The first head basketball coach of the Clinton County High School girls’ basketball program in the modern-day era, Lois Haddix, passed away last week in Berea, Kentucky. She was 83 years old.

Haddix took the helm of the girls’ basketball program at Clinton County High School as the head coach of the Lady Bulldogs for the 1974-75 season.

She continued in that position for three seasons, through the 1976-77 season, handing the program off to her successor, David McFarland, convinced that she had led the Lady Bulldogs off of the drawing board and into successful fashion during her coaching career here.

The term “modern-day era” is used for the girls’ high school basketball program for the years 1974 until present, considering that after the 1932 season, girls’ basketball was dropped from the Kentucky High Schools programs as a mandatory extra-curricular offering.

Although some Kentucky schools, especially in larger cities, continued to offer girls’ basketball, there were no sanctioned games or post-season tournaments held after the 1932 State Tournament until the sport returned to Kentucky in 1974.

The Title IX Act that was introduced in the early 1970s brought girls’ basketball back into organized existence for Kentucky High Schools, demanding that girls would have the same opportunity to participate in programs as would boys.

Haddix, who was also a History and Health and Physical Education teacher at Clinton County High School, finished her first season with a 4-10 overall record, but she came back with a vengeance, leading her next two teams to records of 17-6 and 21-3 in 1975-76 and 1976-77, respectively.

Those two final years set Coach Haddix’s overall record at 42-19, for a winning mark of 69 percent.

Haddix also coached the Lady Bulldogs to their first ever 16th District championship, winning that title with her 1975-76 team, and successfully defending that title with a second District championship in the 1976-77 season.

In 1998, Haddix was inducted onto the first class of the Clinton County High School Basketball Wall of Fame, along with long-time boys’ basketball coach, Lindle Castle.

A complete death notice for Lois Haddix appears this week on page X