Editors note: This column originally ran in the September 23, 2005 edition of The Ledger Independent.
Doing something for thirty years will make many people tired and ready for retirement. Not so for Gary Kidwell, who has hosted his “Saturday Morning Sports Show” on WKKS-FM in Vanceburg since 1975.
“We have a lot of fun with the show; talking with people; we do trivia contests and the 30th anniversary show last Saturday was special,” Kidwell said. “Our sponsors donated prizes and we gave them away to people. We also had a few special phone calls from around the country. The show airs from 9:30-10 a.m., but this one ran about an hour and a half.”
The radio show is only one aspect of the multifaceted sports career Kidwell has had in Lewis County.
When the radio show originated at the urging of Jon Staggs, who was taping games for broadcast at the time, and Tom Reeder, then the radio station general manager, Kidwell was also busy as the head baseball and basketball coach at Lewis County High School.
Kidwell, who lives a stone’s throw from the school, is still an extremely busy man.
He is the school’s associate athletics director, driver’s education teacher, radio voice of the Lions, Lewis County Herald sports columnist, and high school softball umpire.
Along with all those duties, he serves as the commissioner of the Eastern Athletic Conference and chairman of the 16th Region. He also served as president of the recently-held Lewis County Fair.
He still finds time for family and attending UK football and basketball games, and Cincinnati Reds and Cincinnati Bengals games. He hasn’t missed a Sweet 16 Basketball Tournament since he began attending them in 1959, where he has “seen many great players.”
Upon entering the Kidwell home, he directed me towards his den, where he has displayed numerous photographs and awards he has accumulated through the years.
Photographs of sports personalities such as Pete Rose, Marty Brennaman, Archie Manning and others line the shelves. He is especially proud of some 1940 World Series tickets that are still intact. Crosley Field is still emblazoned on the unused tickets and in 1940 the Reds were crowned the world champions.
One honor Kidwell is especially proud of is his 1995 Kentucky Athletic Director of the Year award. He was also one of the final five nominees for national Athletics Director of the Year.
Kidwell grew up on a farm in Charters in Lewis County and enjoyed listening to Claude Sullivan calling the UK games on the radio.
“I never realized back then I would be able to do this,” Kidwell remarked. “It has been very rewarding to meet all the people in sports I have met over the years.”
The entire Kidwell family has been involved in sports as well.
“It certainly helps to have such an understanding wife,” said Kidwell, referring to his wife, Alice, who says Gary is ‘never home.’ “She was a successful girls’ basketball coach at Lewis County and is a retired teacher, but she still substitute teaches.”
Kidwell’s son, Merle, serves as the girls’ basketball coach at Russell High School. His daughter, Staci, was a cheerleader and is currently the assistant principal at Tates Creek High School in Lexington. His youngest daughter, Tai, is a former scorekeeper/stats person and is a junior at UK and in pharmacy school.
Kidwell’s sports column, “Kidwell’s Korner,” has also been a 30-year endeavor and began as “a way of promoting local athletes.” Often times the column mentions athletes from the past that were coached by Kidwell and what they are doing and where they are residing today.
“We have a couple of players who are living in Mississippi who we were really worried about recently (because of Hurricane Katrina), but we heard they are doing all right,” said Kidwell.
His first love in sports was coaching, which he did for 13 years at LCHS, heading up both the basketball and baseball programs.
“We had about 150 wins in basketball during that time and 250 baseball wins,” Kidwell said. “We won the district three years in a row in ’76, ’77 and ’78. We also won eight district baseball titles.”
Upon his retirement from coaching in 1987, Kidwell discovered a new love in sports, umpiring.
“I began umpiring with Greg Gibson, who is now a major league umpire,” Kidwell said. “Greg told me when we first started umpiring junior varsity high school games that he would make it to the majors and he did. Charlie Reliford, who is also a big-league umpire, was our instructor. Another major league umpire, Sam Holbrook, used to pitch at Rowan County when we played against them. Terry Craft is another umpire in the majors from this area (Greenup County) and Randy Marsh from Covington is a friend I see at UK games and is a diehard UK fan.”
Kidwell has umpired three state fast-pitch softball tournaments, one slow-pitch, 15 regionals, 15 districts and over 40 games this past year. He earned the honor of being named the 2002 Kentucky High School Umpire of the Year.
He began by umpiring baseball, but in recent years made the switch to softball.
“The game has improved a lot and gotten so much better,” said Kidwell. “Positioning is so important in umpiring and if you are in the correct position, you will usually make the right call and keep the coaches happy. I also ran the Little League program here for years and could relate well to coaches after coaching for so long.”
Kidwell was instrumental in getting the football program off the ground in the early 1970s and has announced their games since 1977. He gives credit to various people for being helpful in his varied career.
“Foster ‘Sid’ Meade was our superintendent at Lewis County and is a legend in Kentucky officials,” Kidwell said. “I didn’t know much about football until I went to Morehead State and met Buck Dawson after beginning my career in 1965 at Millersburg Military Institute. Our former superintendent here, Mike Forman, and our current superintendent, Maurice Reeder, have also been very supportive. My high school coach, Bob Wright, was a big influence and let me keep stats when I couldn’t play ball because of a heart murmur. In 1961, he won a state title at Ashland. They had a great team that was led by Larry Conley (the former “Rupp’s Runt” and current college basketball commentator.).”
Other people mentioned by Kidwell were Dennis Brown, the current WKKS-FM radio general manager and Lewis County Herald publisher, and Lewis County head football coach and athletic director Corky Prater.
“Dennis has been a great help with promoting athletics,” said Kidwell. “I was very lucky to have Corky when he was in the fifth grade when we were getting football started here. He was a super kid and went on to play quarterback at Eastern Kentucky University and was All-Ohio Valley Conference in baseball. Corky hated to lose more than any kid I ever saw.”
Kidwell stated that when he first got into the media end of the sports business he was extremely nervous, but he has certainly outgrown it.
“I can remember when I was 16 years old and playing baseball for Red McDaniel, who was a legend around here in those days and we had to face Woodie Fryman,” Kidwell noted. “We were just in awe of Woodie, but later on when he played in the big leagues he was always very cordial to me and granted me several interviews over the years.”
Gary Kidwell has lived a fascinating life in the world of sports and continues to live it each and every day.
“It really goes fast,” said Kidwell, alluding to the fact that time truly does fly when you are doing what you enjoy.
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