LEXINGTON, Ky. — Paul Laurence Dunbar High School’s boy's. basketball took a trip down memory lane for the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame’s ongoing heritage match-up.
Dressed in the original green and white Bearcat uniform colors, this year’s Paul Laurence Dunbar’s boy’s basketball team returned to the very place it all began — on the court of the old Dunbar High School. Now, the gym is the Dunbar Community Center.
Former Cleveland Cavaliers and Dunbar High School basketball champion Bobby Washington was one of those players.
“Being respectful or somebody would call our parents or call Mr.Roach or call somebody and they would put us back in line, so this was a proud place and I hated to see when it left,” Washington says about how the community was tightly connected.
First opening in 1923 as an all-Black school and for over a few decades, Dunbar high school led a title-earning basketball program. The Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame notes the team won two state championships with the Kentucky High School Athletic League.
The team competed in several regional tournaments, KHSAA Sweet 16’s and more with educator, community leader and basketball coach S.T. Roach. Roach who would help the team win 512 games with six regional titles.
Now a part of the Hall of Fame’s “Glory road” project, Dunbar along with others across the region are recognized for their trailblazing gymnasiums that helped athletes, coaches and teams make history.
Board Chairman of the Kentucky Basketball Hall of Fame Ken Trivette says the schools and gyms provided a unique experience that you can only get in Kentucky.
“It was a symbiotic relationship between the three things: school, community, and their basketball teams, and it was a beautiful thing. It was joyous, it was pure, it was competitive, it was fun, and it was something special.” Trivette said.
The school has now transformed into a community center for after-school, summer and recreational programs for kids, something Washington says has always brought the community together in ways he continues to remember and hold near.
“In Lexington, at the time, it was the east end, west end, north and south end and, we all had the areas that we lived in and Dunbar was something that we all could get together and share and we were just proud.” Washington explained.
In 1957, Dunbar High School was one of the first Black schools to compete in the Sweet 16 championships, along with Douglass High School for a KHSAA title.