[Hoot Gibson]

It very well could have been Hoot, I really don't remember that part.

For what it's worth, Johnson Central was really not that much different than most county schools in eastern Kentucky at that time. For many years it was usually only the city schools that served as their respective county seats that fielded football teams....Consolidation is the thing that can be attributed to football being what it is now in the mountains. Perhaps there were some, but I cant think of one single county school system that ever had a football team until the early to late 70's in eastern Kentucky.

I agree that football was rare among county school systems back then. Schools like Letcher County Central and Harlan County have had an easier time building football programs than schools like Johnson Central did because their consolidation came after most county schools already fielded their own teams. They also saw the benefit of hiring good coaches and giving them time to build a program.

It took Johnson County's administration a long time to develop the patience it takes to build a strong football program. It was probably a good thing that Steve Trimble came along when he did. As you know, Steve played for JC in the early years of the program, and later struggled as a JC coach himself. I think that experience gave him a good perspective of what JC had done wrong with its program over the years. If Bill Musick had gone winless in his first season a few years earlier at JC, that season would probably have been his first and last. Steve stuck with him and Musick built the best feeder system in eastern Kentucky, IMO.