History
of the
Ohio - Kentucky All-Star Game
The Ohio - Kentucky All-Star Basketball Game originated as an idea to help the Ronald McDonald House charity, by organizing an All-Star Basketball Game between senior boys and girls from the states ofOhio and Kentucky .
The creators of this annual event are Randy Ward, a Kentucky High School Basketball Coach for over thirty years (now retired) and Dick Spencer, a long-time Independent Insurance Agent and businessman in Portsmouth, Ohio. The All-Star Basketball Game organized in 1991, with the first games being played between boys and girls occurring in April of 1992 at the James A. Rhodes Athletic Center (see below picture) on the campus of Shawnee State University in downtown Portsmouth, Ohio.
Soon after many other people joined in to help make the game a huge success. Al Parsley, a local owner of the Southern Ohio McDonald’s Franchises and the original game's sponsor. Mike Thoroughman, a retired local area Kentucky High School Principal; Norm Persin, a highly successful Basketball Coach in the Southern Ohio area. Then Cindy Halbert, former Girls Basketball Coach at Pikeville High School, after coaching in the All-Star Game, became a member of the All-Star Committee. Kelly T. Ward, also agreed to join the All-Star Committee as a consultant and head up the Kentucky All-Star Boys Committee. These are just some of the people that perform many hours of service to make sure the Ohio – Kentucky All-Star Basketball Game is a continuing success. We also have several support staff that also work behind the scenes to help make this game run smoothly.
The All-Star Basketball Game had grown immensely over the 11-year period, also having a local radio broadcast for ten of those eleven years, and also having had television broadcast over the Southeastern Kentucky area for five of the eleven years. Due to the increasing popularity of the All-Star Game the All-Star Committee was then forced into the possibility of finding larger accommodations for the annual basketball event.
Again, the Ohio – Kentucky All-Star Basketball Game had originally been held at Shawnee State University (Portsmouth, Ohio) since its inception, before moving to Thomas More University (Crestview Hills, KY) in 2002. The move to Thomas More University was due to the game reaching a point where the committee evaluated the All-Star Game and realized that the All-Star Game must have a metropolitan site to continue it’s ongoing success. This is due to the need of more media coverage and the availability of an airport for the coaches and recruiters. The results took on a startling record for then 11-year old game. We always have an abundance of College Coaches every year in attendance for the All-Star Game. The All-Star Game is now played at the Connor Convocation Center which is one of the finest small college facilities in the country.
The Ohio – Kentucky All-Star Basketball Game is proud to have Thomas More University in Crestview Hills, Kentucky of the Greater Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky area as the site of our annual Charity All-Star Basketball Game.
Over the years the Boys All-Star Basketball Game has showcased several of both of the states top basketball talent. The Kentucky Squad has included Anthony Epps, Antwain Barbour, Patrick Sparks, Jarrod Polson, Ravi Moss, & Dominique Hawkins (Kentucky), Chris Lofton (Tennessee), Dwayne Sutton & Terrance Farley (Louisville), Anthony Hickey (LSU/Oklahoma State), Darran Allaway (Stanford), Justin Doellman & Quentin Goodin (Xavier), Daniel Dillon (Arizona), & Lamont Barnes (Temple). The Ohio Squad has included Aaron Craft, Jon Diebler, Terence Dials, Ron Lewis, Matt Sylvester, & Matt Terwillger (Ohio State), Trey Burke, Xavier Simpson, Caris Levert, & John Teske (Michigan), Josh Duncan, Dante Jackson, & Johnny Wolf (Xavier), Terry Rozier (Louisville), Nathan Peavy & Danny Horace (Miami-OH), Jarron Cumberland & Kevin Johnson (Cincinnati), Byron Gladden (Wyoming), & Cam Thoroughman & Esa Ahmed (West Virginia), Nick Ward & Travis Trice (Michigan State).
Also, the
Ohio –
Kentucky All-Star Basketball Game has been very fortunate also in its short span to have had several NBA players on its past rosters, Terry Rozier (Louisville) Trey Burke (Michigan), C.J. McCollum (Lehigh), Terry Taylor (Austin Peay), James Posey (Xavier), Kevin Martin (Western Carolina), Caris Levert (Michigan), Donta Smith (Southeastern Illinois), Romain Sato (Xavier), Calvin Booth (Penn State), Sam Clancy (Southern California). This All-Star Game has also had a few NFL Players participate in as well Kyle Rudolph (Notre Dame) and George Fant (Western Kentucky).
The Ohio – Kentucky All-Star Basketball Game will celebrate its 29th year anniversary in the upcoming April 2022 Game. The Boys series stands with Ohio winning eighteen games and Kentucky winning twelve games. However, for the Girls series, Kentucky holds a slight lead with sixteen victories to Ohio’s thirteen victories.
The numerous all-star players and coaches alike that have participated in Ohio – Kentucky All-Star Basketball Game over the past 29 years have made the game a great success. We have had several major college (Men’s and Women’s) head coaches in attendance over the years, making the All-Star Game to become a college recruiter’s dream.
