COACH ERNIE SIMPSON is one of the 2024 inductees into the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame. Simpson was raised in Shelby County and — unsurprisingly — played high school basketball. He then went on to contribute his playing skills at Kentucky Wesleyan College.
“After being involved with basketball all my life, my next step was coaching. That’s where I went,” Simpson related matter-of-factly.
He began his coaching career as an assistant boys basketball coach at Henry County High School. He became the head coach at the now-defunct Lincoln School, a school for gifted, underprivileged children, and then helmed Morgan- field’s Union County High School’s team for seven years.
In 1977, Simpson worked as an assistant coach at the University of Evansville in Indiana. Sent by the head coach on a recruiting mission, he missed the team’s next game and their airplane flight on Dec. 13 — a flight that made tragic history when it crashed, killing 14 team members, friends of the team, the coach, and the plane crew, for a horrifying total of 29 fatalities.
He then began a long tenure as the boys basketball head coach for the Bowling Green High School Purples, which ended with his retirement in 2001.
His induction into the hall of fame requires no explanation. The stats tell the story: Ernie Simpson had 562 career wins, with victoriesin over 70% of his teams’ games. He shepherded three teams to the high school state tournament — Union County, Ashland, and Bowling Green (twice). Simpson was the Courier-Journal Coach of the Year for the 1998–99 season, in which the Bowling Green Purples ended the season with a record of 27-0. At the time of his retirement, he was Kentucky’s winningest active high school basketball coach. Today, he ranks as the 17th all-time winningest high school coach.
His legacy of 29 years of head coaching was far-reaching and active — the ripple effect of players under his wing going out to all corners of the basketball world. Simpson coached Dwane Casey, the former Detroit Pistons head coach, who will be inducted into the hall of fame this year. In 2001, the Kentucky Mr. Basketball designation — an honor bestowed upon the state’s best high school player — went to Josh Carrier of the Simpson-led Purples. Simpson also coached Kevin Willard, the head coach of men’s basketball at the University of Maryland. Four of his players played at the University of Kentucky, and he coached over 25 players who were recipients of athletic scholarships. His former players have coached for a wide array of teams. And it is also a family legacy as well. All three of his sons shared a passion for the sport, and all three played college basketball — Cannon played at Georgetown College, Matthew played at Transylvania University in Lexington, and his youngest son, Casey, is now a coach at Campbellsville University.
The demands of coaching are extensive and far-ranging — the essence of multitasking. Simpson is modest and concise when it comes time to codify any sort of guiding principle or rubric.
“I was just myself. I was raised on a family farm with [my] three brothers. We all believed in doing our part. My parents were great disciplinarians who had us [attend] school, do well, and treat everybody fairly. So that’s where I got most of it from.”
He could have continued as a coach, but after over 30 years of coaching and teaching, he asserted, “Sometimes you just know when it’s time. I could have coached a little bit longer, but this really worked out for the best.”
He still follows the basketball world closely, and his life as a retiree is the essence of rural. Simpson lives on a 40-acre family farm.
“[I’ve] got a few cows — I talk to them every now and again! It’s relaxing! After coaching all those years … those cows — they don’t talk back!”
It seems a very fitting and well-deserved retirement as Ernie Simpson formally enters the annals of the hall of fame, joining a very select group of individuals who have, over time, made immense contributions. GN
