Graves County School Photos and Yearbooks

Cuba High School Cubs Basketball

The Cuba Cubs played relaxed and had incredible ballhandling skills. In 1952, the tiny Graves County school (with an enrollment of fewer than 100) beat Louisville’s DuPont Manual by six points to win the state title.

The victory was several years in the making. As the story goes, Cuba coach Jack Story introduced five “promising” eighth graders to the Harlem Globetrotters style of play in the late 1940s. They honed their skills and made it to the championship game of the Sweet Sixteen in both 1951 and 1952.

The 1952 state championship game was another David vs. Goliath / small-town vs. large city game, and no one wanted Goliath, especially when the team was from Louisville, to win. According to eyewitness accounts, only a tiny portion of Lexington’s Memorial Coliseum wore red for the Manual Crimson. Everyone else sported Cuba colors and vocalized their support accordingly.

Cuba closed in 1977.

Team Roster: Howard "Howie" Crittenden, Charles "Doodle" Floyd, Jimmy Webb, Bill Pollock, Jimmy Brown, Bobby McGregor, Glen Morgan, Jack Simmons, Kenneth O'Daniel, and team manager Rex Story

Courtesy Kentucky Legislature