Dudley Hilton has taken Bell County to the Mountain-top
Coach Hilton has come a long way from his humble beginnings. Hilton once told a reporter than everything which ever came to him, came to him hard. Hilton grew up in Springfield, Kentucky and attended Washington County High School. He was headed there as an assistant when he got re-routed to Jackson, Kentucky to help build a football program at Breathitt High, where an enviable basketball tradition stood. A half century later, Hilton has racked up 443-wins, against 137-losses, 11-regional titles, 25-district crowns, with three (3) KHSAA titles and a runner-up. Try saying all of that really fast.
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”
Log Mountain: There are football locations as famous as the teams which play there. Pond Creek in Pike County, home to the Belfry Pirates, is such a place. War Memorial in Mayfield, Kentucky, home to “Mighty Mayfield,” is too.
The Riverbank, which is the home site of the Breathitt Bobcats, is a recognized monument to high school football prowess. Log Mountain has as legitimate a claim for being such a place as any location across our great commonwealth.
Log Mountain is associated with Bell County football because it’s the location where the Bobcats play. Log Mountain is the area synonymous with the Bell County Bobcats home games and, therefore, synonymous with the football program. Equally synonymous is the Bobcats long-time, Hall of Fame football coach, Dudley Hilton.
Coach Hilton’s mother raised five (5) kids, doing as well as could reasonably be expected to do by all accounts. Hilton, in an interview we came across online, once said, “[Mom did] the best she could. So everything that came to me, came to me hard.”
Hilton grew up in Springfield, KY, and went to Washington County High School. Coach Hilton was reportedly heading to Washington County, as an assistant, when he got the opportunity to coach the Breathitt High football program. This was an opportunity on which Coach Hilton must have felt he couldn’t pass. Least ways, Hilton didn’t pass.
Dudley Hilton, with his 443-wins and three KHSAA titles, is the winningest living coach in Kentucky high school football history
KHSAA Statistical Website
After 50-seasons, Coach Hilton has put together some kind of fine career, much of it on Log Mountain. By our count when play opens in August of 2025, Coach Hilton will kick off his 51st season with 443 wins, 137-losses, three (3) KHSAA titles (1997 Bourbon Co./1991, 2008 Bell Co.), a runner-up (Bell Co., 2023), 11-regional crowns, 25-districts, and a strangle hold on the title of winningest living coach in Kentucky.
Johnny Gabbard, and Gene Peterson
Kneeling, Dudley Hilton
Hilton is 48-wins from tying the late, great Phillip Haywood. We wouldn’t bet against Hilton surpassing both Haywood’s 491-wins or becoming the first and only KHSAA football coach to pass the 500-win, career mark, before it is all finally tallied. You are discussing a driven, committed guy when discussing Dudley Hilton.
“When I got the opportunity to coach, it meant something to me. I wanted [my players] to be appreciative of what they got,” Hilton said in an interview found online. “…You’re never going to have anything if you don’t work hard at it.”
Those words, those words right there; that one won’t have anything (ever) if one doesn’t work hard at it, should constitute the Coach Hilton life creed. If Coach Hilton’s life were to become a movie; those words would be somewhere in the title.
Those words comprise the bulk of Hilton’s life message, his motto, and the centerpiece of his entire coaching career. If there is a lesson his life and career have taught, it is the value of hard work.
Certainly those are words by which to live. Certainly those words were uttered by a man who has lived them.
I have a favorite Dudley Hilton story I would relate. I have a text group I have labeled “The Hall of Famers.” This group is filled up with coaches either presently enshrined or sure to be inducted when eligible.
Your never going to have anything if you don’t work hard at it
Dudley Hilton
Phillip Haywood, when still with us, was an active member of our text group. The very same could be said for Dudley Hilton, Dan Goble (Shelby County, Atherton, Christian County), and Sam Harp (Calloway County, Danville). You get the picture.
There are probably nine to 12 or so members. I regularly send them articles, links to my podcast, “Friday Night Kentucky,” and important communications and things of the sort.
Elderly coaches can struggle, technologically, with things such as calling an individual member of a group chat, especially “FaceTiming” that person. Those type of undertakings are, or certainly can become, the technological equivalent to solving the Rubik cube. One day, Coach Dan Goble FaceTimed me, not realizing he had also FaceTimed every, single, other member of the group chat.
I answered (I love Coach Goble). Dudley Hilton answered.
It was a Sunday. I could tell Coach Hilton was in the car having just left worship service.
As Coach Hilton rode along, with an ever widening grin on his face, listening to Coach Goble and I discuss football, it occurred to me my good friend, Dan Goble, had no idea Coach Hilton was also on the line. Coach Goble was ignorant to the fact Coach Hilton was listening to our conversation.
…Better let Coach Goble know that Coach Hilton is on this call…
Friday Night Fletch
I thought to myself, “Better let Coach Goble know that Coach Hilton is on the call.” So when Coach Goble went to take a breath (he and I are similar in this regard), I said “What do you think about that Coach Hilton?”
I then said, “Coach Goble, Coach Hilton is on the line with us and may want to weigh-in.” Coach Hilton laughed and said, “Oh no, you guys carry on; I am enjoying the discourse immensely.”
What happened next was a beautiful moment. I became the spectator, or audience, and I got to hear those two old warriors talk KHSAA football. My eyes welled up with tears realizing I was getting to be a “fly on the wall” for a very special, once in a lifetime, conversation.
As it turns out, both Hall of Fame coaches were huge fans of the other, had admired the careers of the other, and had wonderful things to say about the other. The imparted lessons were about life, about coaching high school young men, coaching high school football, and a variety of other topics. I greatly enjoyed getting to hear this. You might say it was magical.
People often refer to me as an expert in KHSAA football. I really don’t know iffin I am or ain’t, if you will pardon the informality.
If I am, it is because I have had opportunities like what I just described. If I am, it is because I have taken full advantage of those type opportunities. Don’t miss out should the opportunity ever present itself for you is my very strong recommendation.
Like Coach Hilton said, “You’re never going to have anything if you don’t work hard at it.” There is a final element which mixes in here. You also have to know when you’re getting a great opportunity to learn something from a couple wise and grizzled old warhorses.
You learn more if you’re listening, more so than talking. Right guys?
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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