The list of Hall of Famers at Logan County High School is about to grow by a huge percentage.
The third class of the Cougar Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame will consist of every member of the 1984 boys state basketball championship team, including all 13 players, 4 coaches and 2 managers.
Two of the players—Stacey Mason and Fred Tisdale—and the head coach—the late Gerald Sinclair—are already in the Hall. Tisdale, who was MVP of the state tournament and voted one of the 50 greatest players in Sweet Sixteen history, was a charter member in 2015. Mason, who was all-state tournament, and Sinclair, who was state coach of the year, were inducted last year.
The 1984 Cougars finished with a 37-3 record, the highest win total in Kentucky high school history at the time. Adding to the mystique of this team was the greatest goal in Kentucky prep sports—winning the state basketball championship—came in only the second year in the school’s history. LCHS was the “youngest school” to win the title.
The five seniors who started most of the season had all started one or more years for one of the five schools which merged into Logan County High School in the fall of 1982: point guard Tim Viers and center Tisdale at Auburn, forward Mason at Adairville, forward Karl Wayne Dawson at Olmstead, and shooting guard Tim Thomason at Chandlers.
Two of the other three who played extensively are no longer living. They were senior guard Gary Barker and junior forward John Tisdale. The third was junior guard Henry Jones, who is still remembered for a great move and layup for the winning points in an overtime state quarterfinals win over top-ranked Lexington Henry Clay. The Cougars were second ranked going in.
The other state tournament wins came over Meade County, Madisonville-North Hopkins in the semifinals and Bourbon County in the championship game. The Cougars won their first three games by a total of seven points—by three over Meade and two each over Henry Clay and Madisonville. The championship game was the only breather, that coming by an 83-70 count.
Also members of the team were Phillip Mallory, Warren Thomason, Keith Hines, Todd Parker and Brent Hinton. The only freshman on the team, Hinton also played in the regional finals as a senior in 1987. He joins Fred Tisdale and Tim Viers as the only boys basketball players in all the decades of Logan County history to have played in two regional finals. Viers and Tisdale had been key players for Auburn’s 1982 finalist squad as sophomores in the last game ever played by a non-consolidated Logan County team.
Their coaches will join them in the Hall of Fame, and that’s fitting, since all three of them have legitimate Hall credentials on their own.
Assistant head coach Barry Reed is the only Logan County basketball coach to have been on the bench in four regional finals; in fact, he’s the only one to have coached in three finals. In addition to the state championship run, he was assistant coach at his alma mater, Auburn, when Coach Larry Jordan’s Tigers reached the finals. Five years later, he was head coach of the Auburn Tigers team which made it to the championship contest in that last-ever, non-consolidated game. He followed Sinclair as the second had coach of the Cougars, and his 1987 team made it to the regional finals. Reed left coaching in 1989, but came back to be an assistant under Greg Howard in the early 2000s. He had begun his coaching by helping Coach Bob Birdwhistell as a student teacher in Lewisburg’s memorable district championship season of 1970-71. He also served as head coach of both Auburn High baseball and girls basketball after his return from military service in the late 70s.
David Billingsley was officially freshman coach on that state championship squad, but he was an integral part of the varsity staff. He had coached both basketball and baseball at Lewisburg High School before consolidation. He is best known for baseball coaching. After leading the Rangers to the district championship, he was named the first head baseball coach at LCHS and served in that capacity for nine years, compiling 114 wins, including 20 in the postseason. Cougar baseball was an instant success. Billingsley’s teams won the district championship their first four years of existence, and six of the first eight. His 1989 Cougars won the school’s first regional championship and then won a state tournament game. Billingsley became head of the state’s vocational/technology centers before he retired.
David Beckner was a volunteer coach who became a trusted assistant to Sinclair. He also served as an assistant football coach and head golf coach over the years. He started girls golf at LCHS. Like Reed, he stayed at LCHS until his retirement. A former WKU basketball player, Beckner is a member of the Warren Central Hall of Fame because of his accomplishments as an athlete for the Dragons.
Also to be inducted into the Hall of Fame Friday are the team’s managers. Danny Pendleton and Jimmy Cornelius were always in evidence during that state championship season. The coaches and players depended on them in many ways.
Previously inducted to the Cougar Foundation Athletic Hall of Fame are Bob Birdwhistell, who was athletic director during the championship season, and Principal Howard Gorrell, a highly successful coach at Auburn.
They are not scheduled for induction into the Hall, but the cheerleading squad coached by Stephanie Benjamin Spencer played a role in the team’s success. Their maiden names were Kim Clark, Lana Appling, Diane Mimms, Janice Taylor, Kim Chyle, Chrissi Head, and Garth Brooks.
A reception will be held early Friday evening for the players and their families. The induction ceremony will be held between games against McLean County.
First Southern National Bank is sponsor of the Cougar Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame. Richard Holloman heads the Hall of Fame Committee for the Cougar Athletic Foundation.