From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
Childs, Thomas Lee, Sr. [Somerset Dunbar Trojans Basketball Team]
(born: May 25, 1918 - died: October 6, 2010)In 1953, the Somerset Dunbar Trojans basketball team was undefeated with a record of 23 wins during the regular season. The team was coached by Thomas L. Childs, Sr. The 1952-53 regular season was the first undefeated basketball season in the history of the school. The team starters were Bobby Newell (g), John Newell (g), Jackie Fitzpatrick (c), Eugene Mills (f), and Nathaniel Caldwell (f). The other team members were John Cunningham, Gerald Smith, Alonzo Stigall, Freddie Jamison, Thomas Barnes, Charles Sandusky, Kenneth Cunningham, and team manager Ralph Stigall. The Trojans scored 1,595 points for the season, while their opponents scored 1,045 points. Jackie Fitzpatrick (c) led all scores with 606 points for the season.
The Dunbar Trojans would go on to win the Kentucky Negro high school championship [Kentucky High School Athletic League (KHSAL)] and was awarded the Sportsmanship trophy. The team would continue to play in the National Negro High School Basketball Tournament held in Nashville, TN. The team made it to the quarter finals before being defeated by the Booker T. Washington team from Montgomery, AL, 57-51. The Somerset Trojans was one of two Kentucky teams in the 1953 national tournament, the other team was the Western Tigers from Paris, KY. The Western Tigers, coached by William B. Reed, became the national champions when the team defeated Booker T. Washington of Montgomery Alabama, 70-41.
After the national tournament, the Coach of the Year trophy was awarded to the Dunbar Trojans Coach Thomas L. Childs, Sr. The award was presented by the Kentucky High School Athletic League during the Kentucky Negro Educational Association meeting in Louisville, KY. The Trojans basketball team was awarded the Louisville Defender Newspaper Award for their accomplishments during the 1952-53 basketball season.
The segregated Somerset Dunbar School was preceded by much earlier colored schools in Pulaski County, KY, which dated back to the Freedmen schools that were established between 1866-1870. In 1920, the colored school in Somerset, KY, was renamed the Paul Laurence Dunbar School and the first high school graduating class was in 1925. This school was replaced by a new two-story building on South Maple Street in 1942. The school held grades 1-12. The first basketball games at the school were played against other African American high school teams in Kentucky such as the teams in Campbellsville, Columbia, Pineville, and Harrodsburg. In 1943, A. D. Bradshaw was named the basketball coach; he was one of the three high school teachers. The Dunbar basketball games were frequently mentioned in the local newspaper, The Commonwealth.
During WWII, the new school in Somerset was used by the military in February of 1943 when 100 African American troops in the Army Air Corp were served lunch at the school. The troops had stopped in Somerset, KY, while enroute from Battle Creek, MI, to Ft. Oglethorpe, GA. The food was provided by the military and the military cooks prepared and served the food.
Thomas L. Childs, Sr., the new Dunbar Trojans basketball coach, was a WWII veteran. He received an honorable discharged from the U.S. Army in 1946 at the rank of sergeant. Ten years earlier, he was one of the eleven graduates of Somerset Dunbar High School Class of 1936, and he won several awards in the Bluegrass oratorical competition during his senior year. Childs was a 1941 graduate of Kentucky State College [now Kentucky State University] and he joined the military that same year. After his military service, Childs was employed as a teacher at Somerset Dunbar High School. By 1949, he was the basketball coach at the school. His salary for the 1951-52 school year was $1,888.83.
The Somerset schools integrated in 1964 and the Dunbar School was closed. Thomas L. Childs, Sr. and his wife, Conelia A. Fields Childs, had left Somerset, KY, after the historically successful basketball season at Somerset Dunbar School. It was announced in July of 1953 that the couple had resigned their positions in Somerset and were employed at similar positions at the African American school in Versailles, KY. Mrs. Childs had been a home economics teacher in Somerset. Her 1952-53 salary was $978.61, and Thomas' salary was $1,915.20. While employed in the Versailles Public Schools, Thomas earned his master of fine arts degree from the University of Kentucky in 1954. He was one of the early African American graduate students to attend the school after it became desegregated in 1949.
Also, while in Versailles, Thomas sang second tenor with the Five Royalties. The group was invited to sing at several church events in Somerset. Thomas L. Childs, Sr. and his wife left Versailles and moved to Cincinnati, OH, where the couple's son, Thomas L. Childs, Jr. was born in 1956. Thomas L. Childs, Sr. was a real estate agent with Francis Reality in Cincinnati in 1960. He was also a teacher in Cincinnati, and was named president of the Cincinnati Alumni Chapter of Kentucky State College. The alumni chapter gave scholarships to students who would be attending Kentucky State College.
Thomas Lee Childs, Sr. died in Cincinnati, OH, in 2010 and is buried at the Spring Grove Cemetery. He was born in Lancaster, KY, and the family lived for a brief period in Harrodsburg, KY, before moving to Somerset, KY. Thomas Lee Childs, Sr. was the son of Rev. Rueben Lee Childs and Lillian B. Shipley Childs.
Sources:
"Undefeated season for Dunbar Trojans." The Commonwealth (Somerset, KY), 25 February 1953, p.11; "Dunbar coach awarded 'Coach of the Year' trophy." The Commonwealth (Somerset, KY), 22 April 1953, p.9; "Salaries for school year "1951-52": less required deductions." The Commonwealth (Somerset, KY), 05 August 1953, p.16.
"Paul Lawrence Dunbar Colored School Notes." The Commonwealth (Somerset, KY), 28 October 1920, p.5; "New Dunbar School will be ready for occupancy in March." The Commonwealth (Somerset, KY), 18 February 1942, front page; "100 Negro troops stop here today for lunch." The Commonwealth (Somerset, KY), 17 February 1943, front page; "City schools will open fall semester, Monday, September 6." The Commonwealth (Somerset, KY) 01 September 1943, p.8.
"Dunbar High quintet will open season Friday." The Commonwealth (Somerset, KY), 16 November 1949, section 2, p.5; "Two Kentucky teams in national Negro cage met." The Corbin Daily Tribune, 26 March 1953, p.6; "Paris quints plays Pearl of Nashville." Hopkinsville Kentucky New Era, 28 March, 1953, p.7; "Paris Western crushed Ala. team for title." The State Journal (Frankfort, KY), 30 March 1953, p.4.
"Four Danville men clear Atterbury." The Advocate-Messenger (Danville, KY), 26 February 1946, p.4; "Negro college class to hear N. Y. A. official." The Courier-Journal, 08 June 1941, section 4, p.12; "Dunbar School will graduate 11 tonight." The Commonwealth (Somerset, KY), 27 May 1936, p.10; "Somerset colored boy wins oratorical honors." The Commonwealth (Somerset, KY), 08 April 1936, p.9.
"Dunbar High School 1953-1954 teaching staff." The Commonwealth (Somerset, KY), 15 July 1953, p.15; "Annual financial report Somerset Public Schools. The Commonwealth (Somerset, KY), 21 October 1953, section 3, p.6; "Receives M.A. degree at U.K." The Commonwealth (Somerset, KY), 09 June 1954, p.19; "A large and appreciative audience ..." The Commonwealth (Somerset, KY), 26 January 1955, p.13; "Scholarships." The Cincinnati Post, 08 October 1969, p.60.