The Owensboro Dust Bowl has been a staple for the community for half a century. Generation after generation has flocked to the court to witness some of the finest basketball Owensboro has to offer, and the classic has served as the ultimate unifier of folks from all walks of life. Many of the leaders who played an instrumental role in creating and growing the tournament are handing the reigns over to a younger generation. Several of those individuals recently reminisced about why the event became so popular, and why it’s important to keep it going for years to come.
It was just an idea
The tournament traces its humble beginnings back to 1974, when Jerry Davenport, Gus Johnson, and Felix Thruston decided Owensboro’s Black community needed some organized sports. While Davenport and Thruston have since passed, Johnson, who now lives in Florida, was eager to discuss the tournament’s early years.
“It’s pretty amazing; I mean, we did not have something like this in mind,” Johnson said. “The idea was that there wasn’t a whole lot to do in the Black community and Owensboro in particular in 1973. There were no real organized sports.”
Johnson had just graduated from Kentucky State University and was working in the City’s summer jobs program under the late Mayor C. Waitman Taylor. Davenport was working for the City’s Parks and Recreation department. With nothing more than an idea, they embarked on a journey to bring organized basketball to Owensboro’s west side.
“We were just sitting around one afternoon talking about the fact that there wasn’t much to do,” Johnson said. “Everybody around Kentucky knew about the Louisville Dirt Bowl because, at that time, college players, pro players, anybody who loved basketball and was pretty good was playing in this tournament at Shawnee Park in Louisville. And we thought, ‘Well, why can’t we do this here?’”
With no budget, proposal, money, insurance, or equipment combined with little insight on how to pull the event off, the three relied heavily on relationships to get the ball rolling. They initially reached out to Owensboro’s first African-American executive in City Hall, David Kelly, who grew up playing basketball in Owensboro.
He helped Johnson and Davenport pitch the concept to Taylor, who arranged for the City to resurface the court at the park. Unlike the custom courts at the park today, the original court was simple asphalt and goals with non-breakaway double rims that certainly favored taking the ball to the rack.
“Owensboro is a basketball town … historically, people love basketball,” Johnson said. “And the local basketball players are local heroes. There’s a certain aura about it. If you grew up in Owensboro, you played basketball in Owensboro. So when you think about it today, it’s pretty amazing.”
After Taylor gave them his blessing, they secured a couple of balls, nets, a scorebook, and a clock from Gipe Sporting Goods and began recruiting regional talent to play. The marketing plan was simple: get local legend Charles Taylor to help them make connections and visit playgrounds in Central City, Madisonville, Henderson, and Evansville to spread the word.
Taylor was good friends with Wayne Chapman, who also had several friends in the basketball realm. Despite coming from different backgrounds, Taylor and Chapman, along with Johnson and others in the community, saw basketball as a tool to unify the community.
“Basketball was about the only thing that brought everybody together,” he said. “There were different neighborhoods; that was just the way it was, but basketball transcended all of that. All we knew was that this was the park where we grew up, and we wanted to have a basketball tournament.”
It takes a village
Byron Owen is the tournament’s most recent director, assuming the role of president in 2014. Owen saw the classic into the 21st century, creating a website and social media pages and securing several new community partners.
Since the tournament’s inception, it’s always been by the community for the community.
“I want to thank my family, friends, classmates, supporters, advertisers, fans, players, coaches, officials, staff, vendors, volunteers, and committee and board members,” Owen said in a farewell letter. “Only you can make it happen.”
Othello Millan played in the inaugural tournament and continued playing through 1980, when he transitioned into a volunteer. Millan attributes the tournament’s longstanding success to the community.
“It’s more or less the people in the community,” Millan said. “You know, it’s something to get everybody together. And during that time, you know, even after 1980, I started coaching. For 6 out of 7 years, we won the men’s open division with a team called Jimmy’s Liquor Lakers. We brought the showtime to the court, and all the kids would come out once they started warming up. To me, it’s for the kids.”
Byron’s brother Larry has also played a pivotal role in the tournament for the last five decades. He advocated that the tournament’s significance to the community is rarely rivaled.
“What keeps it going is what it is and what it means to the community,” Larry said. “It’s a unique event and important to the community. It brings people together. It’s one of the most diverse events in our city. You get to meet people you don’t see every day in a relaxed and entertaining atmosphere.”
Dust Bowl legends throughout the years
To walk away victorious at Kendall-Perkins Park is no small feat on a typical day, much less the Owensboro Dust Bowl. There have been several NBA greats, collegiate legends, and Kentucky Mr. Basketballs to lace up their shoes at the event.
Former Red Devil and all-state guard Marcus Robinson won several Dust Bowls. One of the best teams he recalls was one Byron Owen pieced together in the ’80s.
“(Byron) put a super team together,” Robinson said. “It was Avery Taylor, Rex Chapman, David Hogg, Maurice White, Scott Johnson, Orlando Stuart, Anthony Leachman, Jay Woodard, James Douglas, Bobby Higgs – I mean, he had the best talent to come through here in years.”
While that team is now 40 years removed from the action, Byron Owen remembers the year vividly in his head.
“Those guys had been together for several years, and just the experience of getting involved with AAU, that was a reward for what they had been doing since they were 7 or 8 years old,” he said. “I always told the guys it would be something they can look back on in 20, 30, or 40 years to see what they did.”
Kendall-Perkins Park and the Owensboro Dust Bowl have been a breeding ground for professional and college basketball players. Owensboro natives Kenny Higgs and Rex Chapman come to mind for many, but several others would travel from near and far to test their skills on the blacktop.
Larry said the Rex Chapman dynamic was exciting and that Rex’s dad Wayne played a pivotal role in the tournament launch. The elder Chapman played for a team called the Coaches who took on Charlie’s Angels, a team Charlie Taylor pieced together, in the inaugural tournament.
“It was really the Coaches vs. Charlies that really got the Dust Bowl started,” he said. “They were two competitive teams that played against each other.”
One year later, in 1975, the committee added a junior division for younger players. This was before leagues at the Boys and Girls Club, Parks and Recreation, and local churches and schools even existed.
“Wayne asked me if I knew of somewhere for his son to play, and at the time, I was coaching with Michael Morton at Dugan Best, and I said, ‘yeah, we got a team that he can play on,’” Larry said. “So when our season started, I gave Wayne a call, and a lot of times, Wayne would just drop Rex at our house, and we would walk over to Dugan Best for practice. That’s how he started playing with these guys.”
Chapman won Kentucky Mr. Basketball at Apollo before earning All-Rookie, All-Conference, and several more honors as a standout for the Kentucky Wildcats. He later racked up several accolades during a 12-year stint in the NBA.
Other NBA players include former national champions for the Louisville Cardinals, Darryl Griffith and Milt Wagner. Other greats include Myles Patrick, who spent his collegiate career at Auburn, and Chris Whitney, who played at Clemson before signing with the Wizards.
“Another outstanding moment in the Dust Bowl was when Myles Patrick participated,” Larry Owen said. “He played for Tapp Motors, and that team had been trying to win a Dust Bowl for I don’t know how many times. They brought Myles’s brother Larry from Kentucky Wesleyan to play, pushing them over the hump.”
Other legends like Owensboro natives Rod Drake and Dwight Higgs continued their playing careers in professional leagues overseas. Michael James, Tyler Brown, Aric Holman, Bubba Long, Patrick Sparks, J.R. Reynolds, and several more went on to have successful tenures with the sport.
Larry also referenced two brothers from Whitesville, who created a “scrappy team” in the early ’70s and made the 14-mile trek down KY 54 to the city streets of Owensboro to test their talents.
“In the earlier years, there was a team from Whitesville with two brothers who came down every year,” he said. “They never won it, but the little Whitesville community would show up in droves. No matter who they played, they gave them fits. They were very competitive, and I think that’s worth mentioning.”
Research points to the Mattingly brothers forming the Whitesville team, primarily comprising Trinity Raiders.
Gus Johnson said, “It was insightful and encouraging during that first year for them to have the trust and faith to say, ‘Okay, we’re going in this Black neighborhood, and everything is going to be cool.’”
What does the future hold?
Michael James stood out for the Apollo Eagles before playing his senior season at Oak Hill, collegiately at Florida International, and professionally in Australia and Asia. With Byron Owen announcing his retirement, James knows it’s time for his generation to step up.
Despite playing hoops all over the world, he said it’s the Dust Bowl that’s brought him the most joy.
“It’s your family, your peers, the atmosphere, the music, the smell, the fact that you’re home and the lights are bright,” James said. “You’re at Kendall-Perkins Park, and the lights come on, and you see your mom, brother, dad, and little kids sitting on the sideline. That brings out a lot of who you are.”
He said after venturing away to play in college and professionally, the Dust Bowl was always the perfect homecoming, and he wants to do his part to continue growing the event.
“I am very much embedded in the Dust Bowl – it’s where my roots are,” he said. “This is my home, and I’ll defend it, especially when teams come in from out of town. I’ll defend it, and I want to keep it alive.”
Alongside lifelong friend Lamar Owen, James is ready to build on the works of the many volunteers ahead of him and “give it new life.”
Lamar Owen played in his first Dust Bowl at age 8, winning several titles in multiple divisions. His ultimate inspiration to keep the classic thriving is the kids, letting them know that he and many others grew up on this same block, that it’s something to be proud of, and that there’s a bright future ahead of them.
“It’s just that the level of competitiveness is unrivaled with teams coming from Tennessee, Madisonville, Hopkinsville, Evansville, and more,” Lamar Owen said. “Everybody wants to win that one thing: that Dust Bowl. It’s the best basketball in the tri-state, and we will keep it going for the next several years.”
James recalled a championship game from a few years ago when he and Lamar were on the same team, and Lamar was at the free throw line with less than a second remaining on the clock. They were down two, and Lamar had missed the first charity attempt.
“I walked up to him after the first one, and I said, ‘Miss left, bro,’” James said. “He shoots the second free throw, I come on the left side, no one boxes me out, I tip it in, and we go overtime. We ended up winning that championship.”
Lamar Owen said that just being there and seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces as they cheer proves that the tournament will always have a place in the community. Larry Owen echoed Lamar’s feelings and said though it would require some effort, the Dust Bowl had several more years of life left.
“I think with the popularity of basketball, the allure of the atmosphere, the relationship the Dust Bowl has with the community, it can continue,” Larry Owen said. “Of course, with everything, you have to change with the times. It might require some innovative thinking to get it to the popularity level it once was.”
Watching kids lace up their newest pair of Lebron’s this past summer and step on the asphalt court for the first time was similar to how Byron, Larry, and Gus referenced youngsters lacing up their Chuck Taylors in 1974.
At Kendall-Perkins Park during the last week of July, barbecue smoke and music fill the air as folks from various walks of life flock to enjoy one of Owensboro’s favorite pastimes: basketball. Regardless of enthusiasm for the sport, it’s a sight worth seeing.
