On February 8, 2022, Barney Thweatt was recognized during games at Marshall County High School for his induction into the 2020 Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame. With his trademark smile on his face and surrounded by his family, the 91-year-old thanked everyone for their support and expressed how honored he was to receive the award and be recognized for his contribution to high school basketball in the state of Kentucky.
In a gymnasium, a place that has brought him so much joy throughout his life, Barney made all of us smile and count ourselves lucky to have known him, a man so loved and endeared by the Marshall County community and beyond.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Barney’s family after his passing on Tuesday, Mar. 1, 2022.
Below, a Marshall County Daily story featuring Barney published September 1, 2017.
Kentucky high school basketball, its storied tradition and the name Barney Thweatt just go hand in hand. Captain of the 1947 and 1948 Brewers Redmen teams with a record of 70-2 during that time under Head Coach McCoy Tarry, Thweatt helped lead the 1948 Redmen to a state title with a perfect 36-0 record. A record that still stands today as the only undefeated state championship team in Kentucky and the first undefeated team since Ashland in 1928.
The 1947 team met Maysville in the state title game, losing 54-40 but the two would meet again on March 20, 1948 and this time, the Redmen won the crown, winning 65-48. That perfect season, Brewers averaged 72 points per game and held their opponents to an average of 48 points per game.
There were 12 students in Thweatt’s senior class and approximately 40 boys in the entire school which made the Redmen team a real “Hoosiers” of Marshall County and Kentucky.
“You could put Barney in any part of this state and he would know somebody”, WCBL Sports Director Jeff Waters said. “Most people that know anything about high school basketball anywhere in this state will remember the name Barney Thweatt. I’ve talked to guys in the other part of the state that ask me to get them in touch with Barney, to meet and interview him.”
Thweatt fondly reminisced about his days playing for Brewers to Dax Myhand on the February 18, 2016 podcast on daxmyhand.com. Talking about the court that was 10 feet shorter and a few feet narrower than most, using a coal generator for light and heat. Thweatt loves to recount stories about teammates, games and Coach Tarry.
“He was demanding and he was strict and he expected a lot out of us, but yet, we knew that he loved us and everything he was doing was for our best interest”, Thweatt said of Coach Tarry.
Thweatt walked home four miles each day from practice in all kinds of weather saying, “Coach Tarry would check to see if we had on gloves and a toboggan…he wanted to make sure we stayed healthy.”
Upon his graduation from Brewers, Thweatt along with three teammates – Coy Creason, Van Mathis and Jim Owen – went to play at Memphis State after Tarry was named head coach. Thweatt hurt his knee before his freshman season, played his sophomore year but re-injured the knee his junior year and left Memphis State along with Tarry, to be his assistant at Sedalia High School in Graves County.
Enrolled at Murray State, Thweatt was student teaching at Crittenden County when he made the decision to play his final year of eligibility for the Racers.
Right out of college, he coached at a high school in Illinois for two years, then came back to Paducah to be an assistant at Paducah Tilghman for Coach Otis Dinning. Thweatt left Tilghman to coach at Oldham County before returning to Tilghman to take the head coach position.
During his 13 years as a head coach, he won six district titles, two regional titles, a trip to the Sweet 16 with Paducah Tilghman in 1967 and to the Final Four with Oldham County who finished the 1963 season with a 31-3 record.
Approached by Superintendent Reed Conder, Thweatt made the transition from coach and teacher to begin his career in administration at North Marshall. After three years there, he became principal at Mayfield and finally at Christian County where he retired in 1987.
“He’s a legend in athletics but he’s a legend in the world of education in general”, Waters said. “I think everywhere he was a principal and a coach, he was loved and really revered by the people who worked for him and that he worked with.”
His accomplishments don’t stop on the court or in the classroom. Thweatt was a member of the KHSAA Board of Control for four years, KHSAA President in 1981 and president of the Kentucky Association of Secondary School Principals in 1985-1986.
He was inducted into the KHSAA Hall of Fame in 1991, is a member of the Sweet 16 Hall of Fame, a member of the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches Court of Honor, inducted into the Christian County Athletic Hall of Fame and he sits on the board of the Marshall County Athletic Foundation.
In 2009, Thweatt was inducted into the Marshall County Athletic Hall of Fame as a member of the 1947 and 1948 Brewers teams and as an individual as the starting guard on the 1946, 1947 and 1948 state tournament teams.
Over the years, Thweatt has collected an impressive amount of memorabilia from his playing and coaching days. His daughter, Shannon Copeland said, players he coached will get in touch with him and come to his house to sit and chat for hours, look through scrapbooks and albums and they leave with photos given to them by Thweatt.
“What amazes me about him, especially when he’s interviewed, is his ability to remember facts from games like scores, statistics and names”, Copeland said. “I’ve heard the story of the 1948 team many times, but when Daddy wrote the book was when I really understood his accomplishments.”
At the age of 87, Copeland said he still goes to the gym every morning at 6:00 am to work out, meets with his coffee group for fellowship and sometimes goes to the gym again for a second time.
Thweatt is a commissioner on the Benton City Planning and Zoning board and received the Marshall County Chamber of Commerce Lifetime Achievement award.
“Barney does a lot of things with charities and civic clubs that people probably don’t even know”, Waters said. “I don’t know that I’ve ever known anybody that was more interested in the success of their community than Barney and that goes for wherever he’s lived. He’s one of those people who thinks we all benefit from the success of community.”
Marshall County Sheriff Kevin Byars said of Thweatt that he is one of the most unique individuals he has known in his entire life, someone who never meets a stranger and is always encouraging.
“If you ever want any words of encouragement, that’s the guy that you go to”, Byars said. “Barney always has something positive to say. He has been a tremendous help to me, personally, in this job because there have been words of encouragement to me…there have been times when it’s been pretty rough and he knows that it’s been that way and he’s come by and talks to me and I appreciate that more than he’ll ever know. He’s just a dear, dear friend.”
Byars said the whole state knows Thweatt and spoke of a story about his first year as Sheriff when the Crime-stoppers jail for fund-raising was in the Tater Day Parade with Thweatt, a Crime-stoppers board member, on the float.
“We all got on the float and Doug Haughn said – I’ll bet you anything we can’t go 100 yards until someone says, “hey Barney, how are you?” We moved about 15 feet and someone yelled, “hey Barney, how ya doin’?”
Byars said Thweatt had once invited him to participate in the July 4 golf cart parade held at Kentucky Lake Subdivision where Thweatt resided. It’s been a longstanding tradition for Byars, who led the parade of golf carts and has continued to do so in the last 15 years since.
“You just don’t have a better friend than Barney Thweatt”, Byars said. “I love to listen to his stories of his time playing at Brewers for Coach Tarry. I don’t think Barney realizes what his worth to this community is.”
His smile and enthusiasm is contagious.
“Barney is truly one of my favorite people”, Waters said. “He’s been a friend of mine for several years. I just enjoy spending time with him. He has a lot of knowledge and like me, he shares a deep love of Kentucky high school basketball.”
And while he’s accomplished many things, including authoring his own book, titled “Brewers Basketball: A Winning Tradition,” Thweatt remains humble and devoted to his faith.
“He doesn’t want people to rave about what he’s done in his life but wants them to see how his faith got him to where he is now and his love for people,” Copeland said. “He just loves people.”
