Kentucky Mr. Basketball winners have been getting crowned since 1954, and the list reads like a walking tour of the state — coal towns, river cities, Louisville private schools, and one tiny western Kentucky county that just won it twice in three years. The Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation has handed out the award every year since, honoring the state’s top senior boys’ player, and the full list below runs unbroken from the very first winner to this year’s.
The Complete List, Year by Year
Vernon Hatton, Lafayette — 1954
Kenny Kuhn, Louisville Male — 1955
Kelly Coleman, Wayland — 1956
Billy Ray Lickert, Lafayette — 1957
Harry Todd, Earlington — 1958 (co-winner)
Ralph Richardson, Russell County — 1958 (co-winner)
Pat Doyle, North Marshall — 1959
Jeff Mullins, Lafayette — 1960
Randy Embry, Owensboro — 1961
Mike Silliman, Saint Xavier — 1962
Mike Redd, Seneca — 1963
Westley Unseld, Seneca — 1964
Butch Beard, Breckenridge County — 1965
Mike Casey, Shelby County — 1966
Jim McDaniels, Allen County — 1967
Terry Davis, Shelby County — 1968
Ron King, Louisville Central — 1969
Robert Brooks, Richmond Madison — 1970
Jimmy Dan Conner, Anderson County — 1971
Jerry Thurston, Owensboro — 1972
Wesley Cox, Louisville Male — 1973
Jack Givens, Bryan Station — 1974
Dom Fucci, Tates Creek — 1975
Darrell Griffith, Louisville Male — 1976
Jeff Lamp, Ballard — 1977
Doug Schloemer, Holmes — 1978
Dirk Minniefield, Lafayette — 1979
Ervin Stepp, Phelps — 1980
Phil Cox, Cawood — 1981
Todd May, Virgie — 1982
Winston Bennett, Louisville Male — 1983
Steve Miller, Henry Clay — 1984
Tony Kimbro, Seneca — 1985
Rex Chapman, Apollo — 1986
John Pelphrey, Paintsville — 1987
Richie Farmer, Clay County — 1988
Allan Houston, Ballard — 1989
Dwayne Morton, Louisville Central — 1990
Jermaine Brown, Fairdale — 1991
Tic Rogers, Hart County — 1992
Jason Osborne, Louisville Male — 1993
Elton Scott, Marion County — 1994
Charles Thomas, Harlan — 1995
Daymeon Fishback, Greenwood — 1996
Brandon Davenport, Owensboro — 1997
J.R. VanHoose, Paintsville — 1998
Rick Jones, Scott County — 1999
Scott Hundley, Scott County — 2000
Josh Carrier, Bowling Green — 2001
Brandon Stockton, Glasgow — 2002
Ross Neltner, Highlands — 2003
Chris Lofton, Mason County — 2004
Domonic Tilford, Jeffersontown — 2005
Walt Allen, South Laurel — 2006
Steffphon Pettigrew, Elizabethtown — 2007
Darius Miller, Mason County — 2008
Jon Hood, Madisonville-North Hopkins — 2009
Elisha Justice, Shelby Valley — 2010
Anthony Hickey Jr., Christian County — 2011
Nathan Dieudonne, Trinity — 2012
Dominique Hawkins, Madison Central — 2013
Quentin Snider, Ballard — 2014
Camron Justice, Knott County Central — 2015
Carson Williams, Owen County — 2016
Taveion Hollingsworth, Paul Laurence Dunbar — 2017
Trevon Faulkner, Mercer County — 2018
Dontaie Allen, Pendleton County — 2019
Dayvion McKnight, Collins — 2020
Ben Johnson, Lexington Catholic — 2021
Turner Buttry, Bowling Green — 2022
Reed Sheppard, North Laurel — 2023
Travis Perry, Lyon County — 2024
Malachi Moreno, Great Crossing — 2025
Jake Feldhaus, Madison Central — 2026
The Schools That Keep Winning It
Louisville Male leads everybody with five winners — Kenny Kuhn, Wesley Cox, Darrell Griffith, Winston Bennett, and Jason Osborne, spread across four decades. Lafayette is right behind with four: Vernon Hatton, Billy Ray Lickert, Jeff Mullins, and Dirk Minniefield. Owensboro, Ballard, and Seneca have each produced three. Madison Central has two winners just in the last dozen years, and Paintsville’s two — J.R. VanHoose and John Pelphrey — came from a program most of the state associates with one blue-collar mountain town punching way above its size.
Where the Trophy Led
A lot of these names kept playing long after the Kentucky part ended. Wes Unseld and Darrell Griffith both ended up in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Chris Lofton became one of Tennessee’s best shooters ever before a long pro career overseas. Jack Givens scored 41 points in the 1978 NCAA championship game for Kentucky, still one of the great single-game performances in Wildcats history. And the two most recent winners barely need introduction in-state — Travis Perry closed out his high school career as Kentucky’s all-time leading scorer before signing with the Wildcats, and Malachi Moreno led Great Crossing to the program’s first Sweet Sixteen title the same season he won it.
Seventy-three names, seventy-two years, and the list is never actually finished — it just adds one more line every spring.
