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

19. Unforgettable Cayce

19 unforgettable Cayce everything is funny as long as it is happening to someone else. —Will rogers in the summer of 1949 the state highway department blacktopped the gravel road, highway 303, running from Mayfield to Cuba to Pilot oak. howie and doodle were ecstatic. They finally had a hard surface on which to play ball when they could not play in the gym. in the stillness of hazy summer afternoons, many of the folks in Pilot oak could hear that basketball pounding on the pavement. as usual, when the moon was full, the boys played late into the night—and in all kinds of weather. This year-round outdoor competition , even in the deepest winter, primed them for playing in all conditions. By the time school started, doodle was larger than the others in his sophomore class and thought he knew much more than he actually did. he started skipping morning classes to hitchhike to Mayfield to play pool with some older boys. But no matter what his unforgettable Cayce 145 mornings were like, he was always at school in time for lunch, and he stayed for basketball practice. sometimes he could slip into the gym through the back entrance without Coach story realizing that he had been absent all morning. The gym was in the center of the school building and had classrooms on both sides; study hall and the library were at one end and Coach story’s office at the other end, in the front of the building. after Mrs. Warner, an english teacher and a strict one, too, informed Coach story that doodle was often absent from her class without an excuse and that he and a couple of others on the team were failing her course, a grim-faced Coach story told those boys that they had to pass all of their classes in order to stay on the team. More than anything else in the world, doodle wanted to play basketball . The hardwood was his stage. Playing ball made him feel happy and important; he could not live, he said, without being on the team. although he knew that Coach story needed him to play, he also knew that he would suspend him. at that point, one of his friends in class, donald Poyner, came to his rescue. Coach story relied on donald for many small jobs because the boy was smart and had good judgment. a small, thin boy with dark hair and dark brown eyes, donald was nicknamed Central intelligence . he was thought by some to be intellectually and academically far ahead of his classmates and even of some teachers. When one of the older teachers could not keep his record book for homeroom and classroom organized, Coach story had donald help him straighten the records out and keep them for the teacher the rest of the year. When the agriculture teacher in charge of the Future Farmers of america (FFa) chapter had shown no interest in developing the organization, Coach story told donald to skip agriculture classes and spend his time improving the chapter. under the boy’s leadership, Cuba’s FFa chapter was awarded the state Gold emblem for excellence. 146 The Graves County Boys donald’s intelligence was acknowledged throughout the Cuba–Pilot oak area. one story concerning him and one of the old store setters involved a new set of World Book encyclopedias the boy received for Christmas in 1947. often a visitor in the Poyners’ home, the old man noticed donald’s habit of reading. Pauline harper, the store owner, said that one day one of the old store setters at her place announced, “That donald ought to be smart because he’s got his head stuck in dem sack-a-peters all the time.” Cuba’s senior class officers in 1951–1952. each had close ties to the basketball team. Pictured left to right are class reporter howie Crittenden, treasurer Martha (Casey) Webb, president donald Poyner, secretary Carolyn Work, and vice president Joe Buddy Warren. (Cuba school yearbook photo.) unforgettable Cayce 147 When donald asked Coach story if it would help if he arranged to get a few classmates to volunteer to tutor those players who needed help keeping up with the classroom work they had missed while playing ball, Coach story answered with a resounding yes. The boys were more than happy to work with their female peers. several courtships began when...