Glasgow High School will be in the spotlight as the latest “Glory Road” venue next week.

When host Glasgow takes on rival Caverna in a girls’ and boys’ basketball doubleheader Tuesday at Glasgow, the games will be part of an expanding statewide series of matchups highlighting historic gymnasiums and celebrating past teams and schools.

Tuesday’s matchup takes place in the same gymnasium where Glasgow won the KHSAA boys’ basketball state championship in 1968, four years after Ralph Bunche – an all-Black school with its own rich history of basketball success – consolidated with Glasgow. Both schools and former Scotties and Blue Hawks will be celebrated Tuesday night. The girls’ game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. tipoff, with the boys to follow at 7:30 p.m.

While Glasgow will host Tuesday’s games, there is still hope that someday Bunche will also serve as host. The school, now Ralph Bunche Community Center, still has the gymnasium where those legendary teams played but the facility no longer has seating after the deteriorating bleachers were removed for safety reasons.

“They had really good basketball at Glasgow for a period of time there, and then of course Bunche had its tradition there right down the street,” said Ken Trivette, the board chairman of the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame. “They’ve captured their history and their gym is still there and we’re working with them so that someday hopefully they’ll get some bleachers. But we also are recognizing that gym at the same time, Glasgow High School’s gym where Jim Richards won the state championship with his team and also we’re recognizing Bunche High School gymnasium.”

The games Tuesday night are part of this year’s “Glory Road/Heritage Game” project, a series put together by the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame. The aim is to spotlight some of Kentucky’s most significant high school gyms. The games, all previously scheduled, feature a cross-section of schools statewide playing in historic gyms, often honoring former schools that have consolidated within their school systems. The Glasgow-Caverna matchup is one of 14 in the series this year.

“We basically give them a template and work them and provide the award and information about what we’re trying to accomplish with this,” Trivette said. “We don’t go into an individual place and tell them exactly how we want them to do it, but we give them an outline and a template of the things that we think they need to do and then we work with them.”

Charles Hunter, who starred at Ralph Bunche – he led the Blue Hawks to the 1961 Fifth Region championship and a spot in the Boys’ Sweet Sixteen – before going on to play collegiately at Oklahoma City University and being drafted by the NBA’s Boston Celtics – has worked with the Hall of Fame to get the series to Glasgow. Hunter and former Bunche and Glasgow standout Alonzo Webb have been instrumental in highlighting former area Black schools that constituted the E-41 South Central Area/Region 3 branch of the former Kentucky High School Athletic League before desegregation. Taking part in the “Glory Road” series furthered that work.

“We’re trying to go back and identify those small schools that closed down that still have gyms, predominantly all-Black schools, and go back and recognize them from an historical standpoint,” Hunter said. “We want to celebrate those gyms and celebrate those rivalries that took place back in the day, like Louisville Central vs. Lexington Dunbar.”

Hunter said plans for a “Glory Road” game between Glasgow – honoring Glasgow/Ralph Bunche – against Bowling Green (Bowling Green State Street/High Street) fell through last year because of scheduling, but that matchup could take place in future installments of the series.

Former Glasgow and Ralph Bunche players and cheerleaders are invited to attend Tuesday’s games free of charge.

For more information, contact Hunter at 270-576-5468 or email charleshunter44@yahoo.com.