Former rival and even longer friend of Logan County and Russellville basketball Frank Cardwell will be the recipient Friday of one of the highest honors someone in athletics can achieve. The basketball court at Franklin-Simpson High School will officially become Frank Cardwell Court between games matching the Wildcats and Lady Cats against visiting Clinton County.
Cardwell coached Franklin boys basketball from 1969-84, except for two seasons to start the 80s. He won two regional championships and coached the Cats to three other berths in the regional finals.
He became principal of the school after giving up coaching and also served on the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s Board of Controls, including four years as president of the KHSAA board.
When he retired from working in a Kentucky school system in 1999, he went across the state line to serve as principal of Beech High School near Hendersonville, Tenn. for 15 years.
In 2014 Frank Cardwell was inducted into the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches Court of Honor.
Among his hires as an administrator were Lewisburg High School graduate Greg Shelton and Russellville defensive guru Gywnne Gaddie, a former Logan County Cougars head coach. He hired both of them at Beech. It was the second time he had employed Shelton, for whom the Franklin baseball field has been named for a couple of decades.
As the F-S coach Cardwell had some memorable battles with teams from the Land of Logan. Chief among them were RHS teams coached by Mickey Meguiar. He has maintained a long-time friendship with former F-S basketball standout Bob Birdwhistell, who coached against him at Lewisburg before becoming LCHS’ first athletic director and then principal.
Frank is the uncle of Russellvillian Bobby Cardwell, who is a highly successful youth league coach.
Frank Cardwell played both basketball and baseball for Tennessee Tech. He then played professional baseball, rising to the Class AAA level in the Detroit Tigers organization.
This is a big weekend for Franklin-Simpson sports. Saturday Coach Doug Preston’s football Cats will be playing in their third straight Class 4A state championship game, all of them against Johnson Central. This will be the tiebreaker, since each of them has a win.
F-S ended Logan County’s 10-2 season in the second round of the playoffs.