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 ones 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 23rd of the 50 sports icons highlights Highlands’ Dale Mueller, the owner of the most football state championships out of Northern Kentucky.
DALE MUELLER
Dale Mueller is second all-time in KHSAA history with 11 state football championships. He graduated from Highlands in 1973 and was a two-sport athlete and team captain for the baseball and football teams and was named All-State in his senior year for both sports.
Mueller then went to Cornell University, playing baseball for the Big Red for three seasons. After getting a degree from Xavier in secondary education, he began his coaching career at Newport and Western Hills as an assistant.
He landed at Withrow in Cincinnati and Sycamore before becoming the Highlands head coach in 1994 where the say, the rest is history…
In 20 seasons under Mueller, Highlands went 250-36 with 11 state titles and 14 state championship game appearances. The first state championship for the Bluebirds under Mueller came in 1996 over Hopkinsville. The Bluebirds ended up winning four state championships in five years after a loss to Covington Catholic in the 1997 playoffs known as the “Mud Bowl.” Jared Lorenzen quarterbacked the undefeated 1998 team and Gino Guidugli the 1999 and 2000 squads that lost just once each year. The Bluebirds pulled off a state record six consecutive state championships starting in 2007. They finished the season ranked nationally eight times and as high as third in 2009 in the USA Today Prep Poll. He finished his career with an overall record of 309-67.
He won numerous coaching awards: the Louisville Courier Journal Kentucky Coach of the Year, Cincinnati Bengals Coach of the Year, Marvin Lewis Coach of the Year, the Paul Brown Excellence in Coaching Award, Russell Athletic National Coach of the Year, and the National Federation of High Schools National Coach of the Year.
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