The effort continues to create a shrine to high school basketball in the far western end of Kentucky
Ed Jones, who was a star player at Benton High School and later coached at his Alma Mater, got the effort rolling a little more than a year ago. Still to be confirmed is where the museum will be housed.
First choice is one of the gyms from the 1950s that are still in operation – Chambers Memorial Gymnasium in Benton, where the Indians played until Benton and county schools North and South Marshall were consolidated after the 1974 school year.
The Benton gym, along with the arenas at North and South Marshall, also took turns serving as home court for the new Marshall County High School Marshals until a new facility – Reed Conder Gymnasium – was built on the MCHS campus. It opened in 1979.
Many fans and competitors in the far western end of the state have felt neglected by those in the central and eastern parts of the state.
“In these 13 counties, we’ve got eight state championships, several runners-up” and an assortment of highly talented players, Jones said.
Members of the museum organization continue working to collect information and photographs, newspaper clippings, rosters, statistics, box scores and other paraphernalia from their home counties.