Author: mrandmisskybasketball

Harry Todd was named Mr. Basketball in 1958 along with Ralph Richardson.  A 6’8” center, Todd led his team to the 1956 state tournament where he made the all-state tournament team as a sophomore.  As a senior, he averaged 30 points and 20 rebounds.  He received first team all-state honors in 1956, 1957, and 1958.  He was one of the few players in state history to make first team all-state three consecutive years.

Todd had an excellent college career at Western Kentucky University where he led WKU in rebounding for three straight seasons from 1960-62 and finished his career ranked seventh in school history in career rebounds with 924.

Todd then went on to a 30-year career with the U.S. Army, including a stint as command sergeant major at Fort Campbell before his retirement in 1991.

Todd, a Cadiz resident, then served as tourism director in Trigg County before going into the ministry. He’s now a Methodist minister at a church in Livingston County.

Ralph Richardson was a Co-Mr. Kentucky Basketball in 1958. This was the only year that two Mr. KY Basketball recipients were announced, the other was Harry Todd.

Ralph averaged 34 points, 20 rebounds, and 8 blocked shots a game during his senior season in 1958 for Russell County High School. He went on to have an excellent career at Eastern Kentucky University. To list all of his awards and accolades would take several pages.

What you might not know about Ralph is that to this day he is still very involved with the Mr and Miss Kentucky Basketball Awards Ceremony. In ‘normal years’ it is usually about this time, a few weeks before the event, that KY Lions Eye Foundation staff get a visit from Ralph delivering a truckload of silent auction items that he has solicited throughout the year to help support the fundraising efforts of the Foundation. We greatly appreciate everything that Ralph and his wife Jan do for the Foundation – not only during basketball season but throughout the year!

It was 6 years ago this week when Mr. Kentucky Basketball 2014, Quentin Snider passed Allan Houston as Ballard High School’s all-time scorer in a game against Eastern High School.  He needed 27 points coming into the game, he ended the game with 30.  Snider, known for his 3 point abilities, made 337 three point shots in his high high school career and had an impressive 633 assists.  Snider went on to have a great career at the University of Louisville.

Happy Birthday to Miss KY Basketball 1982 Connie Goins!  Connie is listed in the KHSAA Basketball Record Book 4 times for her amazing free throw abilities and for scoring 2,928 points during her career at Western Hills High School.  Goins went on to play for Duke where she was a four-time All-ACC Honor Roll student-athlete and finished her career ranked second in school history in both points and assists, and eighth in rebounds.

She was named the team’s captain for the 1985-86 year, when she guided the Blue Devils to their first national ranking in school history. Duke appeared at No. 20 in the Associated Press poll Jan. 12, 1986.  She was inducted in 2010 into the sixth annual class of ACC Women’s Basketball Legends.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in computer science.  She returned home to Kentucky and has spent her professional career in Kentucky state government.

One of the first female high school superstars in the modern era of Kentucky High School Basketball, high-scoring Geri Grigsby of the “McDowell High “Dare-Devils” amassed a three-season total of 4,385 points on her way to earning 3 First Team “All-State” honors.  Her 49.8 senior season scoring average is still a state and national record as is her 81 points in a single game during her junior season.  She was named Kentucky’s Miss Basketball in 1977, “Kentucky Sportswoman of the Year” in 1978 and has since been inducted in the National High School Hall of Fame, the Dawahares KHSAA Hall of Fame and the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame.