A familiar but fun memory

I’ve told this story before, several times, both in this very space as well as in person when the opportunity arises, but Sunday morning I was reminded again.

With no sports, and now very little sports to write about, the Lexington Herald-Leader has, this spring and summer, published repeats of articles and the front pages from some of the most memorable U.K. wins.

First it was the Wildcat basketball teams and those eight NCAA Championship title games.

Now we’re looking back to the football glory games that have included Bowl victories, and on Sunday, it was the second of that series.

Flash back to 1984 and a very successful ride the University of Kentucky football Wildcats were enjoying under the leadership of then head coach Jerry Claiborne.

The Wildcats finished the regular season with a win over Tennessee down in Knoxville for an 8-3 mark and with that, earned an invitation to the Hall of Fame Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama.

With a come from behind 20-19 win over Wisconsin, Clairborne and his Cats ended the year with a Bowl Championship and an overall 9-3 record.

The local angle?

Well, it all started the year before when Tom Allen, a member of the Clinton County High School Class of 1983, took the team management skills he had learned as a Bulldog basketball team manager for then head coach Gary Dunlap, and earned a position as an equipment manager for the University of Kentucky Wildcats.

When the Cats finished that 1984 season in Birmingham, Tom Allen was still the equipment manager for the team, and thus, when the Bowl rings were passed out, Tom had certainly earned one.

As far as I know, that makes Tom the only Clinton County native I know of who owns, having earned, a NCAA Division I football bowl championship ring.

He never wears it, but he still proudly displays it, and it still embarrasses him when I point this fact out – yet I’m proud to call him a good friend.

Tom has spent most of his adult years just to the south, as a co-owner/operator of Sunset Dock on Dale Hollow Lake, in Pickett County, Tennessee, where he now makes his home with his wife, Angela Stockton Allen.

As of late, however, he has spent a considerable amount of time in and through Albany and Clinton County again, for a couple of reasons.

He and business partner Tony Sloan have worked tirelessly for the past few years developing and opening the new marina on Lake Cumberland, just to the north of the Clinton County / Russell County line – Marina Rowena.

In addition, he and wife Angela’s nephews, Evan and Eli Dearborn, have been playing basketball for the Bulldogs, which has put Tom and Angela back in the Clinton County stands nearly every game.

I have to say, Tom looks better back in Bulldog blue than he does in Pickett black and gold.

As for Sunday’s article, Tom told me Sunday afternoon that he remembered the day that photo of the Cats carrying Coach Claiborne off the field after the Hall of Fame Bowl win was made, but he doesn’t really remember having read the article back in 1984.

He was sure that writer Jerry Tipton made mention of those “shiny helmets, clean uniforms” and other items that he had provided the Cats for the Bowl win.

Tom still follows the Cats on both fronts.

In the meantime – no sports at all stinks!