Normally, I’m the one going down research rabbit holes, scouring old newspapers on the internet and firing off emails to people who don’t know me in hopes of turning up information that feels just out of my reach.
But a couple of weeks ago, someone else was going down the rabbit hole, and I was the person receiving an email from a stranger.
I couldn’t have been more pleased because the man seeking my help is connected to an important Hopkinsville story.
The email came to me from Bill Falls, grandson and namesake of the celebrated basketball coach William Falls, who led the Attucks High School Wolves from 1935 to 1967 with a 663-233 win-loss record. After Attucks closed with the desegregation of local schools, Falls became an assistant coach at Hopkinsville High School. But with his impressive record, including two state championships, there should have been no doubt about his credentials to become head coach for an integrated team.
Seven years after he became an assistant coach at Hopkinsville High, Falls died when a train hit his car on the LaFayette Road railroad tracks near the school. He often took players home from practice, and on that day 16-year-old Samuel Johnson died in the accident with his coach.
Growing up, Bill Falls heard bits and pieces about his grandfather’s story. But his own father, Howard Falls, died in 1992, when he was in his mid-40s and Bill was about 12 years old. If his father had lived longer, Bill might have learned about his grandfather’s stature years earlier. Howard Falls was an engineer, and the family moved several times for his work. They eventually settled near Detroit, where he worked for a division of General Motors.
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Recently, Bill, who is a producer for ESPN, was searching online for details of his grandfather when he came across a Hoptown Chronicle story about Coach Falls’ posthumous induction into the Kentucky Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019. He couldn’t believe his grandfather had received such an honor and that he, his mother and his brother and sister hadn’t heard about it at the time.
After processing the disappointment of not knowing about the induction ceremony so they could have attended, Bill started digging.
“This is really exciting information to uncover,” he told me in a phone interview.
Bill is planning to visit Hopkinsville when it’s safe again to travel. I shared contact information for several people he’d probably want to meet, including Mayor Wendell Lynch, who played for Coach Falls and attended the Hall of Fame induction in Elizabethtown.
Here at the start of Black History Month, I’m glad I heard from a descendant of Coach Falls. His story never gets old.
There are other Hopkinsville luminaries to explore for Black History Month. The Museums of Hopkinsville-Christian County is running stories on its Facebook page. So far, they’ve shared biographies for civil rights attorney Louis P. McHenry, author bell hooks, political leader F.E. Whitney, scientist Dr. R. Darryl Banks and blues musician John Brim.
Speaking of bell hooks, you can see a Christian County Literacy Council video of the author’s sister, retired educator and Hoptown Chronicle board member Gwenda Motley, reading two of her children’s books.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
