Clinton County Day on KSR

There are a few habits I have that I tend not to break easily, and one of those is listening to sports radio throughout the day, playing in the background if I’m at my desk, considerably louder if I’m in the truck.

While I know that there are many of you out there who listen to some of those shows, Matt Jones and Kentucky Sports Radio – KSR for short – seems to be the favorite among sports radio listeners.

For those of you who aren’t familiar, Jones is a Transylvania graduate who went on to attend law school at Duke on a full ride scholarship (he claims), but never lost his allegiance to the University of Kentucky.

Returning to Kentucky to practice law, he soon decided he would be happier being a broadcast figure and he started the KSR network and from there – it took off and he never looked back.

Now working basketball and football pre and post game shows, as well as his daily KSR two-hour “all things Kentucky sports” and other Kentucky life themed programs, Jones has become a well-known public figure across the state, has grown into being a guest host on the Paul Finebaum show, as well as doing some NFL radio programs.

Now he is a co-owner of a bar-restaurant sports theme establishment in Lexington – KSBar – and even toyed with the idea of trying to run a race for the democratic nomination for U.S. Senate with the hopes of going up against Senator Mitch McConnell this fall.

Wisely, he gave up on that idea and returned to the air this spring, but not before touring Kentucky and stopping in every county – including Clinton County.

In his book released this spring – titled Mitch, Please!, in which he tries to show how McConnell has “sold out Kentucky and America”, Jones had a fairly unfavorable review of his stop in Clinton County, which was apparently on a Sunday afternoon during the winter months.

Stopping at a church in Clinton County that he wouldn’t name because, he says in all fairness he is sure that all Clinton County people aren’t this rude, was the only unfavorable experience, where he was treated with outright rude people from beginning to end.

Eventually he and his traveling mate found their way to another residence, talked while with another person or two, found them likable and then went on to the next county.

In any event, during this stretch of no sports being played to speak of during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jones and his show co-hosts for the past few weeks have been doing a “virtual tour” across Kentucky, talking about a single county each day for parts of the show and inviting people from each days selected county to call in with facts related to the county – sports and otherwise.

Thursday was “Clinton County Day” and, of course, I was ready with a list and the phone number.

After several attempts to get locked into the program, I was put on hold as “Al from Clinton County” and for the next hour and a half, I worked while listening to the show on my cell phone speaker, while on hold.

After a few minutes of tossing a few Clinton County facts, near truths, completely wrong assertions and some fun poking (don’t take it too serious, they make fun of everyone and the show’s theme is “facts are optional”), giving the late Sid Scott some mention as both play by play for Clinton County and one of the Singing DJs, it was time to take a phone call.

First up came “Sarah from Clinton County” and while I’m not entirely certain as to Sarah’s identity, I have a good idea, but she did a fantastic job, giving a few facts about the county, trading a few barbs back and forth with the hosts and making sure that she invited them to come back to visit Clinton County to see that we are for the most part, friendly people.

Eventually, like I said, an hour and half into the two-hour program, it was time for “Al from Clinton County’s” turn and for the next couple of minutes, I offered my spin.

Pointing out that Clinton County was the only county in the “entire world” that could claim shoreline to both Lake Cumberland and Dale Hollow Lake, I proceeded to explain that Seventy Six Falls was often referred to as “party central” on Lake Cumberland, then I spent a short stretch telling about Clinton County being home to Trooper Island Youth Camp on Dale Hollow Lake. Then, I confirmed their earlier brief about Garlin Murl Conner being from Clinton County, but adding the previously unnoted fact that with the Medal of Honor upgrade, he had become the highest decorated soldier from WWII.

When it came time for sports talk, knowing that they probably were already set to give up recent sports notes about Clinton County – the early 2000’s Lady Bulldog runs with the Guffey twins and our recent Jackson Harlan heading off to Western to play D-I basketball (Randy Speck had sent in some of these facts among others) – I went for some relatively obscure facts.

Noting that our long-time former basketball coach, the late Lindle Castle, who came here in 1957, had been a sophomore member of the 1951 University of Kentucky National Championship basketball team, then followed up with our county being home to a professional boxer in the early 1980s, Jeff Fryman, who earned the Kentucky Lightweight Championship title and who fought under the nickname the “Kentucky Wildcat”.

They seemed most impressed with the Kentucky Wildcat moniker, although not as much as they were with Sid Scott’s performance of “What’ll I do if my ‘baccor don’t sell”

So anyway, between me, Sarah from Clinton County, and a few others who sent the crew some facts for KSR Clinton County Day, the rest of the state and beyond now knows several things – mostly positive – about our little county we all love and call home.

As for becoming a regular call-in listener to the KSR show like John Short, Bob from Jamestown, or the many others that visit the show on a regular basis. I think I’ve marked that experience off my bucket list. I’ll continue listening and being entertained, but I earned my “first time, long time – ‘hoo rah’ ” Thursday morning.

Too much to do stay on hold for another hour and a half.

In the meantime – no sports at all stinks!