Slow Motion Replay: Herbie Phelps from Old Kentucky Home High in Bardstown

Phelps still among the record holders at U of L for punt returns

His name was “Herbie Phelps” and he played at a high school no longer in existence (Old Kentucky Home HS, Bardstown, KY). This is a happenstance now commonplace throughout our commonwealth…former high schools that are no more. Phelps scored an incredible 722-points over his high school career and scored 313 of those points as a senior and 68 of the points in a single game. We are going to jump in the “Way Back Machine” and feature a guy many have forgotten. We don’t forget anyone. That’s why it is called expertise!

HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”

Bardstown, KY: They play a little football around Bardstown, Kentucky. Bardstown High (4A) is a tough out (9-4 in ’24) most seasons and Bethlehem (1A) can be a tough customer at its level of competition, though it had a down year in ’24 (5-6).

This “playing a little football” in Nelson County is nothing new. We remember when Bardstown featured and boasted a high school named “Old Kentucky Home High.”

These boys could flat ball. Particularly one named Herbie Phelps.

Phelps was a HB/FB and specialized in scoring points for the Wildcats of Old Kentucky Home. Phelps scored 48-TDs his senior year (1963) accounting personally for 313-points, a KHSAA record at the time and still among the highest point totals in a single season in commonwealth history.

Phelps had an incredible game, his senior year, against Aquinas Prep out of Louisville. The Wildcats won the game 75-6 and Phelps ripped off TD runs of 79, 60, and 55-yards on his way to 392-yards rushing on the evening with 10-TDs and eight (8) extra-points. Phelps scored 68-points on the night, which has been bested only by Don Gullett’s 72-points scored against Wurtland in 1968.

Phelps scored 68-points in a single game in 1963

Friday Night Fletch

Phelps was recruited to play at Alabama by the late Paul “Bear” Bryant and his assistant coach, and Louisville native, Howard Schnellenberger. Phelps would spend multiple seasons at Alabama before finishing at the University of Louisville where he would prove himself a real weapon.

Phelps is still considered an all-time great at Louisville where he remains among the career leaders in punt returns in a season (40) and yards per return (10.6). Phelps is also among the greatest to ever grace a field in the KHSAA, though he was never able to take his Wildcats to a title.

Old Kentucky Home High School got pretty close but it was after Phelps had graduated. The Wildcats played for a state football title in 1965. Old Kentucky Home was coached by Milton Graham, at the time, and the Wildcats lost to Llyod Memorial, and its head coach, Jack Turner, 27-0.

Two years later (1967), Bardstown, under the steady guidance of Garnis Martin (a legendary coach with 271-wins against 114-losses with 7-ties over 39-seasons with a 3-1 record in title game appearances), would win Martin’s first of three titles leading his Tiger football program. Martin would lose in 1969 but win two more titles in 1970 and 1981.

We hope you enjoyed this look back at a man who was truly a commonwealth great in the world of Kentucky High School Football. Then again, what do we know?

This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!

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About Fletcher Long 1675 Articles
Two-time winner of Kentucky Press Association awards for excellence in writing and reporting news stories while Managing Editor of the Jackson (KY) Times-Voice

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