A new “King” in Kentucky is crowned at the Sweet 16

As I noted in this space last week, nearly 100,000 high school basketball fans, over the four day, eight session KHSAA Sweet 16, made it to Rupp Arena a couple of weeks ago to take in the “Greatest Show in Hoops”.

For some, myself included, one of those sessions offered up what will likely be a once in a lifetime chance to witness the crowning of a new King of high school basketball scoring.

With 3:48 showing on the Rupp Arena game clock on Thursday, March 16, Lyon County junior guard Travis Perry stepped to the free throw line, brushed his hands off on his trunks and sank the first shot of a two-shot trip.

With most of the Rupp Arena crowd standing, many, like myself with phone/cameras raised to capture the moment, Perry’s made free throw made him the all-time new leader in Kentucky boys high school basketball, with that shot, at 4,338 points during his now five year long career with the Lyon County Lyons,

The point by Perry sent the junior in front of Wayland High School legend King Kelly Coleman, whose high school basketball career with the Wayland Wasps saw him set the all-time scoring record for a boys high school basketball player in Kentucky with a total of 4,338 points.

That record stood for nearly seven decades with Coleman ending his high school career in 1956.

In all fairness, and as is always pointed out every time the conversation comes up, Coleman set that record in three years of varsity play, without a three point shot present in the rules of that day.

Still – in the rules of today, there is a new King in Kentucky, and myself, along with 13,964 other fans on hand for that session, watched, and cheered, when he made it.

It’s a little bewildering that Perry still has one more year to play in high school, after having filled the basket to the tune of 4,359 points at the time of his team’s quarter-final loss in the Sweet 16,

King Coleman passed away in 2019 at the age of 80, but not before Bowling Green author Gary West was able to chronicle his basketball career in his 2005 book, King Kelly Coleman – Kentucky’s Greatest Basketball Legend.

I was fortunate enough to get to meet Coleman the year after that book was published when he, and my friend and colleague Gary West, were manning a booth at the Sweet 16 with those books for sale.

Coleman was a huge man with a unforgettable handshake grip even a half century after having set the scoring mark.

Down to earth, eager to share as many of his vast collection of basketball stories he had accumulated at the time that anyone wanted to listen to, and yes, he offered to sign my just purchased book without me first having to ask.

With the release of Gary’s book back in 2005, King Kelly enjoyed somewhat of a resurgence in notoriety across Kentucky and his presence at that Sweet 16 nearly two decades ago brought his achievements on the roundball court to the attention of an entire new generation of Kentucky high school basketball fans who had only perhaps heard the name “King Kelly” in passing.

Coleman was a great ambassador for Kentucky high school hoops, and I’m betting when he finishes his high school career next season with the Lyons, new King Travis Perry will be as well.

They may have hailed from opposite ends of the state, but they’re still Kentucky high school basketball heroes.

In the meantime –

March Madness is over – go ahead and give me a call