‘He moved us forward’: City pushes to name Hopkinsville bridge after beloved high school basketball coach

HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (WKRN) — The Hopkinsville City Council is looking to honor a legendary high school basketball coach with a permanent memorial.

During a Committee of the Whole meeting on Aug. 22, Hopkinsville Mayor James Knight proposed naming a walking trail bridge over Lafayette Road after William Falls, a beloved and decorated high school basketball coach.

The suggested location of what the mayor is calling the ‘Coach William Falls Memorial Bridge’ is close to the area where a train crashed into Falls’ car in 1973, killing him and one of his players, 16-year-old Samuel ‘Sammy’ Johnson.

Knight said often after practice, Falls would drive players, who didn’t have a lift, home.

“It didn’t matter if you were white or Black,” Knight said. “If you needed a ride home or whatever you needed, the kids were always first in his book, no matter what was going on.”

For more than three decades, Falls coached at Attucks High School, the city’s first public school for Black students. There, he had a 663 – 233 record and led the Wolves to two Kentucky High School Athletic League Championships, one runner-up finish and 12 trips to the state tournament.

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He would continue as an assistant coach at Hopkinsville High School when the local schools integrated in 1967. Knight said Falls played a significant role in unifying the players at that time.

“We are a very diverse community, and I think that we need to honor the people and let us not forget our history and how we got to where we are,” Knight said. “For Coach Falls, he moved us forward in a time that we needed to be moving forward, and how we can make the community come together in a better, peaceful way.”

In 2019, Falls’ former players nominated and inducted him into the Kentucky Basketball Hall of Fame. Ultimately, it was the young men he coached who brought Knight the idea to cement his legacy with a permanent space where so many in the community walk every day.

“The players wanted him remembered,” Knight said. “A lot of them said that he had a big impact on who they were, how things were in Hopkinsville High School, and how things were going on at that time, and he helped shine a bright light on how things ought to be.”

The motion to dedicate the bridge to Falls passed unanimously by the committee on Aug. 22. It will be up for a vote during the Sept. 3 city council meeting.

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