None of us fortunate enough to be at Cawood High School in the late summer of 1979 knew we’d still be telling Jim Cullivan stories 40 years later when we first encountered him after he arrived as an assistant football coach.

Photos posted on Facebook earlier this week showed a 98-year-old Cullivan being honored on the 50th anniversary of the Henry County (Tenn.) High School program in Paris, Tenn., where Cullivan returned to after leaving Harlan. He was the school’s first coach in 1969 after coaching before that at one of the schools involved in the merger.

Cullivan told me the story once how he saw a job posting for an assistant at Cawood while at a football camp and was immediately intrigued because he said he’d heard about Harlan, Kentucky most of his life. He applied and was hired as an assistant under Roger Caudill in Caudill’s one and only season at Cawood. Cullivan was in his late 50s at the time but seemed older to most of us, at least he did to me, and he certainly didn’t strike me at the time as the football savant we’d all eventually agree he was in his nine-year tenure as head coach.

Cullivan went on to post a 66-28 record in nine seasons, leading the Trojans to undefeated regular seasons in both 1981 and 1985. Both squads were ranked, at one point during the season, as the No. 1 3A team in Kentucky.

The 81 team fell in the playoffs to Lincoln County, but the 82 squad, led by all-state running back David Hensley, avenged that loss for the last of four district championships in JACHS history. The Trojans may have made a run at a state title if not having the misfortune of somehow being in the same district as Fort Thomas Highlands — just one example of the geographical insanity of the football playoffs during the 1980s

The 85 Trojans lost a heartbreaker to Danville in the district finals, one of three straight losses to a program in the midst of a run as perhaps the best in the state in 3A.

Cullivan didn’t have a losing season in those nine years and had an impact on hundreds of lives with his homespun country humor that he sometimes used to hide what a keenly intelligent man he truly was. “The frost is on the pumpkin,” was one of his favorite quotes and meant it was time for the season to begin. He had nicknames for many of his players and also for the school newspaper sports guy, dubbing me as “Poison Pen” when he discovered I had a little talent as a writer and sports knowledge that clearly surpassed my athletic abilities.

My favorite personal Cullivan story, even though it was no fun at the time, was when he met me at the 50-yard line after a win at Bell County to open the 1986 season. I was back home from EKU and working at the Enterprise by then, but still a student in his mind, I’m sure. Cullivan had read my predictions column earlier that day and was not very happy when he saw me walking toward him with pen and clipboard in hand.

“Poison Pen, you’re the kind of guy who gets coaches fired,” said Cullivan, before I could ask a question. He wasn’t happy that I had earned my nickname by picking his Trojans to finish 9-1 that season, much too much pressure to put on any team, he reasoned. Always a gentleman and a teacher, Cullivan then answered my questions about the game after he had made his point about my column.

It’s clear now Cullivan had an impact on all the players he coached, not to mention many of his students. There was a story from North Carolina last year written by a former player who described what Cullivan meant to them during the mid 1970s before he arrived in Harlan County.

According to Jon Davidson, the Quarterback Club president at Henry County, Cullivan still drives, at least during the day and has breakfast with several involved with the Henry County program. Davidson said Cullivan attended Murray State after completing his service in the army during World War II and played in the 1949 Tangerine Bowl, where the opponent was Sul Ross in Texas, which featured a lineman by the name of Dan Blocker, who played Hoss for many years on Bonanza. He later joined the Murray coaching staff and eventually became the head coach. He also coached at Appalachian State and Eastern Kentucky University, as well as several high schools, before finding his way to Harlan County.

Little did we know back in 1979 that we had a football legend in our midst. He was truly one of a kind, as a coach, teacher and man. It was our good fortune he chose to spend a decade with us in Harlan County. It was a memorable time and a special program led by a unique man who hundreds of aging Trojans will never forget.