Prestonsburg native did something in ‘Big Boy’ football never done before, outside Louisville
Dan Goble came to Christian County from Atherton having led that team to its best single season in its history until recently. Matter of fact, Goble led several different high schools to that school’s best ever season. What he accomplished at Christian County was true Hall of Fame stuff. Maybe that is why he has been inducted into the Dawahares KHSAA Hall of Fame.
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”
Hopkinsville, KY: Sometimes around the magazine we get summoned to champion causes. Some of what we do serves the public more than it serves our business interests.
There are some causes we are pleased to advocate. When we were asked to help get Dan Goble into the Hall of Fame, we were right pleased to champion that cause.
A member of our editorial board was summoned to the office of the District’s Director of Athletics in Christian County, Kentucky. All of us at the magazine were both thrilled at the prospect and curious about the reason for the perceived need for our services.
The questions came fast and furiously when our “agent” called into the office afterward. We were told, “Coach Stovall and Mr. Lindsey Clark (CCPS Board Member) have asked KPGFootball to help get Coach Dan Goble inducted into the KHSAA Hall of Fame.” Well, I thought upon hearing this, at least they didn’t ask us for anything difficult.
Why would getting Dan Goble inducted into the KHSAA Hall of Fame even be a challenge?
Friday Night Fletch
I am being completely serious. Why would getting Dan Goble inducted into the KHSAA Hall of Fame even be a challenge?
After all, the man coached 37-years and only had 7-losing seasons among the bunch. Coach Goble had done much more than just that.
We are talking about a guy who won 185-football games as a head football coach. We are discussing a guy who won two (2) 4A titles when 4A was the highest classification of football competition played in the commonwealth (1982, 1984). Class 4A was known as “big boy football” in those days.
Coach Goble won 12-WKC championships (1981, ’82, ’83, ’84, ’85, ’88, ’89, ’90, ’91, ’92, ’93, & ’96), 6-District titles (1981, ’82, ’84, ’85, ’92, & ’93), and 3-Regional titles (’82, ’84, & ’92). Is that the Coach Goble we are discussing?
How can getting him inducted into the Hall of Fame be any trouble? Heck, this ain’t no hill for a bunch of steppers.
Coach Goble was the Kelloggs Kentucky 4A Coach of the Year in 1982 and the Champion Products Kentucky 4A Coach of the Year in 1984. Coach Goble won the Kentucky New Era’s Coach of the Year Award in both 1991 & 1992.
This is the guy we need to help get in the Hall of Fame? Piece of cake!
We called our buddy Coach Mike Holcomb. “Coach Holc,” as he is called by the people who know and love him (pretty much everyone who doesn’t regularly appear on his schedule) was in the midst of surpassing the 300-win plateau at Madison Central (6A) at the time. “Coach Holc” had won 2A titles in 1995, ’96, and ’02, was runner up in ’08.
“Coach Holc” had his Madison Central Indians in the Class 6A semis his first full year at the helm. Holcomb is universally believed to be a sure-fire, first-ballot Hall of Famer when he gains eligibility.
We called Coach Holc and asked if he would help us get Coach Goble in the KHSAA Hall of Fame. Holc’s response, “He (Coach Dan Goble) should be a lock.”
One would think.
Never was able to get a W against Coach Goble as a player in the 80’s, but I was fortunate enough to have a son play for a CCHS team with him on the staff. There was neither a finer man nor football coach to ever walk the sideline. If Dan Goble isn’t HOF material there shouldn’t even be one.
Chuck Hughes, Former All-Stater at Hopkinsville High and former Hilltopper at WKU
So here we found ourselves at the time…charged with making Coach Goble’s “best case” for enshrinement. In reality, Goble had achieved so much it was hard to know where to begin or exactly what to include. We couldn’t put everything in our petition, there wasn’t enough room on his nomination form.
Consider this…in addition to everything else we have above listed, Goble began his coaching career at Erlanger Lloyd where he helped that team win a 1A title (1965). Then he went to Shelby County where his first team was 0-10. He took the next two teams to 6-4 and 10-1 before moving to Louisville’s Atherton High.
Goble was at Atherton for nine (9)-seasons. Goble finished with a winning record (48-47-2). Leaving Atherton with a winning overall record, in those days, was a feat worthy of Hall of Fame consideration standing alone.
Goble next spent 21-seasons at the helm of Christian County High School when it played Kentucky 4A or big-boy football. Over that tenure, Goble became the program’s all-time winningest coach with 121-wins and the only coach, outside of Louisville, to win a football title in Kentucky’s largest classification of competition twice (2Xs).
Consider this, and I really want you to think about this for a moment; four (4) schools had all-time seasons with Coach Goble either at the helm or on its football coaching staff. How many coaches, Kentucky-wide, can make such a claim?
Erlanger Lloyd was 12-1 in 1965 with him as an assistant. Shelby County was 10-1 in 1971 with Goble at the helm. Atherton turned in a 9-1 worksheet with Goble as its head coach in 1973, a season’s best mark which stood until Nino White, presently at Atherton, won 11 games (11-2) in 2023 and 10-games (10-3) last season. Christian County, the fourth stop, won 14 games in 1982 (14-1) and a 4A crown.
Goble was either instrumental or at the helm of four (4) different HS experiencing all-time records to that point
Friday Night Fletch, KHSAA Statistical Website
Shelby County, a place he coached a whopping three (3) years, still hosts an annual fishing tournament named for him. That is how much Coach Goble meant to those young men, they still come back yearly just to fish in a tournament carrying his name.
At Goble’s Hall of Fame induction, the Shelby County former players bought a table and were among the largest contingent there to support Goble’s induction. The Rockets were loud and proud in their enthusiasm for their one-time coach.
Perhaps any coach’s most lasting legacy is the impact the coach has on the young men who played for him. Tony McCombs, one of his more famous players at Christian County, had some incredible things to say about his old high school football coach.
What McCombs had to say was convincing. Coach McCombs, formerly known around Hopkinsville as “Cheese,” was among the better players to ever play for Goble.
Coach McCombs went on to have a Hall of Fame, All-American and All-OVC career as an EKU Colonel before five years in the NFL as a linebacker.
Now coaching on Dennis Johnson’s staff at 5A Woodford County, McCombs told us once the following, “I have been involved in football from the high school level to the NFL as a player and coach. I have played for and worked for many coaches over that time.”
McCombs continued, “I have never known a better football coach nor man than Coach Goble. I am who I am because of him.”
“He’s made me a better player, a better coach, and a better man for having had my life intersect with his. [Goble] will always be, in my opinion, one of the best to ever have done it. (Coach Goble) set almost impossible to reach standards along the way.”
With all of the body of work considered, is there any doubt in anyone’s mind why Dan Goble has now been enshrined in the Dawahares KHSAA Hall of Fame? Maybe the next time a district asks us for something it will be something a bit more challenging.
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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Should already be inducted!!! This truly needs to happen
Get the word around, we need a ground swell of support the KHSAA just can’t ignore.