Our hometown of Lexington, KY is celebrating a special year in 2025. It is our city’s 250th anniversary, and we are celebrating accordingly all year long. September represented “Sports Month”, and to kick that off, we collaborated with the 250Lex Commission to celebrate “Football Week”!
It was the perfect time of year to get the community engaged and we employed a variety of digital and on-site activations around town that showcased the history and tradition of the sport of football in Lexington. With the help of local sports media, we compiled some all-time rankings of the best Lexington HS coaches, players, and most memorable UK football home games. Those rankings and other activities were highlighted by prominent sports talk radio hosts, Tom Leach, Dick Gabriel and Jeff Piecoro featuring guests like Dermontti Dawson and Dave Baker.
We gathered the local football coaches and Mayor together with Coach Stoops for a special photo opportunity and media day at Kroger Field to get the week started. We had special Football Week Trivia Nights at local bars and restaurants. The famed Kentucky Theatre welcomed a special edition screening of the movie ‘Friday Night Lights’. We were then on-site highlighting the local high school games that Friday. We gave away Football Week branded swag throughout and even raffled off a couple pairs of tickets to the UK/Ole Miss football game that Saturday for some lucky fans. To top it off we had long-time Herald Leader sportswriter, Mike Fields, give a great recap of the sport of football in Lexington.
Our entire BBIM team was involved in making Football Week a special celebration on the 250Lex calendar, and were honored to plan, manage and execute this exciting celebration of the sport we know and love so well.
FOOTBALL WEEK MEDIA DAY
To kick off Football Week, we gathered Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton, UK Head Coach Mark Stoops and the local high school football coaches for a unique photo opportunity in anticipation of Kentucky football’s home opener. A special statement was read by the Mayor for local media present to announce the celebration as part of 250Lex, and acknowledge the great tradition of football, past and present, in the city of Lexington.
ETHEREAL BREWING TRIVIA NIGHT
BRAINBOX hosted the 250Lex Trivia Night at Ethereal Brewing in the distillery district! Multiple teams showcased their Lexington Football knowledge to win prizes like t-shirts, stickers, and custom 250Lex shot glasses. One lucky raffle winner won 2 tickets to the UK vs Ole Miss football game!
SPECIAL SCREENING OF ‘FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS’
There was a special showing of the iconic Friday Night Lights movie at The Kentucky Theatre. There were giveaways and a lucky winner secured two UK football tickets to the Ole Miss game on September 6th. It was a special experience for all football fans that were in attendance.
“A HISTORY OF HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL” BY MIKE FIELDS (LEGENDARY LEXINGTON SPORTSWRITER)
This story was written by longtime Lexington sports writer Mike Fields. In this article, he talks about many stories about Lexington high school’s football teams and his experience covering some of the most exciting moments throughout the rich football history in Lexington.
BY MIKE FIELDS
One of my favorite stories involving the late, great Tates Creek football coach Roy Walton had him teaching Phys-Ed when a group of students walked into the gym and collectively stared at him.
“What are you looking at?” Walton asked.
A girl spoke up: “We’re studying the Neanderthal Man in history, and our teacher sent us down here to see what one looks like.”
Walton took it in good humor. He was around Lexington high school football for more than 30 years, and his shock of white hair always made him look older than he was.
The actual Neanderthal Man never coached the Wing-T or the triple option, but high school football has been played in Lexington for almost half of the city’s 250-year history.
Searching the Herald-Leader archives, the earliest reference to local high school football I could find was a 1903 article about a game between Kearney and Lexington, which Lexington won 11-0.
Lexington High school claimed at least two “state championships” in the early days of high school football. One came in 1911 when its only loss was to a college (!) team — State University (which became the University of Kentucky). Lexington also claimed a “mythical” title in 1918.
Before integration, Lexington’s original Dunbar High School was a football powerhouse, most notably when Norman Passmore became the Bearcats’ coach in 1952.
Unfortunately, in the days of segregation, Dunbar didn’t get much main-stream media coverage. But it is documented that Passmore compiled a 92-16-6 record in 16 years, highlighted by three Kentucky High School Athletic League state titles and four undefeated seasons.
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association was established in 1917 but it didn’t start conducting football playoffs until 1959.
(That, incidentally was one year after Neanderthal Man Walton got his first head coaching job at Lafayette.)
LOCAL FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL ACTION
On Friday, we put the spotlight on the high schools, as we highlighted some big matchups around the city. Fans were fired up to cheer on their schools, and our activations only added to the rowdy environments around town. We threw out special Football Week branded t-shirts, had signage around stadiums and acknowledged each school’s top players that made our All-Time list.
THE LEACH REPORT AND BIG BLUE INSIDER – FOOTBALL WEEK EDITION
Lexington has had no shortage of legendary sports talk radio hosts over the years. We were lucky enough to have a couple of them highlighting and discussing all things Football Week. Tom Leach (The Leach Report) and Dick Gabriel (Big Blue Insider) had some great guests on including Jeff Piecoro, Larry Vaught and Dermontti Dawson, breaking down our ranking of Top Lexington High School Coaches, Top Lexington Players and Most Memorable UK Football Home Games of All-Time.
