Slow Motion Replay: Monty Joe Lovell and his Madison Model High ‘Royal Purples’ @khsaafootball, @KyHighFootball, @minguabeefjerky, @bigassfans, @MCentral_FB,

Led the Royal Purples to the Class A title game against Bellevue (Fred Bernier) in 1979, losing 7-0

Monty Joe Lovell led the Purples to a 77-48 record over 11-seasons. He had an undefeated season in 1972, losing to eventual champions Trigg County and Poppa Joe Jaggers in the playoffs. Lovell would win four (4) District II titles, three regional titles, and would be voted the Central Kentucky Conference Coach of the Year in 1972 and the Class A Coach of the Year in 1972, 1979. Lovell was a star all his life. He was a little league all-star in baseball, an accomplished golfer, a track star, and co-captain of the high school basketball team in addition to being a stalwart on Roy Kidd’s football team at Madison Model High until Kidd left to head up the EKU program. During Lovell’s tenure at Madison High, he built a Class A powerhouse program which was consistently contending for 1A titles. Lovell would win seven (7) or more games in seven (7) of his 11-years at the helm.

HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”

Richmond, KY: Monty Joe Lovell, the great former football coach for Madison High who turned that school, for 11-years, into a KHSAA 1A football power has always reminded us of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The two were vastly different as one was very serious and the other a BBC comedy sketch show which was quite big in the 60s and 70s.

Monty Joe Lovell was an actual person. Monty Python was not.

Monty Python’s Flying Circus was an amalgamation of six sketch comedy artists who had all gone to university together in England. The BBC insisted on “circus” being included in the name because the six members had a penchant for wandering around the BBC studios and were often referenced as “the circus” by BBC producers and other essential personnel.

The “Flying” part of the circus was taken as a reference to World War I German flying ace known, the world over, as “The Red Baron,” Freiherr Manfred von Richthofen. The Red Baron commanded the Jagdgeschwader 1 fighter squadron known as “The Flying Circus”.

“Monty Python” was added to the name because it sounded like a really obnoxious and bad theatrical agent, the sort of person who would have brought the troupe together in the first place. “Python” was in reference to being slimy and slithery. “Monty” was a reference to “Lord Montgomery” the great British general in World War II.

How does this appropriately segue into Monty Joe Lovell, the great former head football coach at Madison Model High in Richmond, Kentucky? It probably doesn’t; except for the fact the “Royal Purples” sounds like a Monty Pythonesque type mascot and the above is the peculiar way my mind works and how I both remember things and associate certain things with others.

In the world of KHSAA sports reporting, if KPGFootball has featured you in our online publication, and your story has been subjected to this type of random, loosely configured rumination; you have just been Friday Night Fletched. Congratulations!

Back to the story…

Monty Joe Lovell would play for Roy Kidd at Madison High School. Coach Kidd took that job, his first in coaching, in 1956. Kidd had a strong record at the school in his limited number of seasons leading them to the 1961, 2A title game, where they would lose to Homer Rice‘s Highland High, 12-0.

Roy Kidd served as the head coach at EKU (Eastern Kentucky University) from 1964 to 2002, compiling a record of 314–124–8. Kidd’s EKU Colonels won NCAA FCS (1-AA) Championships in 1979 and 1982 and were runners-up in 1980 and 1981.

Kidd’s 314 career victories are second-most in NCAA FCS history, trailing only the record of the great Eddie Robinson (408-165-15) from Grambling State. Kidd was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, as a coach, in 2003.

Monty Joe Lovell (hereafter, “Coach Lovell” or “Lovell”) was the head football coach at Madison High for 11-years. Over that period of time, the “Royal Purples” were consistently in the 1A title discussion around the KHSAA.

Lovell’s teams would compile a 77-48 record over that period with his 1972 team being thought to be, perhaps, the best team over his tenure. In 1972, the Purples were undefeated in the regular season and finished 12-1. Madison lost to the eventual Class A state champion, Trigg County Wildcats, and their legendary Hall of Fame coach, “Poppa” Joe Jaggers.

Madison, under Lovell, would win four Class A, District II championships (1971, ’72, ’78, and ’79) and three (3) regional titles (1972, ’78, and ’79). Lovell was the Central Kentucky Conference Coach of the Year (1972) once and the Class A Coach of the Year (1972 and 1979) twice.

Lovell had some close calls over his tenure battling other legendary head football coaches. We have already mentioned the semi-final loss (19-10) to Trigg County and Poppa Joe. In 1978, the Royal Purples fell to another eventual state champion and its Hall of Fame coach, Marshall Patterson, 20-13.

Two semi-state appearances where you get knocked out by the eventual state title holders and a trip to the finals, losing by a single score, in 11-years constitutes one being considered a perennial contender. It was more than just those three seasons.

In 1975, Madison High was 11-1 winning the district and finishing runners-up in its region. In 1980, just like 1973, the team posted an 8-3 overall record and were both district champions and regional runners-up. Year after year, through 11-seasons, the “Royal Purples” were posting outstanding seasons and making deep playoff runs. Year after year, Madison High, under Coach Lovell, were contending, were consistent factors in the playoff race.

Of his 11-seasons at the helm, Lovell’s teams won seven (7) or more games seven (7) times. For all of the above, Lovell was inducted into the Madison County Sports Hall of Fame and rightfully.

Lovell, throughout his life, was always among the best at anything he did. Lovell was a little league all-star in baseball, a multiyear starter on the football team, a Cracker Jack golfer, a star in track, and the co-captain of the varsity basketball team. Through it all, and regardless of how well he flourished at the “other things,” it would be as a football coach for which Lovell would best be remembered.

Like Monty Python and his “Flying Circus,” Coach Lovell and his Madison Model High “Royal Purples” would be famous, critically acclaimed, and talked about for many years. The two would even be jointly referenced in a series of articles about Kentucky’s finest all-time, high school football coaches…bet you didn’t see that one coming!

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

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