Harlan High School Names Gymnasium After ‘Wah Wah’ Jones
Published 12:13 pm Saturday, January 29, 2022
- The floor at Harlan High School not only has a shiny look, it has a sparkling new name as well. The gymnasium has been named after Green Dragon great Wallace "Wah Wah" Jones. The gym was scheduled to be dedicated this past weekend during the E.R. "Doc" Gray Classic. (Photo by Paul Lunsford)
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Harlan all-stater Wallace “Wah Wah” Jones holds Harlan County and 13th Region records for most points in one game with 68 against Artemus on Nov. 30, 1943.
Jones helped lead the Green Dragons to the 1944 state prep title. Jones graduated from Harlan in 1945 and went on to play for the University of Kentucky.
He was all-stater in football, basketball and baseball.
The Harlan High School gymnasium has been named in Jones’ honor.
Jones scored 2,311 points in high school career at HHS and tallied 1,511 points at Kentucky, which included Adolph Rupp’s first two NCAA championships in 1948 and 1949.
During his four years at Kentucky, the basketball team had a combined record of 130-10 and won the SEC championship every year.
He passed away in Lexington on July 27, 2014, at the age of 88.
Jones was once a Dragon and will always be a Dragon!
Jones’ banner also hangs in the gymnasium, along with Gray, coach Joe Gilley, coach Mike Jones, players Charles Thomas and Todd Cox, as well as Debbie Hoskins, Tiffany Hamm, coach Debbie Brown and others.
According to one official with Harlan Independent Schools, a girls basketball banner could be the next banner to appear in the “Wah Wah” Jones Gymnasium.
Sports contributor Paul Lunsford wrote this story for the Harlan Enterprise.
