Published: September 21, 2007 12:02 am      

3 men standing

Ashland to honor living members of ’37 Tomcats who opened Putnam Stadium

ASHLAND — It has been 70 years since Ralph Felty, Bun Wilson and Charles “Doc” Stanley were part of the Ashland Tomcat football team that christened Putnam Stadium in September 1937.

For a night, they will be young again, remembering the day when they pranced onto their new turf with a twinkle in their eyes and nothing but playing football on their minds.

The only living members of that ’37 team will be recognized as part of the Tomcats’ proud tradition. It is a program that has recorded596 victories — No. 7 on the state’s all-time win list — with many of those coming on the hallowed grounds of Putnam Stadium.

This trio remember the time before Putnam Stadium became a staple — and the home of the Tomcats — in South Ashland. They played during an era that had no equal in the annals of Ashland football history. It was rock-em-sock-em football with leather helmets, no facemasks and no mouthpieces.

“It was like playing in Ohio State’s stadium,” remembers 86-year-old Bun Wilson, a 140-pound junior guard that season. “It was so overwhelming ... the cheerleaders, the supporters. We always had good crowds.”

Felty said the Ashland football game on Saturday was an event for the town. “They closed up the city of Ashland (on game days),” he said. “On Saturday night after the game, everybody would meet up downtown.”

When the stadium first opened, the only dressing room was on what is now the visitor’s side of the field. The Tomcats stood on those sidelines but after the first couple of games, the fans moved to what is now the home side because of the blinding sun.

“The students were looking right into the sun,” Felty recalled. “I don’t know if they moved after that first game, but it wasn’t long (afterward). We stayed (on what is now the visitor’s side) because of the dressing room.”

Felty lived on Crooks Street, just a few blocks from where Putnam Stadium would be built. He was able to watch as the pieces came together to the historic stadium. The architect of the stadium “was a high school teacher named Brown,” Felty said. “It was all hand and shovel. When they laid the foundation, the corners of the stadium were equal. That was quite a feat.”

Felty, 88, said he played many sandlot games at the site where Putnam Stadium now stands. It was called Dicky Adams Field but it was more of a pasture actually. “It had cows on it,” he said.

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Meanwhile, the Tomcats were making a name for themselves away from that home.

Ashland was the king of the hill, rolling off a 60-0-4 record from the last two games of 1925 to the fourth game of 1932 when Erie East, Pa., defeated the Tomcats 19-13 at Armco Park to snap the 64-game unbeaten streak in a game that left Ashland fans stunned and heartbroken.

Ashland’s 1930 team was a 10-0 juggernaut that scored 591 points for a 59.1 per game average, a record that still ranks No. 1 in state history and isn’t likely to be toppled. The Tomcats had 35 consecutive victories from 1929-31 under coach Paul Jenkins.

Felty was a utility lineman on one of the Tomcats’ most fabled teams in 1935, one that was coached by Fayne Grone and went 10-0, outscoring opponents by a ridiculous 365-2.

“I was a scrub on that team,” said Felty, who subbed on the line for Howard Hall.

Felty said when the Tomcats played Huntington High, the “scrubs” went into the game in the fourth quarter and the Pony Express threatened to score. The fans were calling for Grone to put the first-team back in the game but he wouldn’t.

On fourth down inside the 10, Felty was on his knees when the great Jackie Hunt came running at him. He grabbed Hunt’s legs as the powerful back plowed into him and Felty wrestled him to the grab, keeping Ashland’s scoreless streak intact.

“He ran over me, but I grabbed him and held on,” Felty said.

But that was before the stadium that has housed 11 state championship teams — the last one coming in 1990 — was built with Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds.

A $15,000 bond was issued in 1935 to build the stadium and furnish Putnam Junior High School (which is now George M. Verity Middle School), located adjacent to the stadium. The cost for the stadium was $6,500. It took nearly two years to complete construction but the Tomcats began playing games here in 1937.

Wilson’s father, also named Bunyan, was on the Ashland school board when the stadium was being built. “He was very impressed with the workmanship,” Bun said. “What he was really proud about was the wooden seats that had been treated for weather.”

Bun’s father was also on the school board when the old Ashland High School basketball gym was built on Lexington Avenue.

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Wilson said Felty, who later went on to earn All-State and All-America honors with the Tomcats, was a fierce blocker and one of the best player of his era.

“He was strong, quick and smart,” Wilson said. “He was the best.”

Wilson said he remembered running a “sucker play” toward Felty during one practice. Center Red Miller hit him high and Wilson hit him low. “They practically broke my back,” Felty said. But on the next play, revenge was sweet.

“They said ‘Let’s run it again,’’’ Wilson said. “I thought, oh boy. The center and I both hit him but did he ever hit us. You talk about seeing stars.”

Felty went on to play for Duke University and was on the 1938 Rose Bowl team. He eventually went on to serve his country in the Marines, earning a Purple Heart.

“He played in a Rose Bowl, was a high school All-American and a Marine hero,” Wilson said. “You can’t get much better than that.”

Wilson was also a Marine hero. They are two of a handful of area men who served during World War II and were all at the battle of Okinawa.

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Felty didn’t hesitate about a comparison between today’s players and the players of his era.

“These guys today couldn’t carry our helmets,” he said. “The difference between us and now, we had to be tough. We didn’t have the weight and we didn’t always have the ability. But we were tough.”

The leather helmets were little more than “a sock hat with holes in it.”

“The joke was they put the holes in the side (ear holes) so when the helmet got twisted around you could see out of them,” Felty said laughing.

Wilson said during practice, assistant coach Dopey Meade offered to buy players milkshakes if they could cause a bloody nose from one of their teammates.

“Somebody hit me with a fist and I was seeing stars,” Wilson said. “They got a milkshake and I got to see Doc Stanley’s dad (who was a dentist).”

Wilson described himself in high school as “141 pounds of shimmering beauty.”

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The late Ernie Chattin was the first head coach to walk the sidelines at Putnam Stadium. Ashland went 3-3-3 in that debut season in the stadium, including 2-2-2 at home.

“I’ve never heard of another team doing that (going 3-3-3),” Stanley said. “That was something.”

The first victory, a 22-0 blanking of Ceredo-Kenova, W.Va., came in early September 1937. The stadium was officially dedicated on Thanksgiving Day that same season.

Until the stadium secured lights in 1944, the games were played on Saturday afternoons and usually to full houses. Football in Ashland in the 1930s was a big event, often outdrawing the professional teams in Ironton and Portsmouth. The popularity of the Tomcats may have actually led to the demise of professional football on this side of the river.

It wasn’t unusual for a Tomcat football practice in Central Park to draw a crowd of hundreds, Felty said. “We scrimmaged on Wednesday and there would be people lined up everywhere to watch,” he said.

The Tomcats played in Armco Field before calling Putnam Stadium home.

It was Felty, along with Victor Rucker, who helped spring Oliver “Moose” Zachem for the first touchdown in stadium history, a 16-yard end around, during the victory over C-K. Zachem also booted the extra point, giving the Tomcats a 7-0 halftime lead.

The second touchdown was scored by Stanley, a fleet-footed running back, to give the Tomcats some breathing room.

The first year, the stadium was actually known as Tomcat Stadium. It later came to be known as Putnam Stadium, named after Donald Putnam, a longtime educator in Ashland schools.

“They told us the first Tomcat to score a touchdown would have the field named after him,” Stanley said. “Moose thought it was going to be Zachem Stadium. But it didn’t happen.”

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Stanley didn’t really make his mark until late in the season, first with some outstanding defensive play against Huntington High and then with a four-touchdown performance against Belfry in a 69-0 victory on a muddy Tomcat Stadium turf.

Stanley said the grass really wasn’t that great even from the start because everything was so new.

“The field itself wasn’t in the best of condition,” he said.

Stanley did have a healthy respect for teammates, especially the physical Felty.

“One shoulder is lower than the other,” he said. “That’s from the only time I tried to block him.”

Even today, at 86, Stanley is sleek looking. Wilson said he and Felty would be ashamed to ride around the field with Stanley because he was “still such a good-looking fella.”

Stanley lives in Roswell, Ga., near his two sons.

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Putnam Stadium has been a multi-purpose facility for the Ashland community throughout the years, too. It has been the site for revivals, band festivals, concerts, graduations and other events. In the mid-’60s there was even college football played at Putnam Stadium with the Shrine Bowl games that once even played host to a battle between Morehead State University and Eastern Kentucky University.

The Kiwanis Bowl, which for years pitted Ashland junior highs Coles and Putnam against each other, was always played at Putnam Stadium. When those junior high schools consolidated, another Kiwanis Bowl game was born between Russell and Ashland. That game is also always played at Putnam Stadium. Throughout the years, Ashland Junior Football League and high school boys and girls soccer have called Putnam Stadium home, too.

When the stadium got lights in 1944, Ashland won the first night game with an 80-6 thrashing of Huntington Vinson. And the Friday night lights have been burning brightly since.

In 2003, Putnam Stadium was recognized as a Kentucky Historical Society landmark. It became the 15th historical marker in Boyd County. It is the first stadium in Kentucky to have that distinction.

MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648.