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BIG BLUE FANS FOR

BASKETBALL

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Mason County, Kentucky Produces a Special Type of Fan
And I Am One Forever

I was still in HS; Mason County was not in the Sweet 16; but I was there at Freedom Hall for all the games. Mason County would actually not have school on Thursday or Friday during the Tourney - it was scheduled time off and mattered not who won the 10th region. It was always a county full of real KY HS BB & UK BB fans - not sure about these days but probably still at least fairly crazy.

In the Semi-Finals of the State Tourney, Dunbar (the predominantly or probably 100%) Black HS in Lexington was playing against Breathitt County (100% all-white team) from the mountains.

The infamous Sid Meade, with every indication of being a racist based on his history of officiating and crooked as a dog's multi-fractured hind leg, known for influencing games based on gambling because he surely made a nice side income with his errant whistle - that Sid Meade - was calling the game with the most blatant crooked officiating imaginable. Dunbar had some big and awesome players (I still remember an overpowering 6'-6” Julius Berry who owned the middle) as well as a defense which would shake up their opponents into a series of turnovers in a hurry.

The fouls and non-fouls, the calls for phantom carrying the ball and other such nonsense was non-stop against Dunbar, so the game stayed close.

When Dunbar would full-court press, their fans (joined by many in Freedom Hall after fans got fed up with Dunbar being cheated) would chant “ git dat ball, git dat ball, ooh ooh ooh, git dat ball” and then “check dat man, check dat man, don't let him shoot” over and over. When an overwhelming number of fans joined the chants, it really unnerved any Dunbar opponent, as witnessed in their 1st 2 games. But Sid has kept them in check most of the game and it was not a rout, but down to the wire with Dunbar trailing and only a few seconds left. Dunbar called timeout and Austin Dumas too a pass from out of bounds, dribbles just past 1/2 court and shot a Louie Dampier thread rippling winning shot, with the buzzer sounding as it swished. The crowd was so much behind Dunbar at this point, because they were cheated the entire game, that we decided Sid feared for his life, right there in the arena, if he tried to wave off the basket.

There were many times during the State Tourneys that followed when announcers would bring up that shot and I even recall a time when Austin was interviewed. He said he practiced that shot a lot after every practice session and that was why the coach set him up to take the winning shot.

Well, I'll take some of those good ole players of years past, from 6th man Lee to McCarty, Nazr, and up to now (Oscar, one of my all time favorites), over many other players any day of the week.

James H. “Jim” Barry

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