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My first encounter with legendary journalist and KET host Al Smith was in late 1973, where he was publishing the Logan Leader newspaper in Russellville. At the time I ran a monthly advertising publication out of Bowling Green, but printed it in Indiana. I wanted to get closer to...

The day had begun with so much hope. Spring was just around the corner as the yellow school bus picked up its last student and was headed to the Prestonsburg Elementary and High School three miles away. It was 8:10 a.m., and US 23 had its usual amount of traffic. Gary West is an...

Before Rupp Arena . . . before the Yum Center . . . before Memorial Coliseum . . . before Freedom Hall . . . before Diddle Arena there was the Sportscenter in Owensboro. Basketball for decades has been searching for the ultimate place to play and be watched by thousands of fans....

A Christmas gift to a six-year-old boy in Louisville in 1963 several years later began to take on a life of its own, especially when it was connected to the late Muhammad Ali. Billy Pfund was surprised that Christmas with two pairs of boxing gloves from his aunt and uncle.  But...

I’ve found myself trying to come up with something, anything, to get out of the house. Things are better than they were, but not much. “Let’s go for a ride,” my wife says. “Anywhere.” There has been times the ride meant downtown, around the square, thru the campus of Western...

Back in 2004 I wrote an article for a statewide publication about drive-in theaters in Kentucky and how they had pretty much become a thing of the past. Twelve years later I wrote another one. In the late 50s and into the 60s there were 117, almost one per county, from one end of...

Coins and stamps are the two most collectible hobbies in the world. But do you know what is third? Postcards. “It usually starts with seeing one at a yard sale, or flea market that shows a hometown or place of interest, says Ray Buckberry, a Bowling Green collector. Buckberry,...

I’ve been writing this column since 2002, and because of it I have been able to meet and even become personal friends with quite a few interesting people. One of those is Steve Nally. Bourbon master distiller Steve Nally is a big believer in the bottom to the top business...

Rodger Bird stood in his own end zone waiting for the Virginia Tech kicker to get the 1963 University of Kentucky football season underway. He was a sophomore playing his first varsity game (freshman were ineligible back then) and a sold out Stoll Field in Lexington was waiting...

Joel Ray Sprowls Lincoln Jamboree in Hodgenville is about as old school as it gets. It’s a throwback to days gone by in the entertainment world even in Kentucky. Although it has never attained the global status of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, it has left a deep footprint in the...