Bill Gaines confesses clock control at his Day
By Jim Turner

A 1943 graduate of Auburn High School, Billy Gaines kept the official scoreboard clock while he was still a student in high school. He continued in that capacity while he was a student at at Bowling Green Business University. With the exception of the two years he was in the Navy, he continued “keeping the clock” for over three decades, usually with the late Bill Howlett at his side as the official scorer.

While he was at BU, Gaines would ride a bus home for Tiger ball games. He and a tall gentleman got off the bus together one night. “He said he was the referee for a game at Auburn. I told him that I was the official timer. After the game, he went with me to my parents’ house for a meal. That’s how I became friends with Dero Downing, and he and his wife were always kind to us, even after he became president of Western,” Bill recalled this week.

Many times he rode back to Bowling Green with whoever had officiated that night. “No one assigned the officials then. The schools hired them in those days,” he chuckles.

Ronnie Clark, who coached the Auburn Tigers in the late 50s and became principal after that, often proclaims that Bill Gaines and Bill Howlett won a lot more games for Auburn than he did coaching. Clark, who went on to become coach and principal at Franklin-Simpson, is now mayor of Franklin.

The man that Clark and Superintendent Robert Piper hired to succeed Clark as Auburn’s basketball coach was Jim Richards, who later coached Glasgow to a state championship before becoming head basketball coach and golf coach at WKU.

“Auburn was the first job for both Ronnie and Jim,” Gaines recalls. “Ronnie and Joan and Jim and Annette were often guests in our home.”

All four of them were at Auburn Baptist Church to observe Billy Gaines Day, as were two more Tiger coaches, Howard Gorrell (and his wife Charlene) and Barry Reed. Gorrell won seven straight district championships while coaching the Tigers from 1963-71, and Reed coached the last basketball game ever played by Auburn High School in the 1982 regional finals.

The next year Gorrell was principal of the new Logan County High School and Reed was the top assistant to another former Auburn coach, Gerald Sinclair. They led the Cougars to the state basketball championship in the second season with former Tigers Fred and John Tisdale and Tim Viers as key players. A member of that state championship team, Phillip Mallory, was present for Billy Gaines Day, as was Eric Meguiar, one of the stars of Logan’s first baseball team. Eric’s dad Johnny played for Clark and Richards and his mom, Lavelle Drake Meguiar, and his sister, Lee Ann Meguiar Powell, were cheerleaders.

Gaines was on the clock when Auburn High won the 1951 regional championship as well as winning a game in the state tournament with Garland ‘Red’ Garrison as coach and Jimmy Nuchols, Bobby Johnson and Alvin Hughes as top scorers. That was the last Logan County team to win the region until the Cougars had their magical run 33 years later.

Ken ‘Chico’ Harper was a starter on that 1951 team. Now the retired judge-executive of Simpson County, he was part of those assembled for Billy Gaines Day.

Upon the request of Gorrell, who served as AHS principal from 1971-82, Bill kept the clock for the last home game ever at Auburn’s Tiger Den, which matched Coach Tim Owens’ Lady Tigers against Olmstead’s seven-year defending district champion Lady Rams, who were coached by Lugene Rogers. The Lady Tigers went on to beat Olmstead for the district championship, and Auburn played the last non-consolidated Logan girls basketball game in the regional semifinals. Janice Covington, Regina Sweatt and Paula Wells were former Lady Tigers who were key players for Coach Jim Thompson’s regional finalist Lady Cougars that first season of Logan basketball.

Auburn Baptist Pastor Gene Vincent wasn’t around when Auburn was a high school, but he said he’s been told by many people that Gaines could and would control how soon the clock started or stopped, depending on what the Tigers needed. When he asked the honoree from the pulpit if that is true, Gaines conceded that he might have used a selective thumb on the switch a few times.

“Confession is good for the soul,” Vincent said with a chuckle.

The preacher also asked Gaines if it is true that he might have occasionally missed starting and stopping the clock at the appropriate times because he was admiring the cheerleaders. Vincent had the former Auburn and Logan County cheerleaders in the audience to stand, and they were numerous. One of them was the former Nancy Vick, who has been Mrs. Bill Gaines for much of her life.

“That’s one cheerleader you really looked at often,” the pastor added to the delight of those assembled.

Bill and Nancy Gaines have been a package deal as long as most people can remember. She, too, has been a loyal and vocal fan of both AHS and LCHS. During basketball homecoming at LCHS seven years ago, Athletic Director Hugh McReynolds presented awards to both of them for their loyal support of the Cougars and Lady Cougars.

Bill was an enthusiastic and skilled tennis player for years. He helped teach the game to many Auburn youngsters. Standouts included Charlene Gorrell’s daughter, Edwina Hall (now Edwina Strickler), who led the Lady Tigers to a win over Russellville in the last sport of any type played by a non-consolidated Logan school.

Later he helped develop tennis players Julia Hendricks, Candace Rogers and Melissa McMurry, who all became Lady Cougar basketball and tennis standouts.

He enjoyed watching girls play basketball who weren’t afraid to mix it up on the boards and on defense. One of his favorites, Melody Goodman Bingham, was at Billy Gaines Day along with her husband Billy and mother, Margaret Goodman.

“If I were going to put together a Lady Cougars team that I would enjoy going into battle with, it would include the Nuyt sisters (Brandy Nuyt Trimble and Amanda Nuyt Hampton), Kim Johnson (Higgins), Cary Cowan (Boisseau) and Mel,” he says.

Family members that were present for Bill Gaines’ big day included granddaughter Beth Neal Davis and her husband Tim from Franklin, along with their three children, Madison, Preston and Braxton; daughter Beverly Gaines Karaffa and husband John from New Albany, Ind.; Patty Wilson from Auburn, who was married to Nancy’s late nephew, Steve Wilson, and is considered family; and cousin Dessa Howlett and her husband Larry from Bowling Green.

Bill and Nancy are proud of their grandchildren. Beth Davis is a registered nurse at Greenview Hospital. Her brother, Jeff Neal, who was a standout baseball player for the Cougars, is manager of a large Wal-Mart in North Carolina. Beverly’s sons both are alumni of Transylvania University where they were standout soccer players. Nick Karaffa is an attorney and Matt Karaffa is in marketing.

Both Bill and chairman of the deacons, Scotty Woodward, credit Jim and Ann Lockhart for having the idea for the day and getting so many people there. Woodward, who has successfully battled serious illness the past year, said the day was especially meaningful to him because Ronnie Clark was his principal and Jim Richards was the basketball coach his senior year.

Bill Gaines worked in sales and marketing for Auburn Hosiery Mill from 1951-62 before going into sale at Auburn’s Caldwell Lace Leather. In 1985 he became an owner of the gasket division of Caldwell. He retired in the mid-90s.

“I’ve felt great since I had heart surgery a couple of years ago. I feel 10 years younger than I did before that,” he says. “I really enjoyed this day and appreciate everyone who was there for me.”