100 Years Strong HHS Football

Their first games were played during the day at Midway Field (which was in the Fort Thomas Army Post, across from the Midway Café and Ft. Thomas Pub).  Here are the results of their first season: 

4 wins, 5 losses, and 3 ties 

Highlands 18 Wyoming, OH 0 

Highlands 0 Milford, OH 32 

Highlands 0 Lockland, OH 18 

Highlands 43 Butler, KY 0 

Highlands 6 Newport, KY 6 

Highlands 12 Lockland, OH 12 

Highlands 32 Butler, KY 18 

Highlands 13 Newport 7 

Highlands 0 Madisonville, OH 18 

Highlands 0 Alumni 6 

Highlands 3 Lawrenceburg, IN 6 

Their second season 1916 was shorter (4 wins, 2 losses, 1 tie), they were declared Northern Kentucky Champs!  Season records: 

4 wins, 2 losses, 1 tie 

Highlands 7 St. Xavier, OH 0 

Highlands 30 Franklin, OH 0 

Highlands 13 Norwood, OH 13 

Highlands 9 Covington 6 

Highlands 13 O.M.I. 23 (Ohio Military Institute) 

Highlands 12 Milford, OH 6 

Highlands 6 Hughes, OH 25 

Their Covington High School victory was rewarded with an “Oyster Supper” at the St. Andrews Episcopal Church for the whole team and paid for by Albert Vinton Stegeman. 

Their 1917 season included nine games (6 wins, 3 losses, 0 ties). 

Highlands 36 Hartwell, OH 0 

Highlands 20 Norwood, OH 34 

Highlands 7 Hughes, OH 25 

Highlands 14 Holmes 6 

Highlands 26 Milford, OH 7 

Highlands 33 Butler, KY 6 

Highlands 7 Newport, KY 6 

Highlands 33 Butler, KY 6

Highlands 6 Madisonville, OH 14 

Highlands moved from Midway field, to playing on their own field behind Highlands High School for the first time, November 15, 1918.     Their 1918 season was short!  Here are the results: 

2 wins, 1 loss, 0 ties 

Highlands 6 Milford, OH 0 

Highlands 0 Norwood, OH 7 

Highlands 18 Ft. Thomas Midway team 0 

Highlands 0 Holmes 0    Game cancelled due to “Flu” epidemic. 

The “Spanish Influenza” epidemic cancelled the entire rest of the season. 

SCHOOL CLOSED OCTOBER 7 – NOVEMBER 13, 1918  

Football in those days had some quirks as compared to now. For example, there was no governing body, such as the current KY High School Athletic Association.  Teams played whoever they could find as opponents.  As you may have noticed, Highlands played teams of alumni, and a team consisting of men from the Midway.  

In November, 1922, the Northern Kentucky Athletic Conference was formed.  The original members of the conference were: Bellevue, Dayton, Crescent Springs, Highlands, Holmes, Newport, and Ludlow.  Holmes was the first NKAC championship team.  

Highlands football team was called a few different names before firmly landing on the “Bluebirds.”  Some literature refers to our early teams as the “Blue Devils” or the “Blue Tornadoes.”   

Highlands had two notable coaches named Homer.  Homer Rice lit the spark, making Highlands an offensive power since 1954.  However, there was another Homer… Coach Homer Jackson.  He was our football coach from 1926-1931.  He coached 6 seasons with only 1 losing season in 1927. He was unofficially declared Highlands’ “Best Defensive Coach” after Highlands won the title “Greater Cincinnati Champions” in 1930!!!  In four of his six years coaching, Highlands scored 1090 points to the opponents 75 points: 

Season Highlands Opponents 

  1926 237 points 22 points 

  1928 261 10 

  1929 294 31 

  1930 298 12 

Over the next hundred years, Highlands football won scores of conferences, regional and state championships. The Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA) reports that in 2013 Highlands had won 22 “official” state championships in football since the playoff system was started in 1959. If you count the unofficial (but accepted by everyone at the time) titles in 1930, 1943 and 1957, it was 25 championships, more than any other school in the history of Kentucky athletics. It held, and still holds, the KHSAA records for most undefeated seasons and most consecutive state championships. From its inception through 2016 (the most recent data we could find), Highlands compiled a record of 879-243-26, the second-best in the country. Bill Thomas (HHS ’65), long-time Fort Thomas resident and Highland’s fan, published an entire book on this remarkable history: Fort Thomas Highlands Football (Arcadia Press 2008). Bill was thankful for help from the extensive 3-binder collection of Highlands football historic records compiled and nurtured by alumni Bob Luecke (HHS ’45), Dick Thompson (HHS ’47) and Ken Honchell (HHS ‘61). 

So, it was more than fitting that this proud 100 years was celebrated. The party was at DeVanna’s on the Lake, in Cold Spring, complete with food, drink and storytelling, some of which were even true. Hundreds of players and guests were there, players from at least as far back as 1943, and guys still playing for Highlands, and almost every living Highlands football coach. There were reunions of players from teams across those decades, and a lot of re-lived plays. Every attendee got one of these little footballs, and both before and after the celebration itself, they were used in some spirited touch football games on the lawn of DeVanna’s. No one remembers the scores of those games, probably, but we remember the night those of us who played 60 or 70 years ago shared a treasured heritage with guys still at Highlands, maybe even some guys (who at that time were) waiting to get into their first game.