at a summer camp and asked him to become the high school coach.
Mullen was head coach in the 1971 and 1972 seasons with Meguiar his assistant. Then Stevenson asked more of him. He became the first athletic director for RHS, a position he held for over two decades. He was also assistant principal during most of that time. The school added several sports and improved its facilities while he was on the job. All three state football championships so far came while he was AD.
Meguiar had been a starter on some outstanding district champion basketball teams at Auburn High School, playing under coaches Jim Richards and Howard Gorrell. He played collegiately for Cumberland University in Tennessee.
He was coaching in Butler County when Stevenson hired him at Russellville. When Mullen gave up his coaching duties for the administrative positions, Meguiar became head coach. He won three straight district championships; His 1974 team was considered the Panthers’ best between that 1961 squad and the teams that Todd coached in the 90s and 2000s. Todd, in fact, played three years for Meguiar and—like Meguiar—was an outstanding defender.
Meguiar gave up coaching basketball for a few years, but came back to the bench for a couple of more seasons, adding a fourth district championship in 1980.
He also coached golf several years and his Panthers won the 1980 regional championship with the help of a junior high player named Phillip Hatchett. After an international professional career, Hatchett is now men’s golf coach at Western Kentucky University.
Meguiar became an administrator. He served as principal of Stevenson Elementary School and assistant superintendent under Jim Young before becoming principal of RHS. He held that position for several years until his retirement. Three regional basketball championships came while he was leading the school.
Meguiar and Mullen are both members of the Russellville Alumni Athletic Hall of Fame. Family members are expected to join them on court.
Owens says the Meguiar-Mullen observance will be held before the girls game, at approximately 5:50. He hopes Principal Ben Bruni will announce the football coaching hire at halftime of the Ladies’ Clash. If so, the R Club which Owens heads plans to make a presentation regarding football. Key’s induction ceremony will be between games. The 1998 regional champs will be honored at halftime of the Men’s Clash.
All of the action and activities will be carried live on all of WRUS’ platforms.