Three time letter winner in football at UK, Doc Ferrell seemed larger than life to some future Hall of Famers
We have seen his name listed as “Samuel David Ferrell.” We have seen him listed as “Doctor Taylor Ferrell.” We have seen him referred to as just “Doc Ferrell.” However he has been referenced, all three of the names listed report a spouse named Martha Ann Cantrell, a father named Lackey Ferrell, and a mother named Blanche McCoy. All three of these guys were born on June 4, 1925 and died on April 24, 2009. All three were natives of Richmond, Kentucky and were football and basketball stars at Madison High School and made the All-State football team as a senior. We are convinced they are one and the same. We will call him “Doc Ferrell” as he was referenced in the University of Kentucky’s football media guide. UK is, after all, the commonwealth’s largest and most prominent land-grant institution. Doc was a legendary football coach at Prestonsburg who won 48-games against 18-defeats from 1949-1955 and made a definite impression on a future Hall of Fame coach who requested this feature. We were thrilled to oblige.
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”
Prestonsburg, KY: First of all I am indebted to my mother, Claire Hicks Lyon Long, and her diligent work finding information about “Doc Ferrell.” I have learned if you can’t find it in the newspaper, you can consult the Kentucky Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). The DAR has easy access to databases way superior to that afforded the average working journalist.
Researching this article, and then composing it, took me back in time. It took me back to when I was growing up in a rural, small Kentucky town. When there wasn’t an internet. When we had far fewer entertainment outlets than we have today.
I remember a time when the high school football coach was larger than life in most any town. When I was a kid the local high school football coach was as important to a small town as its mayor.
I grew up in Hopkinsville, Kentucky and thought of Fleming Thornton as a god. Sure, Thornton wasn’t “The God,” though to many in Hopkinsville and surrounding areas he was pretty close. Thornton was more like a Demi-god, or Greek Hero, somewhere between Hercules and Perseus.
Thornton may not have beheaded Medusa. Thornton did dispatch Bowling Green with quite a bit of regularity.
That is why I was so receptive when a certain Hall of Fame football coach called me and requested I write this feature. This research took a minute. There just wasn’t a ton of information about Doc Ferrell online.
Of course, there was our Hall of Fame Football Coach…
“He was bigger than life,” Coach Dan Goble told KPGFootball about Doc Ferrell. “I can remember setting up a ‘shine box’ in the back of the barber shop in downtown Prestonsburg. Coach Ferrell would come strutting down the lane dressed to the nines.”
“Ferrell was tall, confident, handsome, full of spit and vinegar,” Goble related. “Ferrell cut a right impressive stature; well dressed, with fine leather, wing-tipped, dress shoes.”
[Doc] Ferrell was tall, confident, full of spit and vinegar
Dan Goble, Hall of Fame Football Coach
Goble continued, “We would all gather around the window just to see him. Doc Ferrell was that important in Prestonsburg. Ferrell could have been the mayor.”
“Ferrell would come in the barber shop and get me to shine his wing-tips. I remember thinking he had really big feet. Don’t know for sure how big his feet were or weren’t, there just didn’t seem to be anything about the man which didn’t appear big, prominent, important, and impressive to me.”
Goble concluded, “In Prestonsburg, he was like a Greek hero. Doc Ferrell was Hercules for all intents and purposes. Ferrell was larger than life.”
Goble went on to tell KPGFootball of his having played for Ferrell, in middle school, in the 50s. Goble told us he wasn’t really an integral part of the squad in the Doc Ferrell days. “I was [basically] a tackling dummy.”
Another famous coach Ray Graham remembers “Doc” as a basketball referee calling area games. Graham’s dad, Harry Gibson “Gippy” Graham, was a coach at Georgetown High who had numerous noteworthy teams.
“Gippy” Graham would know a thing or two about prominence. Graham, in addition to his being a former basketball coaching legend, served for years in the Kentucky House of Representatives and as a former mayor of Frankfort, Kentucky.
“Doc would put on quite a show every time he called a foul,” Graham told KPGFootball. “Ferrell was very demonstrative. You could flat tell Doc Ferrell was an important guy. You could also tell this wasn’t news to Doc.”
Doc would put on quite a show every time he called a foul
Ray Graham, Legendary Football Coach
“I will tell you one thing,” Graham said, “you knew Doc was there [on game night]. From all I have heard through the years, Doc Ferrell was a fine official.”
That wasn’t all he was. Ferrell was a really fine player even before becoming a legendary coach.
then three (3) years for the Bear
Ferrell was an all-state tackle at Madison High. Ferrell was a star in basketball too but went on to UK and enrolled in 1944 to play football.
After his freshman season, Ferrell joined the Navy and spent 19-months in the service, taking part in the invasion of Okinawa. Upon his discharge, Doc returned to UK where he would be awarded varsity letters in football in 1946, ’47, and ’48. He would play his last three years for Paul “Bear” Bryant on some of the finest squads the Wildcats would ever field.
Ferrell applied and was hired as the head football coach at Prestonsburg right after his playing career. Ferrell would run the “Split T” at Prestonsburg, something he learned from the Bear in Doc’s collegiate playing days.
Ferrell’s first year at Prestonsburg was 1949 and he finished 3-8. In 1950, Ferrell turned Prestonsburg completely around, losing to Highlands in the Recreation Bowl in Mount Sterling, then posting 10-straight wins. For his efforts, Doc Ferrell was elected the 1950 Courier-Journal KHSAA Coach of the Year.
Ferrell would win 48-games in seven seasons, losing 18. If you take out his first year, and then the four (4) losses he had in bowls, Doc had gone 45-6 over six (6) regular seasons. We may have discovered a reason for the strut.
Coach Ferrell left Prestonsburg to take the job at Owensboro Senior High for a year. From Owensboro, he went to Lafayette High in Lexington.
Doc Ferrell would win COY (Courier Journal) in 1950 and finish in the top five in two additional seasons
Courier-Journal
Ferrell, in addition to his winning the Coach of the Year in the Courier-Journal for 1950 would finish in the top five for that award two other times. From there the Ferrell legend gets a tad opaque.
There are those who say Ferrell left coaching to settle in Pikeville, Kentucky and work a lucrative job for Mobile Oil. Those who subscribe to this theory claim he died a very wealthy man.
Others report he left coaching to move to Pikeville and work in the coal industry. Not sure it matters which, if either, is correct.
What we do know is Doc Ferrell served his country. Doc Ferrell invaded Okinawa. Doc Ferrell was a reliable player and, perhaps, star for Bear Bryant at UK hanging around the likes of George Blanda and “Wah-Wah” Jones.
Doc Ferrell led Prestonsburg to some improbable success sufficient enough to make a tremendous impression on a Hall of Fame football coach, and young shine-boy, named Dan Goble. Dan Goble would grow up to befriend and come to mean the world to me. I started this online football magazine to cover the high school football industry in Kentucky.
That is why you are reading this article, right now. I can’t speak for you; but, I would call Doc Ferrell’s career a well spent one. Doc’s was a life well lived. Doc’s was a life veritably rife with meaning. Doc’s was a life filled, to the brim, with import.
What do you think?
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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