We are proud of this being our 2,900th article since our coming online. We couldn't have picked a better topic for article number twenty-nine hundred than our friend and mentor, Sam Harp; the Mayor of Title Town and co-Author of Football 101: Boo-Boo's a Quarterback. This article was originally scheduled to come online Monday, March 3, 2025 with a "Blast from the Past" set in this slot right here. We wanted this article to be our 2,900th, and not the other, so we switched them. Enjoy the feature, we are very proud of it!
Friday Night Fletch
’20 Dawahares Hall of Famer won 75% of his games and was 82-21 in the KHSAA playoffs
There can be no legitimate discussion of Kentucky’s all-time football coaches without looking at the incredible career of the great Sam Harp. Harp won seven (7) state titles, went to the playoffs 27-consecutive years, won his district 19-times, won 16-regions, went to the title game 10-times, and registered an 82-21 postseason, playoff won-loss record. He also won 42-consecutive games between 1991 and 1993 with consecutive 2A titles in 1991 and 1992. On top of it all, Harp is the co-Author of the best book on Kentucky High School football I have ever read (don’t tell “Friday Night Fletch,” Long is hard enough to live with as it is), “Football 101: Boo-Boo’s a Quarterback.”
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”
Title Town, KY: It is one thing to coach at a high school located in an area referenced all over Kentucky as “Title Town.” It is quite another to be one of the main reasons the town was so aptly named.
There can be no legitimate discussion about the best to ever grace a sideline in Kentucky without the constant and persistent mention of the name, “Sam Harp.” I was a huge fan of the man, and his work, well before the two of us became friends and book partners.
I should mention Sam and I co-Authored a book many consider among the more important ever published in Kentucky about the Kentucky High School game. The book’s title is Football 101: Boo-Boo’s a Quarterback. It is available on most major book buying platforms. Here’s a link.
Now that I have disclosed that connection, my opinion regarding the prowess of Sam Harp as a football coach in the Kentucky High School game was not the least bit colored by that relationship. The numbers speak for themselves. Coach Harp’s accomplishments say more about him than I ever could.
It’s great being able to help people
Sam Harp
Sam Harp took the Danville job in 1988. It was a good job.
The Admirals had been successful. They weren’t Sam Harp successful, but successful nevertheless.
Danville had won state titles in 1962, ’84, and ’87 prior to Harp’s arrival and would win one in 2017 after Harp had left. The remaining seven (7) of the program’s 11-total championships were all Sam Harp.
I suppose that is why the field is named for him. Makes good sense to me.
Its three prior championships aside, Harp turned the program into a title-producing, championship winning, juggernaut. Harp would win titles in 1989, 1991-92, 1994, 2000-01, and 2003. Along the way, he would win 42-consecutive games from 1991-1993 which would include the 1991 and 1992, 2A KHSAA titles.
Harp would lead his Danville teams to 27 consecutive state playoffs, 19 district titles, and 16 region championships. Harp went 82-21 in the postseason.
Who in the world wins playoff games at a nearly 80% clip (79.6%)? Sam Harp, that’s who!
Harp was a five (5)-time Kentucky Coach of the Year honoree. Harp was a two (2)-time finalist for National Coach of the Year. Harp was one of the founders of the Kentucky Football Coaches Association.
Harp was inducted into the Dawahares (KHSAA) Hall of Fame in 2020. Harp was previously inducted into the Halls of Fame at both Danville and Franklin County High Schools.
Coaching is all about helping people…
Sam Harp
That is a bunch of on-field success. All those wins, all those titles, all those honors don’t define Sam Harp. Harp was quoted as saying once, “That’s what coaching is all about, helping people…”
That is what Coach Harp has done…help people. Harp came back to Kentucky, after a stint coaching Lebanon High in Tennessee to help Mark Peach coach at Anderson County.
from “Tombstone”
Peach commented at the time, “The biggest reason I got into coaching was because of Sam Harp. [Harp]…had the biggest impact on my career.”
Harp rolled up his sleeves and helped me write the definitive book on high school football in Kentucky. His valued insight and knowledge were quintessential to our overall product and its quality.
Harp has helped his son, Chase, who played for Harp, then played for UK, and is now a coach himself. “I work behind the scenes a little bit…,” Harp has said. “I break down the opponents’ film and scout their offense. I stay one week ahead of the game…on Friday nights, I’m up in the stands.”
There is a poignant scene in the movie Tombstone I would like to reference here. In this scene, Wyatt Earp, whose two brothers were attacked and nearly killed by a band of outlaws, has committed himself to chase and destroy this same band known throughout the West as simply, “The Cowboys.”
The characters are holed up and cornered in an ambush along a creek bed. They seem destined to die and one of the other characters looks at Doc Holiday and has the following exchange…
“Doc, you should be in bed. What the hell are you doing this for anyway?” -Creek Johnson
“Wyatt Earp is my friend.” -Doc Holliday
“Hell I’ve got lots of friends.” – Creek Johnson
“I don’t.” – Doc Holliday
Doc Holiday, “Tombstone”
Wyatt Earp is my friend
I don’t know why Sam Harp dropped what he was doing to help me write our book. I don’t know why he has spent his retirement helping his family and former players coach football. I don’t know why he went to extraordinary lengths, over his 42-year career, to mold lives, build men, and help charter coaching associations.
In the words of “Turkey Creek Johnson,” Hell Sam, what are you doing this for, anyway?”
I suppose I can hear his deep, soft, bass voice speak the words directly into my thoughts, into my mind’s eye. “Because, you’re my friend.”
Hell, Sam; you have lots of friends…
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
If you enjoyed this article and wish to gain full-access to the site, then subscribe monthly to Kentucky Prep Gridiron by following the prompts!
© The information contained on this site is the copyrighted intellectual property of KPGFootball. Any unauthorized dissemination of this material without the author’s express written consent is strictly prohibited!
Leave a Reply