Lynn Holladay. | Clif Knight

Clif Knight

Hartselle Enquirer

“History, Stats and Stories of Morgan County Basketball 1945-1973” is the title of a new books written and self-published recently by Lynn Holladay, a former all-star basketball player at Danville High and Athens State College.

“There will never be another book this complete and accurate,” said Holladay after spending a year collecting basketball information from university archives, newspaper articles, yearbooks, libraries, published books and university web sites.

A retired educator, Holladay said he was drawn to writing his book because of a passion for Morgan County basketball and a desire to set the record straight as far as the contributions of players and coaches are concerned.

In the foreword of the book, Holladay wrote:  “A few years ago, I served on the board of directors of the Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame and was amazed at the lack of accurate information available to board members when voting for the induction of individuals into the Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame. Resumes were submitted and averages would be listed and I new that they were inflated or an “estimate or best guess.” Board members would make their decision on this “estimate or best guess,” or the board member who did the best job of lobbying for the prospective inductee. I saw the need for statistical information in order that board members could make an informed decision.”

He also referenced a book about Morgan County basketball that was published in 2014 and listed nine factual errors to illustrate a concern that the book was making history rather than reporting history.

Holladay said he chose the 1945-1973 time frame for his book because so many Morgan County high schools won state championships during that era.

In the 331 pages of his book, Holladay covers the basketball achievements of West Morgan, Austin, Austinville, Danville, Hartselle, Priceville, Falkville, Cotaco, Brewer, Eva,  Union Hill and Ryan. Included are team record as well as those school, individual player as well as statistics for players and coaches.

“When I began researching, I thought I would get everything on 100 pages,” Holladay said. “To my surprise, information kept coming and I had a hard time finding a place to stop.”

The book contains 89 stories about players and events, team and individual information for all schools, a list of All-County, All-District, all-TVC, All-Area and All-State players, county scoring leaders by year, school scoring records, state tournaments, best Morgan County coaches and Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame.

Holladay’s book is available online at Lynn.holladay@ymail.com,k or he will take orders at (256) 683-4118