Iron Bowl … Egg Bowl … never mind. Football in Kentucky November 28-29 was prime. Perception being reality, was second to none.

No-bathroom-break suspense, drama to the wire and yes, agony of defeat, too. Friday and Saturday were all that.

Friday night in Goshen in Oldham County: Owensboro High’s Nick Locher, Jahlil Barack and Kishawn Walker gave ESPN’s Sports Center its premier high school highlight for 2014.

Host North Oldham led 24-21, was six seconds from a Class 4-A title game date this weekend. Visitors had one snap left. Quarterback Locher stepped back and flung a desperation pass toward Barack. Ball skipped off his fingers, eluded hands of two defenders, and fell into Walker’s paws and he raced to the end zone, 27-21.

In a 59-yard Hail Mary moment, Owensboro was in the 4-A title game. Red Devil fans came away quoting the grand old Mark Twain of sports, Yogi Berra: It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.

Friday afternoon in Huntington, West Virginia. Western Kentucky was supposed to be Senior Day fodder for Marshall (11-0). Hilltoppers would bridge 19th ranked Herd to a New Year’s Day bowl game.

Nada. From the outset, edge-of-seat suspense to trump any notion of a sprint to the fridge for another cold one.

Then, proving anew how Kentuckians admire a good gamble, Topps coach Jeff Brohm waved off a PAT-to-tie in overtime. “We’re goin’ for the win.” Two-point-try after touchdown. Roll-out-pass right, Got it!

Western’s 67-66 shocker was back-and-forth dizzy and delightful. We hope Topper fans committed it to DVD, a library spot alongside the 1971 NCAA debacle with Kentucky.

What next for Western? Jilted three years in a row by bowl officials, the C-USA Toppers (7-5) will go bowling. This team’s entertainment index should make it a high demand candidate. Quarterback Brandon Doughty and fullback Leon Allen have the Hilltoppers averaging 49-plus points a game on a four game win streak.

Saturday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky at Louisville.

A Governor’s Cup rivalry where it belongs at season’s end. This one defined why football has become America’s apple pie. In this case, in your face.

Full metal jacket braggadocio … Cats step on Cards logo silliness … Cardinals and Cats posture and preen, push and slap face masks (?). Opposing coaches grappled one another and became internet comedy.

Ugly pre-game scene so inflammable it threatened stadium peace.

Then they played a game.

A contest become a growl and grump of passion and aggression. So what if quality suffered?

Back and forth it went, good plays, bad plays, strut and trash, penalties, big hits, much ‘look at me-ism!’, more trash, heart-stopping heroics, and mistakes. Was money’s-worth-entertainment – off the charts. Then, everyone went home, some of whom take a cue from Mississippi State coach Dan Mullin who, after his team Egg Bowl loss said, “… I won’t sleep a wink for the next 365 days until we get ‘em at our place.”

By the end, 44-40 UofL, there was that sparkling element to override everything. Americans love a hero. In this case, a “who WAS that guy?” third team quarterback who put on a helmet in second quarter and was mostly brilliant to the end, MVP Kyle Bolin. Hometown? Lexington.

Epilogue: Media critics and naysayers against moving the Governor’s Cup to November from August, were perhaps struck dumb by caliber of this one, including UofL director of athletics Tom Jurich.

KENTUCKY IS 6-OH BECAUSE …

No, ranked Kentucky, as we turn the page to December “… is gonna lose two or three games” another media herd expert said Sunday. But nobody is brave enough to climbs out on the proverbial limb to explain who and how.

Texas, North Carolina, Louisville?

Maybe Providence on Sunday presented us reason to believe the answer could well be nobody.

√ Friars coach Coach Ed Cooley: “We just couldn’t run any offense, and a lot of that had to do with Kentucky’s a very, very, very good defensive team. (Willie) Cauley-Stein, I was thinking, ‘Man, he’s just like a one-man wrecking crew.’ … It’s really hard to get some shots off.”

√ Friars got off 39 shots, five were blocked, 11 went in, 28 percent. Scored 16 points total in second half.

√ LaDontae Henton, nation’s third leading scorer, 24-plus, managed eight shots, made one in 34 minutes.

Sum up: Up-and-down offense IS college basketball. With 10 players averaging 107-or-more minutes, defense should be up always.

HERO DEPT.: ED SELVY

Sports hero is him/her who is defined by athletic achievement, yes, but more carriage, presence and humility every day. Behavior’s polar opposite to today’s strut, brash, and it’s-about-me show-off.

I lost a hero the other day. Ed Selvy. A 1955 Corbin High School graduate, the Selvy-not-named-(brother) Frank, he wasn’t only a gifted athlete – basketball and football – but carried himself well as if his Mother might be watching. Or, some little kid he would never know about.

Ed’s jump shot was velvet and string music too, then “get back on defense!” His flattop haircut was cool and perfect also. Both were worthy of imitation. Still, it was how Ed Selvy carried himself that imprinted.

Selvy lived in Louisville. A few months ago, I heard he was ailing and left a message for him on Facebook. An encouragement, a reminder the influence his presence in high school years had had on a kid growing up in Corbin.

He wrote back. Was “grateful, surprised and pleased. Let’s stay in touch.”

We didn’t of course. Was okay. Heroes ought be kept on their pedestal, at a distance.

Today then, the best of best Ed Selvy memories hang in the air.

PARTING SHOT

Lebron James on riots in Ferguson, Missouri: “Burning down things and shooting up things and running cars into places and stealing and stuff like that, what does that do?”

And so it goes.

You can reach me at bob.Watkins24@aol.com