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.
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 sixth of the 50 sports icons takes us to Southgate’s Jim Bunning, who had a Hall of Fame MLB career that later turned into politics.
JIM BUNNING
Born in Southgate, Bunning would go on to graduate from St. Xavier High School and Xavier University, before embarking upon his Hall of Fame baseball career. He made his Major League Baseball debut as a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers in 1955. His career would run through 1971 and include stops with Detroit, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and again with the Phillies.
His career included a 1964 perfect game for the Phillies, and a 1958 no-hitter for the Tigers (the only pitcher to throw no-hitters in each league at that time). He finished with a record 224-184 with a 3.27 ERA and 2,855 strikeouts in his Major League career. He won more than 100 games in both the American and National League.
Bunning’s sports career was followed by one in politics that began with his election to the Fort Thomas city council in 1977, and then the Kentucky State Senate. In 1983, he was the Republican nominee for Governor of Kentucky, losing to Democrat Martha Layne Collins. In 1986, Bunning was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the 4th District and Northern Kentucky. In 1998, he was elected to the U.S. Senate and reelected in 2004.
Bunning died at 85 in 2017.
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