What do you mean you’ve never heard of him? I thought you were a basketball historian … especially in Kentucky.

It’s been decades since Grady Wallace played at Betsy Layne High School, and even though his history in basketball may have fallen through the cracks in most of Kentucky, it hasn’t in the mountains of Floyd County.

Grady Wallace is one of the greatest players to ever come out of this basketball-rich state, and he has the records to prove it.

Sit back, get comfortable and get caught up on one of the greats.

Playing at Betsy Layne, the 6-5, 165-pound Wallace was something to see. Raised in nearby Mare Creek, and playing in the school’s 400-seat gym, fans had to get there early to even think about finding a seat. With a population of 100, it was easy to see that others in the county and from Prestonsburg wanted to see the tall, skinny kid with the flat-top play.

By the time his senior year rolled around, his team had been suspended for playing one of Wallace’s teammates, Reuben Hall. In a meeting at the Ken Lake Lodge on July 10, 1953, however, Betsy Layne principal D.W. Howard appealed to the Kentucky High School Athletic Association. It worked.

Commissioner Ted Sanford added five games back to the schedule.

Wallace was making a name for himself, but not so much across the state. Throwing up big scoring and rebounding numbers, 57 against Phelps High School on 21 field goals and 15 of 18 free throws, he was able to be a star on several local all-star teams.

Averaging 28 points a game, he was the talk of Floyd County and all of eastern Kentucky in 1954.

Gordon Moore, a Courier-Journal correspondent, knew more and saw more basketball games involving mountain teams than anyone else at the time. He covered the big games and wrote about the best players. Wallace was a player he watched a lot.

It was Moore, three years later in 1956, who rented an airplane and dropped several thousand flyers over Lexington announcing the arrival of King Kelly Coleman to the Sweet 16.

Here’s where Grady Wallace fans could get lost if not paying attention.

Wallace, make no mistake, wanted to play for Adolph Rupp at UK. He was well aware of fellow mountain boys’ success in Lexington. However, it was not to be. He had been lost in the shuffle of good players … Charlie Tyra, Vern Hatton, Kenny Kuhn, Paul Horning and Lincoln Collinsworth. Yes, Horning was a good basketball player, too.

It was off to Eastern Kentucky University, where he stayed only a few weeks. “I got homesick,” he said at the time.

Richmond was, after all, 125 miles from Betsy Layne.

Stay with the story.

Wallace still wanted to play basketball, and Pikeville Junior College had one of the best two-year programs around. Better yet, it was only 12 miles from Betsy Lane.

Wallace, using what sports writer Gordon Moore described as a “jumping one-hand shot” took his record-setting high school game to Pikeville JC and never let up.

With Grady Wallace, it was common for Pikeville to score over a 100 points every night out, including a 137-81 rout of Mountain State College. The basketball world took notice when he sank 23 of 26 shots and all five of his free throws on his way to 51 points.

It might have surprised some, but not those in Betsy Lane who knew all about him. Even though Betsy Layne’s Frank Crum had gathered some all-state honors in 1951, no one from there had done what Wallace was doing.

Two years at Pikeville was enough for college coaches throughout the Southeast to dial in on the kid from Mare Creek by way of Betsy Lane.

None of this surprised Gene Davis, who was a sophomore on the B-team at Betsy Layne when Wallace was in his heyday.

“We all knew back then how really good he was,” Davis recently said. ”He was just an old country boy with a God-given talent. And what a talent it was.”

Davis also had his take on why Wallace left Eastern. Wallace, saying he was homesick, was only part of it.

“They ran him so much that he developed shinsplints in both legs,” Davis recalled. “He was unable to play.”

Davis, who later became a leading educator in Floyd and Pike County, has memories of Wallace away from the basketball court.

“Those bus rides to games left us with some great memories of Grady, too,” Davis said. “He was a great joke teller. He kept everyone laughing. They were great times.”

But just when it looked like Wallace had come to the end of the line with basketball at Pikeville JC, suddenly he was thrown a lifeline that would propel him into basketball history.

South Carolina basketball coach Frank Johnson had his eye on Wallace, but in order to solidify his recruitment, he hired Wallace’s coach at Pikeville to come to South Carolina as his assistant.

Off to Columbia, South Carolina, he went along with several of his Pikeville teammates. With his old coach, Walter Hambrick with him, it didn’t take long for Wallace to begin his march through the school’s basketball record books.

Playing in what many considered the best basketball conference in America – the Atlantic Coast Conference – Grady Wallace continued to prove he could play against the best players and best teams.

Instead of the junior college circuit, Wallace would now be facing off against Duke, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Wake Forest, Clemson and North Carolina State. By the way, in 1957 North Carolina went 32-0.

In two years at South Carolina, he scored 1,456 points, only 57 shy of the four-year mark. How is this for numbers: 43 vs Citadel, 44 vs Clemson, 44 vs Virginia, 45 vs North Carolina State, and 54 vs Georgia?

His two-year career: most times scored 20 or more, 45; most times scored 30 or more, 18; most times scored 40 or more, eight.

Grady Wallace left South Carolina with a two-year record of averaging 28 per game while leading the ACC in rebounding both years.

His senior year scoring led the nation at 31.2 per outing. Even though many Kentuckians may not remember Grady Wallace, they do know the names of Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Hot Rod Hundley, Charlie Tyra and Guy Rodgers. These were some of the All-Americans in the scoring hunt that Wallace won.

Wallace left South Carolina as a first team All-American, becoming the first Gamecock basketball player to have a jersey retired in 1968.

So what happened next for the skinny kid from Betsy Layne?

The Boston Celtics drafted him in the fifth round. Not bad in 1957, considering there were only eight NBA teams at the time.

“Salaries weren’t what they are now,” Wallace would say years later. “Players would have to work two jobs to make it.”

The next level of professional basketball was the Phillips 66 Oilers. Playing two years was enough. Admitting that he was worn out from playing the game, travel, and meals on the road, he was still good enough to be selected as the 17th best player to play there.

Back to Columbia, South Carolina, he went, where he had married and now had a family. For 30 years, he headed up the state parole board before retiring in 1990.

Who would have ever envisioned such lofty accomplishments for the skinny kid from Betsy Layne? He had honed his skills on dirt courts playing all day, every day, at his home in what was then called Mare Creek.

“Rain or shine, or snow didn’t matter,” he once said. “I loved basketball. But setting records? I never thought about that. I just wanted to play.”

And, play he did.

A historical marker sits by the roadside outside of Betsy Layne signifying his accomplishments.

– There’s no excuse, get up, get out and get going! Gary P. West can be reached at westgarypdeb@gmail.com.