Henry “Buddy” Martin

For generations of Corbin athletes, coaches and fans, Henry “Buddy” Martin was more than someone sitting in the stands. He was part of the experience itself. From Campbell Field to Gilliam Gymnasium, from championship games to middle school contests, Martin spent a lifetime supporting the Redhounds and became known throughout Corbin by a title that needed little explanation: Mr. Redhound.

Some people are remembered by the games they played. Others are remembered by the teams they coached, the championships they won or the records they set.

Henry “Buddy” Martin built his Redhound legacy a different way.

He showed up.

For decades, if Corbin was playing football or basketball, there was a good chance Buddy Martin was somewhere nearby wearing red, encouraging the players, talking with coaches, telling stories about teams from years earlier and eventually delivering the familiar cry that became inseparable from the man himself.

“Go Big Red!”

To generations of Corbin athletes, Buddy was not simply another fan. He became part of the fabric of Corbin High School athletics, a connection between the Redhounds of the past and the young men and women putting on a Corbin uniform in the present.

His relationship with the Redhounds began long before anyone called him Mr. Redhound.

Martin grew up in Corbin, the son of Henry and Lou Martin, and began following Corbin football as a young boy. He later recalled seeing his first Redhound football game when he was only six years old. Growing up on Gordon Hill, he would walk to Campbell Field on Friday nights to watch Corbin play.

What started as a childhood fascination became a lifelong devotion.

Martin grew up watching some of the names that helped establish Corbin’s early athletic tradition. He remembered the Bird brothers. He remembered the Selvys. He remembered the great teams, players and games that became part of the town’s history. Football was not simply something Buddy watched on Friday nights. He absorbed it.

Years later, those around him marveled at his ability to recall old games, touchdowns, players and moments from decades earlier. Long before old film could be pulled up instantly or scores could be found on a website, Buddy Martin carried an extraordinary amount of Redhound history around in his head.

He had lived much of it.

A Redhound Himself

Martin graduated from Corbin High School in 1954 and was more than a spectator during his school years. He played both football and basketball during his freshman and sophomore years, giving him an understanding of what it meant to represent Corbin as an athlete before eventually becoming one of the school’s most recognizable supporters.

Following graduation, Martin became the first of Henry and Lou Martin’s children to attend college. He enrolled at Eastern Kentucky University, where he earned an accounting degree in 1958 while completing four years of Army ROTC.

He was commissioned as a second lieutenant and served at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. At Fort Knox, Martin earned the Draper Leadership Trophy for tank crew proficiency. By the time he completed his three years of military service, he had risen to first lieutenant.

Corbin, however, remained home.

Martin returned and established Henry M. Martin Tax Accounting, operating the business from 1959 until 1974 before becoming involved in other successful business ventures, including coal and real estate.

His professional career was only one part of his contribution to Corbin.

Martin served on the Corbin Board of Education from 1972 through 1980, a period that included important development within the school system. He played a role in the construction of the new Corbin High School and supported efforts to create a quality performing arts facility. He was also a strong advocate for honoring Dr. L.U. Gilliam by placing his name on the high school gymnasium.

For Buddy, supporting Corbin athletics was never isolated from supporting Corbin’s schools and its students.

That philosophy could be summarized in three simple words he used often:

“For the kids.”

More Than a Friday Night Fan

It would have been easy for someone with Buddy Martin’s love of Corbin football to focus only on varsity Friday nights.

Buddy didn’t.

He attended seventh and eighth grade games. He watched freshmen. He watched junior varsity games. He followed boys basketball and girls basketball. He supported athletes who played under the biggest lights and those whose names might never appear in a newspaper headline.

That distinction says more about Buddy Martin than almost anything else.

He wasn’t there simply because Corbin was winning.

He was there because Corbin kids were playing.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Martin coached Little League. Later, he served as president of the Redhound Boosters during the late 1980s and into the 1990s, continuing to find ways to support Corbin athletes beyond simply buying a ticket.

Coaches knew him. Players knew him. Parents knew him. Cheerleaders knew him.

And eventually, almost everyone knew Mr. Redhound.

Whether he was joining the Corbin cheerleaders in the spirit line, sitting among the Gilliam Goonies or making his presence known somewhere around the football program, Buddy brought an energy that made it difficult to miss him.

The red clothing certainly helped.

But it was the enthusiasm people remembered.

Buddy didn’t quietly admire the Redhounds.

He celebrated them.

A Witness to Redhound History

Few people could claim the perspective on Corbin athletics that Buddy Martin accumulated over his lifetime.

He watched Corbin football as a child. He later became a Redhound athlete himself. As an adult, he watched new generations replace the ones before them. Coaches changed. Players graduated. Stadiums evolved. Classifications changed. New rivalries developed and old ones endured.

Buddy remained.

By the time Corbin reached the Class 3A state championship game in 2018, WYMT visited Corbin to tell the story of a football tradition that had been built across generations.

When the television station wanted to illustrate just how deep that tradition ran, one of the people it interviewed was Buddy Martin.

“I saw my first Corbin football game when I was six years old,” Martin said.

He then added a statement that perfectly summarized his relationship with the program.

“Never missed one since then.”

It would be difficult to find a better description of Mr. Redhound.

By 2018, Buddy had watched Corbin football for roughly eight decades.

He had watched the legendary names of earlier generations and the players who followed them. He had witnessed championship teams, postseason heartbreak, rivalry victories, rebuilding seasons and everything between.

He reportedly attended every Corbin football state championship game during his lifetime and every semifinal involving the Redhounds.

His devotion wasn’t restricted to football.

Basketball was another major part of his Redhound life. Martin followed both the boys and girls programs and attended Kentucky’s Sweet Sixteen basketball tournaments throughout his life.

There was always another game to watch.

And another Redhound to encourage.

The Gathering of the Hounds

One of Martin’s favorite connections to Corbin football history came through a group of men whose accomplishments had become part of Redhound lore.

Members of Corbin’s celebrated 1955 state championship team held a yearly reunion known as the “Gathering of the Hounds.”

Buddy graduated a year before that championship season and had not been a member of the team, but the players made him an honorary member of their group.

It was exactly where he belonged.

The gatherings provided Buddy with an opportunity to do something he loved almost as much as watching the Redhounds play: talk about the Redhounds.

Old games were revisited. Players were remembered. Stories were told again. Details that might have disappeared with time remained alive around the table.

In many ways, Buddy served as an unofficial keeper of Corbin athletic memory.

He understood something that eventually becomes obvious in communities with great athletic traditions.

Championship trophies alone do not preserve history.

People do.

Stories do.

Former players gathering decades later and remembering what it felt like to wear the uniform do.

And people such as Buddy Martin, who listened to those stories and carried them forward, do.

Mr. Redhound

In 1993, Martin was inducted into the Redhound Hall of Fame.

It was appropriate recognition for someone whose contribution to Corbin athletics cannot be measured through a box score.

There is no statistic for showing up to a seventh-grade game.

There is no school record for encouraging a teenager after a difficult loss.

There is no championship trophy awarded for decades spent supporting coaches, boosters and young athletes.

There is no official category for remembering players long after their final game.

But those things matter.

Perhaps that is why “Mr. Redhound” became such an appropriate title.

It wasn’t ceremonial. It had been earned through repetition.

One Friday night after another.

One basketball game after another.

One generation after another.

Buddy watched children become players, players become graduates, graduates become parents and sometimes coaches, and then watched their children put on Corbin uniforms of their own.

Through it all, the message rarely changed.

Go Big Red.

“There Isn’t Anyone Mean Enough to Beat CHS”

Buddy’s loyalty to Corbin could occasionally produce the kind of declaration that only a true fan could make.

During the 2018 television feature before Corbin played Central for the Class 3A state championship, Buddy offered his assessment of the Redhounds’ chances.

“There isn’t anyone mean enough to beat CHS.”

It was classic Buddy Martin.

This wasn’t analysis.

It wasn’t a prediction based on statistics.

It was something much more familiar to anyone who has ever loved a team with their whole heart.

Faith.

To Buddy Martin, the Redhounds always had a chance because they were the Redhounds.

That attitude endeared him to generations of Corbin players. They knew the man in red wasn’t evaluating them according to the scoreboard.

He believed in them because they represented his school and his hometown.

A Life Built Around Corbin

Buddy’s world was much larger than athletics.

He and his wife, June Cannon Martin, were married for more than 62 years. Together they traveled to all 50 states and numerous foreign countries. Buddy visited the Holy Land and Jerusalem seven times and was deeply committed to his Christian faith.

He taught an adult Sunday school class at Northside Baptist Church in Corbin, where his brother served as pastor for 15 years. He studied the Bible daily and viewed faith as a central part of his life.

He was also a husband, father and grandfather whose family remained at the center of everything.

But no matter how far Buddy traveled, Kentucky remained special.

He sometimes referred to his home state as “Heaven on Earth.”

And within Kentucky, Corbin remained home.

The red never went away.

What Mr. Redhound Represented

Every great high school athletic program has people whose impact is difficult to explain to someone from outside the community.

They aren’t necessarily coaches.

They aren’t necessarily administrators.

They aren’t always former stars.

Sometimes they are simply the people who make the program feel like something larger than a collection of seasons and scores.

Buddy Martin was one of those people.

He represented continuity.

A Corbin football player walking onto Campbell Field decades after Buddy first made that childhood walk from Gordon Hill was participating in the same tradition Buddy had watched almost his entire life.

The names changed.

The uniforms changed.

The coaches changed.

Buddy kept cheering.

That mattered because high school sports are ultimately about more than championships. They create connections between people who may have attended the same school 50 or 60 years apart but immediately understand one another when they talk about Friday nights, Gilliam Gymnasium, Campbell Field or wearing Corbin across their chest.

Buddy understood that bond perhaps better than anyone.

He lived it for most of his life.

For the Kids

Of all the things associated with Henry “Buddy” Martin, perhaps his personal motto best explains why he belongs among the legends of Corbin athletics.

“For the kids.”

Those words put everything else into perspective.

The school board service.

The booster club work.

The Little League coaching.

The middle school games.

The freshman games.

The junior varsity games.

The varsity games.

The encouragement.

The support for coaches.

The championships attended.

The players remembered decades after they graduated.

Buddy Martin loved Corbin athletics, but more importantly, he loved the young people wearing Corbin uniforms.

He understood that another generation was always coming.

There would always be another player experiencing his first Friday night under the lights. Another basketball player running onto the floor at Gilliam Gymnasium. Another child sitting in the stands dreaming about the day it might be them.

Buddy had once been that six-year-old boy walking from Gordon Hill to Campbell Field.

He never forgot what those nights meant.

Nearly eight decades later, he was still there.

Still wearing red.

Still encouraging the kids.

Still remembering the ones who came before them.

Still believing in the ones playing now.

Still shouting the words that generations of Redhounds heard from Mr. Redhound.

Go Big Red.