A diverse group of people who have played key roles in the history of Logan County sports will be inducted into the Logan County Cougar Foundation Hall of Fame in late January between games of the Clash of the Cats.
They include graduates of four of the five middle schools, one who did not attend a school in the county system, three African-Americans, three who exceled in Logan sports before consolidation,, a woman, two who exceled in two sports, one former LCHS teacher, two who were high school varsity sports standouts in middle school, two who are over half a century apart in age, and stars in baseball, boys basketball, girls basketball, football and track.
The honorees are Dustin Cartas, Re Jeana Green Coleman, Ed ‘Fido’ Jones, John McCarley, Chris Taylor, Thomas Washington and Jim Turner.
A look at the credentials for each follows:
John McCarley (Auburn 1959) was a star basketball player for Auburn High School in the late fifties. He’s best remembered for coming off his sick bed to lead Coach Ronnie Clark’s Tigers to the district championship and regional tournament his 1959 senior season in high school and leading the David Lipscomb College Bisons to an upset of Coach Ed Diddle’s Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in the first basketball game ever played in Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium in 1963. Around the state, he is known for being one of the top high school basketball officials in Kentucky in the seventies and eighties.
Then known as ‘Johnny’ McCarley, as a junior he joined fellow all-district performers Buddy Barry and Bobby Blankenship in double figures as the Tigers beat Lewisburg 62-48 for the championship. The following season, when he played while sick, he led the Tigers with 14 points in the championship game in a 47-42 win over a Russellville team which featured four future Panther Hall of Famers.
He returned to the Land of Logan as head basketball coach at Russellville High School. From then on, he was an administrator.
One of his greatest contributions to Logan County athletics was expanding girls sports by fielding a girls tennis team at Olmstead High School in the early seventies. He not only was the school’s principal, but also coached the tennis team. His number one player, Brenda Chapman, won the regional singles championship twice before becoming the number one tennis player and the career scoring leader in Lady Topper basketball and Rookie of the Year and MVP of a professional women’s basketball league.
The tennis team came before girls in Logan County and the region started playing basketball. McCarley also fielded the regional runner-up doubles team at OHS in Brenda’s sisters, Darlene and Mary Sue Chapman.
As an official, McCarley often teamed with Logan County High School’s first principal, Howard Gorrell, or Bowling Green High football coach Wilson Sears or Logan County’s Mike Stevenson in working the biggest games in the Fourth Region or state.
In addition to Olmstead, he served as principal of Metcalfe County and Glasgow high schools. As principal/superintendent of Goodpasture Christian School in the Nashville area, he entertained some of the nation’s best college coaches as they came to Goodpasture to scout star player Ron Mercer, who opted to play for Kentucky. Mercer was a key member of one of UK’s best teams ever, helping Rick Pitino’s Cats win the 1996 national championship.
Johnny McCarley was named all-district and all-area in high school basketball. He was chosen to play in the East-West All-Star game in Lexington as a senior. He also played baseball for the Tigers. His sophomore year of college, he was a key player on the Bisons’ conference champions. He was inducted into the Lipscomb University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992.
McCarley and his wife Diane live near Lipscomb in the Nashville area. He and his late first wife, Pat, had two children, Jane McCarley Thomas and John Patrick McCarley. Diane is the widow of Lipscomb national champion baseball coach Ken Dugan.
Ed ‘Fido’ Jones (Adairville, 1973) was one of two eighth graders to start varsity basketball for Hall of Fame/state champion coach Gerald Sinclair, who coached four teams in the Logan system. His other middle school starter was Hall of Famer Kenneth Bunton at Auburn.
As a freshman, Jones scored 29 points in a two-point district loss. In 1971 as a sophomore, he averaged 18 points and 16 rebounds per game while helping guide Adairville to a 26-5 record and the semifinals of the regional tournament. He scored 14 points in a 64-56 loss to Coach Bob Birdwhistell’s Lewisburg Rangers in the district finals.
In 1972 as a junior, he averaged 22 points and 20 rebounds, not only helping lead the Cardinals back to the regional tournament but also to the school’s first district championship in 40 years. Tommy Cummings was the coach, but he and most of the players, including star center Raymond Mason, were gone the next year. Fido scored 21 points and Danny Finch 18 in the Cardinals’ win over Auburn in the ’72 finals. That was Auburn’s first year to be coached by Sinclair, who had succeeded Hall of Famer Howard Gorrell. The Cardinals went 46-14 in Jones’ sophomore and junior seasons.
Jones was named first team to the first-ever All-Southcentral team as a junior and third team as a senior. He was named All District Tournament as a freshman, sophomore, junior and senior.
He played shortstop and pitched for Adairville’s baseball team and signed to play basketball for Lindsey Wilson College.
Ed ‘Fido’ Jones lived in Springfield as an adult and died this year at age 69.
Re Jeana Green (Chandlers 1980) was a fixture as one of the top players in Logan County in the first six years after girls basketball returned to this area in 1974. She and her classmate, the late Janite Snell, started for six years and played at a high level throughout. Green was named to the Dream Team of the 1970s in girls basketball from the six teams in the Land of Logan. She was all-district in five of those six years.
She led Coach Tom Fisher’s Lady Bears to the district finals as an eighth grader. It was the first time a Chandlers team had been to region in the 25 years since the boys made it in 1951.
Green was a guard in her early years but became a post player as she grew, although she continued to be a talented ball handler. She repeatedly led CHS in both scoring and rebounding and won honors for her defense and for shooting percentage in both field goals and free throws. She averaged 22 points and 10 rebounds, but also led the team in assists. Several of those years she was coached by Hall of Famer Jim Thompson.
While maintaining a high GPA, she stayed on the honor roll and became a member of the BETA Club and National Honor’s Society. After graduating from high school, Re Jeana remained focused on academics and earned an Associate’s degree in Health Sciences from Western Kentucky University and received her Bachelor’s degree in Health Information Management from Stephens College, Columbia, Mo
Mrs. Coleman has been employed by a large health system network in Franklin, Tenn. as Corporate Director in Clinical Documentation Improvement. She and her husband Anthony reside in Bowling Green. They enjoy spending time with their two children and three grandsons.
Chris Taylor (LCHS 1986) put together an outstanding high school and college baseball career and one stunning season of high school football.
He was a member of the first four Cougar baseball teams from the start of school at LCHS in 1982 through his graduation in 1986, as both a pitcher and a position player. Coach David Billingsley’s team never lost a district game in those four years. He was MVP two straight years of the Doyle brothers’ baseball camp in Florida, which Billingsley’s teams attended during spring break. In addition to pitching, he batted .400 his senior season.
In the summer after his senior year, he had a 13-2 record for the Kentucky Colonels American Legion team.
The first Cougar to play Division I baseball, he pitched for Austin Peay State University for four years. Notable pitching performances include a one-hit shutout over Wright State University, saves in wins against both the University of Kentucky and Vanderbilt University, and pitching in a combined no-hitter against Valparaiso University. He made the All-Star team for semi-pro baseball in Nashville and pitched in three of his team’s four National Baseball Congress World Series games in Omaha, winning two of them.
Chris Taylor also played one season of high school football under Coach Steve Eans and made an immediate impact in that senior year. As the second starting quarterback in Cougar football history between Kyle Hines and Hall of Famer Tyrone Babb, he passed for over 800 yards and did the punting and place kicking. One of his punts traveled 62 yards. He was Honorable Mention All-Southcentral Kentucky. Logan County fans and coaches talked about how unfortunate it was that he didn’t play football until his senior year, that he had the potential as a pure passer to be a major college quarterback.
Chris and his family live in the Clarksville area where he is an analytical technician.
Thomas Washington (LCHS 2010) put together two sensational track seasons as a sophomore and junior and was on his way to another before he suffered an injury. He had had signed to run track for Western Kentucky University before his life ended tragically in the summer between high school and college. He was a state champion, state runner-up twice, and third in the state once. He won five regional championships, five SKY League championships, and 23 regular season meet races and jumps. These came in three different categories.
In the 400 meter, he won both the region and SKY two straight years. He was tenth at state his sophomore year and third his junior season. He took first in the regular season eight times.
In the long jump, he was state runner-up twice and regional and SKY champion twice. He won first place in eight regular season jumps.
The Adairville native competed in the triple jump only one season, his junior year. It may have been his best event, however. He won the state championship as well as being the regional and SKY gold medalist. He took seven regular season titles.
During the fall of his senior year, he added a fourth event, the javelin, and won a first place in it. He also took first in both jumping events. He wasn’t able to compete for the spring track team because of an injury he suffered during the indoor season. His life ended in August 2010, a few days before he was to start his collegiate track run at WKU.
Washington also had an excellent football career at LCHS and was a major factor in the Cougars' getting a rare playoff victory in that era. In the first half of the 27-24 win over Hopkins County Central, he intercepted two passes. In the game, he kept a drive alive with a 10-yard run, caught a 37-yard touchdown pass from John Logan Dockins, and drew a roughing call on the Storm while punting for Coach Lee Proctor’s team.
For his career, he accounted for 2,493 yards—1,375 passing on 80 completions, 1,168 rushing on 220 carries, and 504 receiving on 50 catches.
“What a special athlete and person he was,” says Logan County Athletic Director Greg Howard, who was his track coach.
Dustin Cartas (LCHS 2013) was the starting catcher for Cougar Baseball for six seasons, the first two while he was still a student at Chandlers Middle School. In addition to his steady defense, he batted cleanup in almost every game those six years. “He pretty much has every career record,” notes his coach, Ethan Meguiar.
Before he entered high school, he already had made 176 plate appearances while scoring 33 runs, piling up 42 hits, 24 runs, 21 walks and 4 home runs. He had batted .425 and only struck out 6 times.
As a senior, he captained Meguiar’s regional championship team, the school’s first in 24 seasons. That year he batted ,450 with 48 hits, 21 home runs and 22 runs scored.
He remains the Cougars’ career leader in hits with 233, RBIs 189 and home runs 30. His career batting average was .428. Additionally, he went to the plate 674 times, scored 131 runs (even though catchers often give way to courtesy runners), worked 102 walks and struck out just 23 times. That’s fewer than four strikeouts per season, one in every 30 plate appearances.
He was named All-District six straight years. He was the Sophomore Showcase representative from the Fourth Region. He was a Kentucky West All-Star selection as both a junior and a senior. In his senior season, he was all-state and a Louisville Slugger All-American. He signed to play NCAA baseball for Murray State University, but a severe wrist injury ended his career before he could show his skills on the collegiate or professional level.
He transferred to WKU where he graduated summa cum laude and was named the Outstanding Senior in the Gordon Ford College of Business in 2017. He has been a financial analyst ever since, working in a number of states. He holds a Masters degree in Finance from Ball State University.
Jim Turner (Sports Reporter 1971-Present) began covering Logan County sports 52 years before the week of the Hall of Fame induction. He has reported sports results and commentary in print, online and over the air during that time.
He began with six schools, five in the Logan County system and one in Russellville. That number went to two with consolidation of the county schools in the fall of 1982.
He was sports editor of the News-Democrat and The Logan Leader from 1971-1990, sports director of WRUS from 1991-1995, and sports editor/editor of the News-Democrat & Leader from 1996-2007, of Logan & Beyond 2008-09, and The Logan Journal (The LoJo) from 2009-present.
In 1977, he wrote and published Basketball County, a history of basketball in Logan County from 1932-76.
In the late seventies, he was the first to break the story that three of the five members of the Logan County Board of Education would vote to accept funding to consolidate the five high schools.
He taught journalism, speech, drama and English at LCHS from 1984-89. He taught communication at WKU for 12 years and is in his 14th year teaching for SKYCTC.
He and his wife Elaine have three grown children who are all graduates of LCHS and WKU.