The history of sports in Northern Kentucky goes back a long way. A very long way. Decades. Centuries.
We know you’ve seen these lists before, but this is a different and unique way of presenting our “50 sports icons in Northern Kentucky” as we’ll provide you one per day over the next 50 days. And the last one is the one you voted for!
Hall of Fames are everywhere in NKY, the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame, High School Athletic Directors Hall of Fame, NKU, Thomas More and local high schools all have something to recognize their past.
We’ll preface this series by saying this, some of you may disagree with who should or shouldn’t be in the top 50 and that’s fine. Plenty are in the Hall of Very Good, but we feel these 50 are the one’s who stuck out to us.
Sports Editor Evan Dennison spoke and conferred with several local NKY sports history buffs to get their opinions and lists of their own and who should be “locks” for the 50 sports icons. We compiled each list and came up with the 50 of our own (maybe cheated a little by putting families in as one) to present over the next 50 days.
Hope you enjoy as summer time rolls on!
The 50th of the 50 sports icons is Mike Bankemper, the longtime Campbell County wrestling coach.
MIKE BANKEMPER
Maybe he should be dubbed “Mike Bancamel”. Mike Bankemper has dedicated nearly five decades to Campbell County High School. A 1976 grad of Campbell County, after attending Northern Kentucky University, Bankemper coached wrestling at Campbell County for 42 years.
Bankemper wrestled for both programs at Campbell County and NKU, he also taught at the high school for over 30 years and coached cross country. He was the head wrestling coach for 40 years, retiring in 2022. A man of many hats, he was also the Athletic Director for nine years.
During the 40 seasons as head coach, the Camels won four state championships in 1990, ’91, 2004 and ’12. The 1991 team was ranked No. 24 nationally by USA Wrestling. Bankemper also led Campbell County to five state runner-up finishes and in the top ten 29 times. The Camels won the Northern Kentucky Athletic Conference 24 times and finished second eight times. Campbell County also won 18 region championships and finished runner-up 15 times.
Individually, Bankemper coached 27 state champions, 59 state finalists, 191 state placers and 10 high school All-Americans. Seven wrestlers went on to compete at the NCAA Division I level.
Bankemper’s awards include the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Coach of the Year in 2016, the National Wrestling Coaches Association Region 4 Coach of the Year in 2004, the Kentucky Wrestling Coaches Association Coach of the Year honor three times in 1990, 1991 and 1994 and was twice an NHSACA Coach of the Year finalist in 2007 and 2013. He’s been inducted into the Northern Kentucky Sports, Northern Kentucky Directors of Athletics and the Kentucky Wrestling Coaches Association Halls of Fame.
See the 50 sports icons on a day-to-day basis over the next 50 days
— Day 1: Dave Cowens
— Day 2: Shaun Alexander
— Day 3: Homer Rice
— Day 4: Dicky Beal
— Day 5: Jared Lorenzen
— Day 6: Jim Bunning
— Day 7: Tom Ellis
— Day 8: Nate Dusing
— Day 9: Jim Connor
— Day 10: Steve Cauthen
— Day 11: Irv Goode
— Day 12: Stan Steidel
— Day 13: Kenney Shields
— Day 14: David Justice
— Day 15: Morgan Hentz
— Day 16: Eddie Arcaro
— Day 17: Nancy Winstel
— Day 18: Steve Flesch
— Day 19: Donna Murphy
— Day 20: Randy Marsh
— Day 21: Mike Yeagle
— Day 22: Derrick Barnes
— Day 23: Dale Mueller
— Day 24: Dave Faust
— Day 25: Kirsten Allen
— Day 26: The Oldendick family
— Day 27: Martin “Mote” Hils
— Day 28: Nell Fookes
— Day 29: Owen Hauck
— Day 30: Becky Ruehl
— Day 31: Tom Thacker
— Day 32: Sydney Moss
— Day 33: Bob Schneider
— Day 34: The Walz family
— Day 35: John Toebben
— Day 36: Pat Scott
— Day 37: Bob Arnzen
— Day 38: Joan Mazzaro
— Day 39: Frank Jacobs
— Day 40: Adrienne Hundemer
— Day 41: The Draud family
— Day 42: Bill Krumpelbeck
— Day 43: The Molony family
— Day 44: Allen Feldhaus
— Day 45: The Maile family
— Day 46: Maureen Egan Corl
— Day 47: Bill Aker
— Day 48: Maureen Kaiser
— Day 49: John Brannen
— Day 50: Mike Bankemper