Slow Motion Replay: The Great Danny Sundberg, the pride of Waggener High @WHS_Wildcats_FB, @minguabeefjerky, @bigassfans, @KyHighFootball, @HopHighTigers, @SenecaHSFB

Sundberg (1961), the pride of Waggener High, still one of the best QBs the school has ever produced

Danny Sundberg was the star quarterback at Waggener High in St. Mathews, Kentucky a suburb of Louisville. Sundberg is still considered among the best to play the position EVER in the high school ranks. Often times, events are subject to timing. When Sundberg arrived at UK’s camp to begin conditioning to play for Charlie Bradshaw, a Bear Bryant disciple, there were 88-players reporting. After a camp which can only be described as a living Hell, there were 30, a very “Thin Thirty.” Sundberg ended up in Bowling Green at Western Kentucky University. Enjoy this look at a Kentucky treasure; one Hell of a player, one Hell of a coach, and one Hell of a man.

HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”

Hopkinsville, KY: Hiram Powers was an American neoclassical sculptor. He was one of the first 19th-century American artists to gain an international reputation, largely based on his famous marble sculpture, The Greek Slave. 

Powers once wrote, “The eye is the window of the soul, the mouth its door. The intellect, the will, are seen in the eyes; the emotions, sensibilities, and affections, in the mouth. The animals look for man’s intentions right into his eyes. Even a rat, when you hunt him and bring him to bay, looks you in the eye.”

It is indescribable to me what I have seen both now and over the years when peering into the eyes of my long-time friend and mentor, Danny Sundberg. The victories, the defeats, the losses on and off the field of play, are all right there; lurking just beneath his pain-riddled eyes, animating the very soul of the man.

I knew him first as a football coach at Hopkinsville High. Sundberg was brought in by then AD, Fleming Thornton, to be his hand picked successor. Sundberg had built a winner at Louisville’s Seneca High, an achievement about which not just any coach could boast.

Sundberg would come in and befriend the team’s doctor; my dad, Doc Long. Sundberg would keep Larry Long as the team doctor throughout his coaching tenure; the tenure of his successor who Sundberg had himself “hand picked,” Mike Lewis; and even through much of Craig Clayton’s first tenure at the helm, for so long as Sundberg served as the program’s AD.

There was always something lurking just beneath the man’s eyes, just beneath the surface, but I didn’t know what. I didn’t know where he had been, nor down what roads he had traveled. I didn’t comprehend the question, much less its answer.

There was always something swimming in the man’s eyes, just beneath the surface…

Friday Night Fletch, on Danny Sundberg

He used to ask me, “Young Long, are you asking or telling them?”

I used to answer, “Telling them, Coach?”

I was unsure of my answer. After all, I really didn’t understand the question and was answering in the way I hoped he wanted. I was guessing.

It wasn’t my true answer. Hell, telling them what and just who are they? I didn’t understand the question.

Sundberg had been the pride of Waggener High in St. Matthews, Kentucky, a well-to-do part of Louisville. Sundberg was the QB and an All-State one. Sundberg was among the best QBs in our commonwealth his senior season (1960).

Sundberg would sign with the state university, the University of Kentucky. Sundberg would arrive for camp under new coach, Charlie Bradshaw, a Bear Bryant disciple. The ‘Cats were doing well under former coach, Blanton Collier, why the change?

Again, none of us even understood the question. We understood even less about the answer.

Bradshaw’s tenure would be tragic. Eighty-eight (88) players arrived for camp. There were only 30-remaining when the season opened.

“The Thin Thirty” is what they called Bradshaw’s survivors

Shannon P. Ragland’s book

The Thin Thirty, was what they called the “survivors.” The Thin Thirty were well renown in the pantheon of Kentucky football history. The players, Sundberg amongst them, were treated to a level of brutality which would have made Bear Bryant wince.

One of Kentucky’s former players, and a former teammate of Danny Sundberg, named Ernest C. Cheatham Jr., remarked on the experience. Cheatham, after leaving UK, became a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corp and a decorated Vietnam veteran.

Cheatham described Bradshaw’s camp this way, “I guess I could say that nothing I have seen in training (in the military) compared to those terrible practices at U.K.” Cheatham added, “[I]f the services had pulled anything like that, someone would [have been] put in jail.”

I could sense the experience lurking. I didn’t know exactly what I was sensing and knew even less about what I was seeing but it was always there; simmering just beneath the surface of Sundberg’s eyes. When I looked into his eyes, even back then, it was there; though I didn’t understand what it was. It was always there lying in that space between the surface of his eyes and soul.

“Young Long, are you asking or telling them?

Meekly, I would respond, “Telling them, Coach.”

Again, what does this mean? I didn’t know and wouldn’t for years.

Sundberg and several of his teammates from UK’s team all transferred to Western Kentucky University. Sundberg would play fullback for the Hilltoppers. Sundberg would earn three (3) varsity letters (1963-65).

Sundberg was a three-time letterman in football at WKU

WKU Media Guide, 1976

Upon graduation, Danny Sundberg embarked on a career in education and coaching. Sundberg would be the head football coach at Louisville’s Seneca High and enjoy a period of success the program has never since equalled. Seneca was better under Sundberg than it would be under any other coach.

Sundberg was hand picked to coach the varsity football team at a program which was among the commonwealth’s more successful. Sundberg was brought to town to replace its most famous coach; its Hall of Fame head man, Fleming Thornton.

Sundberg would hire a young man who played for Thornton on a state championship team, named Mike Lewis, to coach his offensive line. After four years or so at the helm, Sundberg turned the program over to his protégé, Mike Lewis, and gravitated toward sports and school administration.

Sundberg would end up the AD and Assistant Principal at Hopkinsville High School, but not before working for a brief time at cross-town rival, Christian County for its Hall of Fame coach, Dan Goble.

There is a great story about Sundberg coaching the OL on one of Goble’s 4A championship teams. Goble told the story to KPGFootball as follows:

I decided to give these guys a break before they hurt each other

Danny Sundberg, OL Coach, Christian County

“So we are practicing one day and it is really hot and I look down the field and Coach Sundberg has the linemen sitting on the ground under a shade tree. I marched down the field to learn what in the blue blazes was going on down there.”

Goble continued, “Coach Sundberg, what in the Hell is going on down here? Why aren’t you practicing?”

Sundberg looked at his friend and head coach and said, “Coach, I decided to give these guys a break before they hurt each other.”

Sundberg would tell me many years after this, “You know, the players at Christian County, at that time, were just anatomically different than what I had been coaching at Hopkinsville High. I looked up to my guys at CCHS. At HHS, I looked down on many of them. Not figuratively, but literally.”

“Young Long, are you asking them or telling them?”

“Telling them, Coach. I guess?”

Sundberg remained in Hopkinsville. I still see him. We talk over the phone frequently. Sundberg bought five copies of Sam Harp and my book. He had me inscribe them.

I will never forget a low point in my own personal life. Something had happened which had caused me considerable pain and embarrassment. I was in a sporting goods store, praying to go unnoticed, when Sundberg came up from the side, bear hugged me, kissed me on the cheek and said, “I am proud of you, son.”

I can’t even begin to explain just how badly I needed to hear anyone say something to me even remotely like that…

Friday Night Fletch

I can’t even relate how much that meant to me. I can’t even begin to explain just how badly I needed to hear anyone say something to me even remotely like that.

I believe Sundburg was speaking for the both of them. Sundberg was speaking to me and channeling his late friend and mentor, Fleming Thornton, who wished to tell me the same message, even if Coach Thornton had to tell me from the grave. It’s weird, I know.

“Young Long, are you asking them or telling them?”

“I am telling them, Coach!”

Sundberg strolled away replying, “Damn right you are, son! Carry-on.”

Sauntering away from me, at that moment, walked the great Danny Sundberg; the pride of Waggener High.

You tell ’em, Coach!

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

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