Monty Joe Lovell

Mountjoy Joseph 'Monty Joe' Lovell (born November 15th, 1945 in Danville, Kentucky) was a high school football coach at Madison High School in Richmond, Kentucky from 1971-81 and at Grant County High School in Dry Ridge, Kentucky from 1988-96.

Background
Lovell's unusual first name (Mountjoy) comes from his mother's family. Dorothy Mountjoy Lovell was the first-cousin of legendary Kentucky prep football coach, Rice Mountjoy. Mountjoy built a powerhouse at Danville (1927-40) and later coached at Dixie Heights and Boone County. The football fields at Danville and Boone County are named after him.

Lovell's two uncles (J. B. 'Jake' Mountjoy and Lawrence B. Mountjoy) also served as high school coaches. J. B. was football and basketball coach at Williamsburg High School in Whitley County, Kentucky from 1951-58 while Lawrence won two state championships in basketball (1958 and 1960) at McRae-Helena High School in Telfair County, Georgia. The gymnasium at Williamsburg is named after J. B. Mountjoy. Lawrence has been honored by the Atlanta Tip-off club for his accomplishments.

Richmond Madison

Lovell was successful in bringing the Royal Purples' program back to the level that Madison attained when his former high school coach Roy Kidd was at the helm 1956-61. He inherited a Madison football program that had gone 16-33-1 over five seasons (1966-70).

A quarterback, halfback and defensive back at Madison from 1960-63, Lovell was a sophomore back-up quarterback behind former Kentucky letterman Talbott Todd on Kidd's 1961 13-1 Class AA Kentucky state runner-up squad. He also played basketball at Madison and was the captain of the 1963-64 Purples' team coached by Ray Vencill, Jr. (twice a Kentucky Sweet Sixteen state-runner-up basketball coach at Madison in 1970 and Elizabethtown in 1972).

At age 25, Lovell won his first district title as Madison went 7-4 in his initial year as head coach (1971)
. In his eleven-year tenure, the small Richmond school enjoyed eight winning seasons and won four KHSAA Class A district titles. Lovell led the Royal Purples to a 12-1 record in his second season and was voted the top football coach in Class A division by the Louisville Courier-Journal, the AP and UPI. That team was also champion of the 16-team Central Kentucky Conference. They defeated Jake Bell's Lexington Henry Clay Blue Devils 34-7 in the title game. The Purples were upset 19-10 by Joe Jaggers' eventual Class A state champion Trigg County team in the state semi-finals at Hopkinsville. The 1972 Royal Purples outscored their opponents 470-78 and were the second winningest team in Richmond Madison's 88-year football history behind Roy Kidd's 13-1 KHSAA Class AA state-runner up squad of 1961.

Lovell's 1975 team went 11-1 and were champions of the CKC Bowl game (defeating Jessamine County 35-18). Their lone loss was to Alvis Johnson's talented Harrodsburg Pioneer team led by future University of Kentucky stars Venus Meaux and Henry Parks as well as Eastern Kentucky standout fullback Nicky Yeast.

Faced with a monumental rebuilding task in 1977 (against a schedule that featured nine playoff-bound teams), Lovell's Purples went 1-10 with a predominantly sophomore-laden squad. The experience paid off the next two years, though, as Madison went 9-4 and 10-3 in 1978 and 1979. The Purples finished as a state semi-finalist and state runner-up in those respective seasons. Richmond Madison fell to eventual state champion Ft. Campbell 20-14 in 1978 and to state champion Bellevue 7-0 in 1979. In , Lovell was again voted the top coach in Class A by the Courier.

Lovell's early teams were considered 'giant-killers' by the central Kentucky media as the small Richmond school (less than 180 students in the upper three grades) defeated Lexington Henry Clay four times and Lexington Lafayette three times in a five-year span (1971-75). After the fifth week of the 1972 season, Madison was ranked second in the entire state (all classes) by the Louisville Courier-Journal's Litkenhous rating system (behind Louisville Trinity). Lovell's '71 and '72 squads were both featured as the high school team of the week by the Courier which in turn brought state-wide acclaim to a program that had suffered through five seasons of mediocre results.

One of Lovell's former players (Kenny Turner) is currently the head football coach at perennial Kentucky football powerhouse Madison Central. His quarterback from the '72 squad (Velmar Miller) is Central's defensive coordinator. Richmond Madison was consolidated with Madison Central in the fall of 1989.

Grant County

Lovell retired from coaching after the 1981 season, but re-emerged at Grant County High School. The Braves had never fielded a football team, but Lovell started a junior varsity program there in the fall of 1988 and began participating at the varsity level in 1991. Lovell coached at Grant County through the 1996 season. He became an assistant principal at Grant County in 1997 and retired in 2004 after 34 years of service in public education.

Lovell's Assistant Coaches

Warfield Miller, Jr. (Defensive Coordinator 1971-1980) (former teammate)

Gary Compton (Line Coach 1971)

Steve Kochin (Line Coach 1972-76)

John Freeman (Freshmen Coach 1972-78) (former basketball coach at Richmond High School 1951-55)

Danny Turner (Linebacker Coach 1974-75)

Bailey Norris (Linebacker Coach 1976-80 Defensive Coordinator 1981) (former teammate)

Inman Sherman (Receiver Coach 1976)

John Revere (Receiver Coach 1977) (current EKU assistant coach)

Mike Elkin (Offensive Coordinator 1978-80) (former teammate)

Bill Bailey (Volunteer Assistant 1978) (former Hapeville High School, Georgia coach)

Velmar Miller (Receivers and Defensive Back Coach 1979-80 Offensive Coordinator 1981) (former player)

Eugene Newsome (Freshmen Coach 1980-81)

John Lovell (Volunteer Assistant 1976-81) (former player and younger brother)

Former Players signed to play in college

Howard Miller - tackle; all-CKC in 1971; signed with Roy Kidd at Eastern Kentucky

Robbie Morton - tackle; all-state in 1971 and 1972; signed with Bill Battle at Tennessee; named Kentucky High School Lineman of the Year in 1972;

Velmar Miller - quarterback; all-CKC in 1972; signed with Roy Terry at Morehead

Darnell Hill - fullback; all-CKC in 1972; signed with Roy Terry at Morehead

Hubert Broaddus - halfback; all-CKC in 1972; signed with Roy Kidd at Eastern

Jimmy Mundy - halfback; all-CKC in 1972; signed with Roy Kidd at Eastern Kentucky

Clarence 'Dog' Gentry - all-CKC in 1973; wide receiver; signed with Jimmy Feix at Western Kentucky

Kenny Turner - halfback - all-state in 1975; signed with Wayne Chapman at Morehead

John Mundy - noseguard; all-state in 1975; signed with Roy Kidd at Eastern Kentucky

Wendell 'Moose' Dean - halfback; all-state in 1976; signed with John Cooper at Tulsa

Eddie Simmons - wide receiver; all-state in 1978 and 1979; signed with Fran Curci at Kentucky

Keith Bosley - tackle; all-state in 1980 and 1981; signed with Roy Kidd at Eastern Kentucky; all-OVC in 1983, 1984, and 1985; Cleveland Browns - NFL 1986

Year-by-Year Record at Richmond Madison

1971 Won 7 lost 4 (Class A Region II District II Champion)

1972 Won 12 Lost 1 (Class A Region II Champion, Region II District II Champion, State Semi-Finalist, Central Kentucky Conference Champion)

1973 Won 8 Lost 3 (Laurel Bowl Champion)

1974 Won 4 Lost 6

1975 Won 11 Lost 1 (Central Kentucky Conference Bowl Champion, Class A Region II District II Runner-Up)

1976 Won 5 lost 4

1977 Won 1 lost 10

1978 Won 9 Lost 4 ((Class A Region II Champion, Region II District II Champion, State Semi-Finalist)

1979 Won 10 Lost 3 (Class A Region II Champion, Region II District II Champion, State Runner-Up)

1980 Won 7 lost 4 (Optimist Bowl Champion)

1981 Won 3 Lost 8

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