An Old Hornets' Nest

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm crazy about old gymnasiums and stadiums. I went to the old Male High School at Brook and Breckinridge streets in downtown Louisville. I spent a lot of time in the old gym at that school. I'm going off the top of my head, but I think that gym was built in 1939.

Maybe that's where I developed my love for old gyms.

The other day I was in Hancock County, Kentucky, for a Christmas function hosted by a paper mill in the area. They held the event in Hancock County Middle School's gymnasium. I got to asking around and discovered that this was the home of the Hornets when they first consolidated high schools in the county in the 1960s. The gym was constructed in 1960, according to a plaque in the foyer to the school.
It must've been one heck of a tough place to play a basketball game. The stands go right up to the court, and they are really steep, so the crowd was on top of the action. One end of the gym was a stage, and the other end was a cinder block wall with an eyebrow shaped window across the top. The roof is steel and slightly arched, so it probably bounced crowd noise back down onto the court.

If I could travel back in time, I'd like to go back to 1963 when Hancock County went to the Sweet Sixteen out of the Fourth Region and watch them play Breckinridge County with Butch Beard. If those two teams squared off in the old Hancock County gym, I'm sure the place buzzed.

Note: Again, sorry I haven't posted any game re-caps from the Fourth Region. In the past few days I've been in Hawesville, Madisonville, Greenville, Bowling Green, and Nashville. The only basketball I've been able to see was Memphis vs. Middle Tennessee and Tennessee vs. WKU.