On Thanksgiving Day 1939, Jack Dempsey, Jim Thorpe, Red Grange, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Paavo Nurmi watched their first football game in Russellville. Actually, the six legendary athletes couldn’t see the Panthers in action, since their faces were made of stone and they were facing away from the playing field at the magnificent entrance to what would be known as Rhea Stadium.
Had they been looking toward what is now officially Ken Barrett Field, they would have seen a great football game. Russellville tied long-time power Bowling Green 6-6 in the first game played at Rhea Stadium.
This was the third straight 6-6 tie to close out what was the first winning season in Russellville’s great football history. The team finished 5-1-3 in the fifth season of Russellville football.
This season marks the 75th year of Panther football in Historic Rhea Stadium. To honor this milestone, there will be a recognition ceremony during the Franklin-Simpson game on Sept. 26. Honorary Captains will be named for each home game. The school system’s new public relations director, Donna Brown Wilkerson, says, “If you or someone you know played football or was a cheerleader at Russellville High School in the 1930s through the 1960s, please contact Patsy Hendrick at 270-726-8405.”
The 1939 team continued to play on its original home field, known as Legion Field, until Rhea Stadium was ready at the end of the season. Legion Field, also known as “the Ball Park,” was between East Sixth and Seventh streets, in the area which is now Hampton Park. The problem with the field—in addition to a lack of seating—was its tendency to flood.
Businessman Phil Andrews, who was one of the civic leaders most responsible for creating RHS football, suggested to state Democratic kingpin Thomas S. Rhea of Russellville, that what was known as Ellen Ryan Hill overlooking the Russellville schools be converted into a football stadium. The school system already owned the hill. Rhea originally thought converting the hillside into a stadium would be too expensive.
“One day I found him and his three sons looking it over. He used his political influence with his friend, President Franklin Roosevelt, to get it built with the help of WPA,” Andrews told me while I was researching my 1975 booklet, Football City. The 1940 yearbook said the stadium cost $90,000 and asserted the stadium is “second to none in the state as to beauty.”
Mr. Rhea’s three sons, Tom Jr., Ab and Roland Clark, were key players in the early years of RHS football. Tom Jr. played in the first RHS game ever on Sept. 12, 1935, Ab was captain of the 1938 team which got the program’s first-ever win over Bowling Green (7-0 on the great Homer Chapman’s touchdown), and Roland ‘Judge’ Rhea was the quarterback of the first full season in 1940 at the stadium which bears his family name.
Tom Rhea’s grandchildren living in Russellville now are attorney Tom Noe and nurse Jane Noe Duncan.
Among those credited with starting Russellville football and building toward this new stadium were C.W. Andrews, Inman McLean, Hickey Stovall, Rhea Carpenter, John Dalton, Henry Hopson, John Moore, Johnny Edwards, Henry Hopson, and, of course, Phil Andrews.
Members of the school board that year were Dr. Guy Clark, Thomas S. Rhea, Morris Duncan, and W.V. Leedom. The Downtown Quarterback Club was composed of 30 members.
Starters for the Panthers in the first game at the stadium were Joe Wheeler and Jimmy Matherly at end, H.C. Lovell and John Williams at tackle, Clarence Kurtsinger and Earl Martin Gordon at guard, Ernest Sears at center. Homer Chapman at quarterback, W.L. Coleman and George ‘Red’ Brown at halfback, and Hollis Baldwin at fullback.
Three of them—Chapman, Gordon and Matherly—were honorable mention all-state. It was the third year Chapman, who went on to a professional baseball career, was honorable mention. Williams, who was a sophomore, became the Panthers’ first all-stater in the 1941 season.
Among other team members were Robert Cates, Charles Welborn, Billy Mac Goodwin, Ford Crowder, Wayne Cornelius, L.D. Glenn, Bradley Coffman, Melvin Kemp, William Owen Chapman, R.L. Holloway, Jack Bennison, Robert Hughes, Carlel Costello, James Province, Shirley Pillow, Leslie Varble and Roy Arnold.
Managers were Bobby Clark, George Wheeler and Billy Clarey. Assistant coaches were Walter West and Paul Woodall.
The bigger-than-life head coach was Elvis ‘El’ Donaldson, who went on to become one of the greatest names in Western Kentucky Conference football. He coached the Panthers for seven seasons from 1937-43 and had built the program into a WKC contender before World War II took away his starting backfield of Owen Chapman, Robert Hughes and Clifton ‘Stooley’ Davis while they were still in high school. Star lineman Frank Gorrell, who would become lieutenant governor of Tennessee, withdrew from RHS and entered a military school before playing football for Vanderbilt.
The team was decimated and Donaldson still showed his disappointment 30 years later when I interviewed him for Football City. Only Barclay ‘Boochie’ Griffith was left to carry the ball. That team did their best, but they were not competitive with teams they otherwise would have beaten.
Donaldson accepted an offer to become head coach at archrival Bowling Green High School after that season and had a marvelous career. The BGH stadium is named for him.
His son, Mac Donaldson, remains one of the most knowledgeable sports people in the region. He plans to be in attendance at that Sept. 26 game. His son-in-law, former Franklin-Simpson football coach Tim Schlosser, is now the FSHS principal.
On the day of that first game at Rhea Stadium in 1939, celebrations were held. After a parade, Acting Mayor Henry B. Edwards emceed a ceremony on the field. The RHS and BGH bands performed. Pharmacist/Board Member Morris Duncan and Superintendent Henry Cannon spoke.
The stadium was dedicated a second time at the start of the 1940 season when it was officially named Rhea Stadium. Mayor Edwards represented the city again. John Albert Whittaker, the last Congressman to come from Russellville, was the master of ceremonies. Logan County Superintendent G. Buford Williams spoke, as did the team’s first coach, L.R. ‘Squee’ Squier. Western Kentucky basketball coach Ed Diddle was present and was introduced as “the Granddaddy of football in this section.”
Mr. Rhea, who had come within an eyelash of being governor, called the stadium “the finest WPA project in the region, not just a job.” Lt. Gov. Rodes K. Myers foreshadowed what was to come by saying it is “better to watch athletic events than air raids” a little over a year before an air raid at Pearl Harbor changed life in America.
Judge Rhea threw a 45-yard pass to Owen Chapman on the final play of the game, but he was stopped at the goal line. The game ended in a scoreless tie with Central City.
John Williams and Owen Chapman are believed to be the only living members of that first team which played at Rhea Stadium 75 years ago. They are being invited to be honorary captains of the Panthers on Sept. 26.
Descendants of those who played, managed or cheered in that game are invited to attend that night. They will be recognized if they turn in their name to the school by calling Patsy Hendrick at 726-8405.