On the field or in the classroom, Coach Walton saw the best in everyone
Roy Walton won both of the state football championships ever won by the Tates Creek Commodores in its football history. Walton, a noted story teller with an incredible sense of humor, was making a player laugh one minute only to stick his nose in a players face-mask and give him the dressing down of a lifetime. He won a pair of titles in football and a pair of titles in women’s tennis. The man could flat coach. Walton took many special needs kids under his wings and encouraged them and lauded their “authenticity.” This guy was a one of a kind person and coach.
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”
Lexington, KY: Roy Walton is credited with 219-wins and 116-losses with three (3) ties over his 25-year coaching career at Lexington’s Tates Creek High. That is a winning percentage just a tad shy of 65% (.647928994) and averaging close to nine wins a season (8.76).
That is a tremendous won-loss record. Any amount of wins approaching or exceeding 200 is quite fabulous and, potentially, Hall of Fame-ish.
However, what is missing from the KHSAA statistics is the won-loss record Coach Walton posted while the head football coach at Lafayette from 1957-1962. Walton moved to Tates Creek in 1967 where he remained until he retired in 1992.
Roy Gaines Walton was sometimes referred to as a walking anecdote. The man could spin a yarn.
Walton was born in 1929 in Fayette, Kentucky the son of Sidney C. Walton and Elizabeth Combs. Sidney and Elizabeth married when Sidney as 19 and Elizabeth was 15-years old. Walton was 80 when he passed in 2010.
Gary Baumann, whose father, Fred Baumann, is the chairman of the Baumann Paper Company credited his having played for Walton for why he survived the Vietnam War. That is heavy praise, indeed. Baumann played for Coach Walton at Lafayette.
We have mentioned the “walking anecdote” thing, right? Here is an example right from the late horse’s mouth.
“One year, at Tates Creek, I told my players that, if they beat Lafayette, I’d take them downtown and I’d ride the horse General John Hunt Morgan was mounted astride in front of the courthouse,” Walton recounted.
“We won. The team got on a bus. We went downtown and I crawled up on that horse.”
Walton continued, “Police came tearing down the street and I told them I was going to make that horse move. I did. To this day, if you take a close look, you will see where I made that statue move.”
Now that is quite a story. Matter of fact, that is quite the magical trick, n’est pas?
You never could convince Walton that horse hadn’t moved. Perhaps, Walton knew it all along.
Walton was never one to allow something as basic and trivial as the laws of Physics interfere with his story, especially such a good one. Until Walton’s passing, that statue had moved.
A coach who worked under Walton, Harry Johnson, once described Walton as “…a super psychologist. When you get down to it, X’s and O’s are all the same in football. If you can get your kids to play better than they should, to fight for something, then you’re in business.”
That was just the matter of things. Walton could always get his kids to fight for something.
Walton told a team before the season started that, if they were to beat Franklin County, he would shave his head. They did better than just beat the Flyers.
That team made the 4A finals. Walton made good on his promise. Walton shaved his head.
The picture proof of this is the featured photograph attached to this article. Look for yourself.
Walton won the 2A championship in ’72 and the “at large” championship in ’78
KHSAA Statistical Website
Roy Walton lead the Tates Creek Commodores to the 2A title in 1972 when he beat Paul Blazer, in the title game, 16-7. Walton would win an at-large football championship in 1978. Not only confined to football, Walton would win girl’s state tennis titles in 1969 and 1970.
Walton’s football players were known throughout the commonwealth as “Roys Boys.” Walton nurtured his boys, inspired them, entertained them, and got every ounce of effort out of them the Boys could muster.
They won championships. They won wars. They won.
Walton was a “teacher” in that word’s truest sense. Walton taught so much more than his appointed subject.
Walton taught Roy’s Boys how to live. Walton gave them 110% and expected a similar return. Like most successful coaches, Walton realized his return. It is always the coaches who can get that return who win the championships.
Walton always got it. That is how coaches win football games. That is why Walton won football games.
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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