The Graves County Boys: A Tale of Kentucky Basketball, Perseverance, and the Unlikely Championship of the Cuba Cubs

20. Different Encounters

20 different encounters youth is the season made for joy. —John Gay The Cubs entered their junior year slightly more subdued and matured, with the weight of great expectations upon them. They were not promising underclassmen anymore. They were the varsity now— the Cuba Cubs. When the school year started in the fall of 1950, the changes in all of them were noticeable. They had grown taller and more muscular. only one had a problem—raymon was having serious ankle pain. Without his defense and rebounding, the team could not be as successful as it had been. Worriedly, Coach story started looking around for a backup. he found one in Bill Pollock, who played basketball for Fancy Farm, about ten miles from Mayfield. a six-foot-two, dark-haired, handsome boy, Bill lived in dublin , near the Catholic community of Fancy Farm, where he attended school. although Coach story did not usually recruit players, he negotiated through Bill’s mother’s cousin, who lived in Cuba. When this relative approached Bill about transferring to the Cuba school to play basketball, Bill did not object. as the only Protestant boy in a school where all the classes were taught by nuns, he was more than willing to switch. although he continued to live at home in dublin, he transferred as a junior to Cuba. according to the rules, he was different encounters 155 not allowed to play ball for a year after transferring, but as a manager , he traveled with the Cubs and practiced with them daily. he did not play in any games in the 1950–1951 season, but as a senior, Bill turned out to be a valuable sixth man who filled in admirably for raymon and for doodle. The Cubs’ prowess on the hardwood was the leading topic of conversation, not just at harper’s, rhodes’, and Wagoner’s, but at all the other stores in Graves County. discussions about crops, politics , illnesses, and deaths were quickly replaced with talk about what Jack story and his team were going to do next. The Cubs games were so popular that crowds packed the gyms. some home games were moved to other schools that had larger gyms, like Mayfield’s and sedalia’s, but the majority of games were played at the Cuba school. as the team became more and more famous, a large number of fans had to be turned away for lack of space in the Cuba gym, so a balcony was built above the bleachers, adding three more rows of seats. Folding chairs were placed on the stage at the end of the gym’s playing floor. With these additional seating arrangements, the gym could seat 450, but as many as 500 to 550 crowded in. still, many others had to be turned away. The court was ten or so feet short of official length anyway (yes, that’s true), and with fans standing practically on the playing floor, the Cubs got used to playing in crowded and smoky conditions. (no laws in the 1950s prohibited smoking.) The games started at 7:00 p.m., and people would start lining up outside the school by 5:00. Coach story usually arrived around 6:00 to open the doors. about that same time em Boyd Poyner, donald’s dad and Cuba’s official ticket agent, would come directly from his work at the Mayfield Merit Clothing Company, without even stopping to eat supper. Jess, Joe Buddy’s dad, never missed a game or a practice. in fact, the joke was that Jess had a better attendance record at school than his son. none of the fathers of the other Cubs attended any of 156 The Graves County Boys the games at this time. With all the hoopla that surrounded the players , especially doodle, howie, and Jimmie Webb, it would be logical to assume that their parents would have been so proud of their sons that they would be first in line for admission. But that was not the case. one evening when the Cubs were playing lowes, doodle was surprised at halftime when someone shouted to him that his dad was there. vodie and two men were riding home from Mayfield, where they had part-time jobs and, vodie said, the other guys wanted to stop to see how the ball game was turning out. They stayed only a few minutes, but it was long enough...