The Owensboro Red Devil football program has been a dominant one for the past several decades but OHS hasn’t celebrated a state championship on the gridiron since 1986 when coach Larry Moore was at the helm.
Moore returned to the OHS sideline as an assistant under legendary coach Gerald Poynter and led the Red Devils to the 1983 at-large state title, along with their second title in four years in 1986.
“My history with Owensboro High School goes way back,” Moore said. “I played there, I taught when I got out of college … I coached, was an administrator at Owensboro High School so it goes way back.”
Moore said he has many memories of the 1986 team but one of the biggest is how they started the season.
“At the start of the season, we were ranked No. 1 in the state,” he said. “After the very first ballgame, we lose that ballgame to Paducah Tilghman so that No. 1 ranking didn’t last very long. We started the season at 1-3. We lost two other ballgames that year to Terre Haute North, who had an awful good ballclub then we lost a close one 13-12 to Glasgow. We were 1-3 and finally we got things turned around, we made some changes. The players pulled together, worked together and we started on a win streak and it didn’t finish until we beat Belfry in the state championship.”
Two members of that team still work very closely with Red Devil athletics, including OHS principal John DeLacy and OHS golf coach/guidance counselor Pat Hume, who was a captain on the 1986 squad.
DeLacy said it’s impossible to talk about their state championship without Moore.
“I’d have to start with coach (Larry) Moore,” he said. “Coach Moore was a student here, a player here and as the head coach winning a state championship. His pride for our program is really what started part of that tradition for me. He sold the pride to the program and everybody on that team believed in what it meant to be a Red Devil. Every game, he said remember who you are, remember who you play for and it doesn’t get any better than this. We lived that as players and what I felt of that ‘86 team, it was a true essence of a team.”
Both DeLacy and Hume mentioned one player from the 1986 team that helped them get to the mountaintop. Moore adamantly agreed with his former players’ sentiment.
“When you think of ‘86, you’ve got to think of Maurice ‘Peanut’ White,” he said. “He was something special. He was our running back, he finished up with over 1,900 yards that season. In the state championship he ran for 243 yards. He had two long touchdowns of 83 and 79 yards. He was special. He was not only a good offensive player, he was a tremendous defensive end for us. ‘Peanut’ White was a true Red Devil.”
Hume said he sees some similarities with year’s team to his squad but again, it all starts with Peanut.
“The first thing I think of is just how dominant Maurice ‘Peanut’ White was,” he said. “He was a defensive end his entire career then all of a sudden his senior year, we were in need of a running back and they put him as running back and he ends up being the premier running back in the entire state of Kentucky. His pure athleticism is the first thing that comes to mind and I think something that kind of reminds me of this team, we had a lot of good athletes but we had a lot of hard-nosed, competitive kids that were undersized a lot of times. There were some nasty players on that team … That’s what reminds me a little bit of Owensboro right now.”
When asked what it means to be a Red Devil, Moore, DeLacy and Hume all had very different answers but one thing rang true – being a Red Devil is special.
“It’s always been a very special place for me,” Moore said. “My history goes way back but I had the opportunity to work with, coach and be around a lot of excellent high school football players. I was around some tremendous football coaches.”
DeLacy said his idea of what a Red Devil has changed over the years from his time as a player, coach and now as principal of Owensboro High School.
“I’m biased, but when you play for Owensboro High School, it means something different,” he said. “These opportunities to play for a state championship are great opportunities that a lot of people across the state never have an opportunity to do. As the ‘86 team, I wanted to have that as a player. As a coach, I wanted our team to have that as a player and now as a principal, I want our whole school. I think that for me is the bigger picture because now I realize it’s just not about the football team, it’s about the whole school. This is success for the whole school and I think that’s the three different lenses for me.
“As a player, it was a team event. As a coach, it was having those players to have that experience but now as a principal, it’s having our whole student body and staff to have that experience and really our community to have that experience because when you go to these games, I think I probably realized that more as a coach also. When I looked in the stands at Western during that game and to have that many stands packed in the stadium, I was in awe of the community we had in that state championship games.”
Hume has worked in high schools for nearly two decades. Usually, when a team makes a state championship run, the days leading up to the game are filled with pep rallies and events to gather support for the team and the school.
But in 2020, that hasn’t been the case.
“I’ve always said your high school goes as your football team goes,” Hume said. “Just because it’s the first thing at the start of the season, the Friday nights, tailgates. That kind of sets the tone and the atmosphere for your entire school year and that’s what we have not been able to embrace this year is we’ve not been able to have the pep rallies, there’s not the announcement on Monday morning of what a great job we did on Friday night. Our freshman games on Thursdays are not being reflected and we are not having the jerseys in the hallways, the cheerleaders.
“That’s the thing I hate for this group of guys now is they’re missing the attaboys that you get in the hallway every day from classmates, from staff members. I think they know that it’s there but they don’t get it on a daily basis that they would and our school has suffered because you’re not getting that momentum kick that you get from a highly successful team.”
When Owensboro takes the field today to battle the Purples at Kroger Field, DeLacy said he wants them to think about how they’ve gotten to where they are. He said looking back, they enjoy the experience of winning a state title more now because he knows how grueling it is to win a championship.
“What I want our players to remember of this is enjoy the process,” he said. “Because when you’re playing in the game, it’s always about the next play and executing and being efficient but sometimes you’re so involved in doing that you don’t get to enjoy the experience.”
