(Editor’s note: Ray Duckworth, who was a Kentucky New Era sportswriter covering local high school sports during the 1980s and ‘90s, is among many former residents expected to be back in town this weekend to witness the last Hoptown-County football game prior to consolidation of the two public high schools in 2026. Ahead of the game Friday at the Stadium of Champions, Hoptown Chronicle invited Duckworth to reflect on the crosstown football rivalry and the players and coaches he covered for several years.)
“Welcome to Hopkinsville.”
The police officer’s words still stir in my memories of my first trip to a high school football game at Walnut Street Stadium.
I had been in Hopkinsville only a couple of weeks as a sportswriter for the Kentucky New Era newspaper when crosstown rivals Christian County and Hopkinsville played in 1985 at Walnut Street Stadium. Sports editor Scott Burnside covered the rivalry game, which pitted defending Class 4-A state champion Christian County against 1984 Class 3-A runner-up Hopkinsville. I covered a game involving another school in the newspaper’s coverage area.
During my first couple of weeks in Hopkinsville, Scott had taken me to Christian County High School to meet coach Dan Goble and his staff as well as to the Hopkinsville High School blockhouse to meet coach Mike Lewis and his staff.
My first assignment had been to cover a football scrimmage in Elkton, where Christian County was competing with three schools — Crittenden County coached by Christian County alumnus Pat Gates, Cheatham County, Tennessee, coached by former Christian County coach Fred Clayton, and host Todd County Central, coached by Fred Clayton’s son Craig, who would become Hopkinsville’s coach in 1986.
Each person had seemed nice, and that proved pretty much the case during my nearly 14 years in Hopkinsville. I worked with Scott in the newspaper’s sports department from 1985 to 1992, when I moved to work a year at Asheville, North Carolina. In 1993, Scott moved from sports editor to work in the newsroom, and I returned as sports editor until late 1996. That time, I moved from sports to work at the Fort Campbell newspaper, where I learned computer skills that brought me back to the New Era newsroom in January 1998 and later to newspapers in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Nashville, Tennessee.
During football season in Hopkinsville, the week of the Hoptown-County game took top billing, no matter what players dressed for the showdown. Because of that, the newspaper started presenting the annual Braggin’ Rights Trophy in the late 1970s. The trophy went to the victor to be kept at the winner’s school for that year.
During County’s run of success in the late 1980s, I went to present the trophy after a game. A senior eagerly waited, saying, “It’s coming back home.”
One year, the two schools chose to use the popularity of the game for a food drive competition. Co-worker David Riley took a photo of Scott and me with the Braggin’ Rights Trophy amid canned goods as a promotion.
I don’t remember the outcome of the food drive or the game. Like much of life, my memories seem to focus more on the people I have met than the details of events.
In recent years, when I would read about Carter Hendricks as Hopkinsville’s mayor, I would remember the receiver I interviewed at Christian County. Or when I drove this fall through Barbourville, Kentucky, I remembered lineman John Adams went to college at Union.
Or when I watched the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament this spring, I saw Chris Crutchfield coaching and remembered him as a multi-sport athlete at Hoptown. And during Miguel Merritt’s playing days at Alabama, I remembered the Hoptown legend who played in the Kentucky-Tennessee All-Star Game and called me “Ray” from the sideline when he saw me, much to the surprise of a reporter from another Kentucky newspaper.
And when we were in the Hopkinsville-Christian County Jaycees, Andrew Self told me of Scott writing a story about him, describing the future judge as a “skinny, sticky-fingered receiver” for Hopkinsville.
Likewise, coaches left their impressions. I had the pleasure of getting to know coaches Craig Clayton and Mike Atkins away from the football field when we attended church together at St. John United Methodist.
And Goble gave me advice that I have found true in life. “Football is the best teacher of life because when you get knocked down, you either get back up or you get run over.”
When Lewis moved from Hopkinsville, where he had played on the 1965 and 1966 state championship teams before coaching the 1984 state runner-up, he joined the Christian County coaching staff. I asked him about changing schools. He said the rivalry exists, but “It’s about the kids.”
In the theme of people, I think again about the police officer who welcomed me to Hoptown. I spoke to him the night of my first trip to Walnut Street Stadium. I returned to my car and found it minus four hubcaps. Having to deal with filing a police report and an insurance claim would have soured some people on a city. Instead, I look back now and consider Hopkinsville my second hometown, a place where a lot of friendships were nurtured amid newspaper deadline pressure, at sporting events and in church.
Hopefully, some of those friends will attend the final Hoptown-County football game Friday night at the Stadium of Champions. I would welcome the chance to recall more of those memories from 25 to 40 years ago.
If you go to the game
The final football game between Hopkinsville and Christian County will kick off at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, at the Stadium of Champions. Christian County is the home team.
Gates will open at 5 p.m. for alumni tailgating, followed by band performances by Hopkinsville at 5:45 p.m. and Christian County at 6 p.m.
Christian County senior night observance begins at 7 p.m., followed by the presentation of colors and the national anthem at 7:15 p.m., and the coin flip at 7:25 p.m.
In a press release, district officials said spectators will go through a weapon detection system, and a no-bag policy is in effect for all of the district’s athletic events. Elementary and middle school students must be with an adult to be admitted.
“Each school is organizing its own alumni events. A special section for alumni will be designated at the far end of the track (nearest visitor parking),” the release states.
Coordinators for alumni events are Barbara Baker, for Christian County (barbara.baker@christian.kyschools.us), and Barry Payne for Hopkinsville (270-484-6200).
Game tickets can be purchased online through Go Fan for $10.
Ray Duckworth is a former writer and editor for newspapers in Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina, including the Kentucky New Era in Hopkinsville. He is retired and resides in his hometown, Morganton, North Carolina.
