Kentucky’s best known basketball legend dies at 80

Of course I never saw him play, but for as long as I can remember being a fan of high school basketball, I knew the name of the greatest scorer to ever don a high school boys’ basketball uniform in this roundball crazy state.

King Kelly Coleman, who earned the title of Mr. Basketball in Kentucky after his senior season for tiny Wayland High School in Floyd County in 1956, died Sunday in Hazard at the age of 80.

As a young boy and young man attending the KHSAA Sweet 16, you would spot Coleman from time to time at one of the sessions and it was easy to pick him out – he was the one who had the crowd around him.

I met the King a couple of times, the last time just a few years ago at the Sweet 16 when he and Kentucky author Gary West were stationed in the lobby of Rupp Arena, signing and selling the biography that West had just released about Coleman and his rise to legend status as a high school basketball hero in Kentucky.

After chatting briefly with West, who has penned several Kentucky related books and has been to Albany and Clinton County several times, he introduced me to Coleman, who signed and personalized the copy of the book I had just purchased.

Although he was in his early 70s at that time, when he stood, as any gentleman from that era would, to shake my hand, his 6’4” frame still towered large.

My autographed copy of that book still sits on my dresser.

If you pick up any copy of Kentucky records listings with high school records, it will read almost like a biography of Coleman’s playing time itself.

Among his achievements are, of course, the fact that still today, some 65 years since he first took the floor as a high school player, Coleman put in the most points of any boy in Kentucky on the high school level, with 4,337 points. He remains the only boy player to ever reach 4,000 career points.

He also is listed as the top record holder in several other categories, including most points in a single season (1,734 in 1956), field goals made in a game (31 vs. Maytown in 1956) and field goals attempted (52 vs. Bell County in 1956).

Coleman was one of only 10 players in boys’ history to score 75 or more points in a game, against Maytown, while also grabbing 41 rebounds, second-most in a game, ever behind Russ Milton, who grabbed 48 rebounds against Marion in 1957. (By the way, Clinton County’s Larry Hatfield is just a few lines below Coleman’s listing in that category with 38 rebounds against Auburn in 1973).

In addition to those top individual stats, flipping through my copy of the Kentucky Basketball Encyclopedia (Jeff Bridgeman, 2018), you can find Coleman’s name listed several times in other categories in a host of spots.

There are categories that you won’t find Coleman listed in, including any referring to the three point line. There was none when the King roamed the courts of Kentucky.

Still, the King set records that are being chased more than six decades later.

In the meantime – let’s take it outside for a few months!