The Dogs barked loud in 1958

The KHSAA state baseball tourney is underway this week in Lexington and sixteen teams are on a quest to become the Kings of the diamond and bring home the state championship baseball trophy. When the best high schools’ teams in Kentucky battle on the diamond, my mind always reflects on that big shiny trophy that the 1958 Maysville High Bulldogs brought home from Lexington after they won the state title. The Hollywood moguls made a movie about a team that brought two schools together and the true story about “Remember the Titans” showed that race did not come into the integration as athletics resulted into a united town and high school. The same movie script could have been written about Maysville as they produced one of the best high school baseball teams in Kentucky High School history. In the previous year of 1957 the Maysville school system began the desegregation process and athletics became a big part of the smooth transition. Woodie Crum, the feisty coach of the Bulldogs proved that team came before race issues, or any other distractions and it showed on the field. One of the neat facts about this team was that it featured the first African Americans to play in the KHSAA state baseball tournament. Robert Alexander, Ulysses Greene and Dwight Murphy had the distinction of being the first African Americans to take the field in the state showcase.

The 1958 Bulldog squad began tourney play with a record of 10 wins and two losses during the regular season. One of the losses that season occurred against a game against the UK Wildcat freshman team and the other was to Ashland on the back end of a doubleheader. The Dogs were challenged right off in regional play as they faced still competition from Northern Kentucky powers such as Newport Catholic and Campbell County and the tough Boone County Rebels which featured Allen Feldhaus. The MHS squad won the regional title game as they beat the Boone County squad by the score of 11 to 3, but Coach Feldhaus homered off the Dog’s ace, Allen Smith.

Stoll Field in Lexington was the site of the state tourney and the Dogs had to play the Shelbyville team in the opening game of the 1958 state tourney. Woodie Crum the crafty coach he was decided to start Jackie Allison the regular shortstop instead of basketball and baseball all-state player, Allen Smith. Allison done a great job on the mound,

but Woodie Crum summoned Allen Smith to hurl the final three innings and the Dogs won the game by the score of 3 to 2 as Alexander doubled home Smith who collected the win. Louisville Manual was next in state play, and they were the favorite to win the state title and bring home the trophy to Louisville. Allen Smith was fabulous as always, but so were the hurlers from Manual and the score ended up 1 to 0 in favor of MHS. The neat stat from this game was that the Bulldogs won this game without getting a hit. With the bases jammed the pitcher hit Greene with a pitch and it plated the only run of the game, but it was enough to place Maysville in the championship game against Harlan. You must realize that the rule that limits how many innings a pitcher can pitch in a week was not in effect in 1958. That sure played in the Dog’s favor as Allen Smith was on the bump for the second time that day as he faced the Harlan Green Dragons. They were no match for Smith as he was in complete control and Greene added a long home run to propel Maysville to a 7 to 1 victory. Allen Smith has records that have not been equaled in state baseball tournament history as he won all three games and in seventeen innings, he gave up only six hits and one run. With the number of innings that a pitcher can pitch, that will be a record that will stand the test of time. Allen Smith later became a collegiate All-American pitcher for the LSU Tigers and some of his pitching records have never been broken by any LSU hurler.

The members of this special group that not only won the state title but were pioneers with three African Americans playing in the state tourney for the first time were coached by Woodie Crum. The team members were Jackie Allison, Duane Faris, David Green, and Chuck Hayslip, Bob Hutchinson and Phil Hutchinson, Bob Reetz, Robert Alexander, Eugene Fetters. Ulysses Greene, Kenny Smith, Allen Smith and Dwight Murphy and Billy Joe Knox rounded out the 1958 championship team. It is sure good to remember a great championship year of 1958.