Martin was the first guy in the KHSAA to eclipse 250-wins
Martin, a “Mountain Kid” was from a mile or two outside Wayland, Kentucky; a little place called Dema, KY. Martin attended McDowell schools and was a star athlete at Wheelwright High. Martin played both basketball and football at Wheelwright, graduating in 1941, and was the captain of both teams. Martin played QB and led his team to a 100-0 victory over Vicco. Now that is a butt-whooping. Martin was captain of both his football and basketball teams in high school and Martin scored 437-points in 28-games as a senior guard on the hoop squad. Martin retired the winningest coach in KHSAA history and is still among the all-timers, even today. This is a guy who had some really fine coaches come off his “coaching tree.”
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”
Bardstown, KY: His name was Garnis Martin. Martin was a “hometown” hero and sports star who was an accomplished player for his high school in multiple sports. When he passed away in 1998, Martin was the commonwealth’s winningest all-time high school football coach.
Coach Martin won 271-games against 114-losses with seven (7) ties. Martin won right at 70% of the football games in which he coached.
Martin was also an accomplished basketball coach. Martin coached basketball at Bardstown from the 1953-54 season through the 1977-78 season, compiling a record of 365-284. Martin won 11 District titles, two (2) fifth region titles, and was inducted, in 2014, into the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches’ Court of Honor.
Martin was the first coach in KHSAA history to eclipse 250-wins. He is still, presently, the 18th winningest coach in KHSAA history.
Walter Brugh surpassed the “Martin standard” at Paintsville in 1993. Joe Jaggers surpassed Brugh in 1997 then Bob Schneider took over in 2005. Dudley Hilton tied Schneider in 2010. The next year the recently departed, Phillip Haywood, took over the top spot where Coach Haywood presently remains, sitting at 491-wins.
Martin was a mountain kid, born a mile or two outside Wayland, Kentucky. Martin attended McDowell schools and was a star athlete at Wheelwright High.
Martin played both basketball and football at Wheelwright, graduating in 1941, and was the captain of both teams. Martin played QB and led his team to a 100-0 victory over Vicco.
HIs senior year in basketball, Martin scored 437 points in 28 games. Martin would leave high school a member of the 1,000 point club.
They called Martin, “Scale,” though I don’t know why. Martin served in the service during the Great War (WWII) and earned a GI Bill which payed for him to attend and graduate from Tulane University. We don’t know of his having played sports for the Green Wave but he was married to a girl, at the time, whose parents lived in New Orleans.
Like many famous high school coaches, Philip Haywood and Dan Goble to name just two, Martin’s roots would run through Prestonsburg, Kentucky. Martin would coach Prestonsburg High football for two seasons in both basketball and football.
Garnis “Scale” Martin was both a captain and the QB of his HS football team
Friday Night Fletch
One of Martin’s great athletes at Prestonsburg was John Delmar Hughes. Hughes would make his mark in football, and other sports, at the University of Kentucky.
Hughes played at UK for Bear Bryant and Blanton Collier. Hughes earned a variety of varsity letters in multiple sports while a Wildcat.
Perhaps Hughes is even better known for his distinguished career in the U. S. Air Force as a jet fighter pilot. Hughes served in two combat tours over Vietnam, and several command positions, including Base Commander/Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, NV.
Hughes earned numerous medals while in the USAF including the Distinguished Flying Cross and the National Defense Superior Service Medal.
After his two year stint in Prestonsburg, Martin would end up taking the vacant Bardstown High School post where he would remain some 39-seasons. It would be in Bardstown where Martin would “come into his own” as a football coach. Martin would win state titles in 1967, 1970, and 1981, losing in the finals in 1969.
When Martin first arrived at Bardstown, the high school was playing “six-man” football. Martin built the Tigers into a conventional, Kentucky powerhouse.
Martin is a member of many Halls of Fame, one of which is a national hall of fame. Martin has been enshrined within the Hall of Fame of the National Federation of State High Schools (NFHS).
The field at Bardstown High is named in Coach Martin’s honor. Martin is a name still thriving and inspiring students walking the Bardstown High School hallways.
Martin may number among the very first “superstar,” high school football coaches Kentucky has ever known. The Kentucky High School Athletic Association, jointly with the Kentucky High School Athletic Directors Association award the Garnis Martin Outstanding Coaches Award annually to the coach whose career has distinguished itself as being exceptional and full of coaching accomplishments, service to his community, and other such honors and awards.
Martin passed away in 1998. He is buried in Bardstown, Kentucky and still very much alive in all of our hearts and minds.
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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