Fan interest has waned to the point that games that were once played at massive Freedom Hall are now at 3,000-seat Knights Hall on the Bellarmine University campus, the series' fourth different Kentucky home in six years.
"I don't really understand why it is that way," Webb said. "It was such a big deal at the time. It's very disappointing to see what's happened to it over the years."
Webb said he was thrilled to be part of the series and to get to know the players he helped coach.
"I still enjoy talking about it with people, and I still stay in contact with some of them," he said.
Webb was the coach at Estill County at the time, although he would take the job at Logan County two days after the last all-star game, and he was named as the assistant to Carl Wenderoth of Scott on the all-star staff.
Their team split its two games with Indiana, winning the first game in Indianapolis as the backcourt of Houston, who was Kentucky's Mr. Basketball and later an NBA all-star, Ford and Mike Allen combined for 80 points in a 102-98 overtime victory.
"I was in charge of the defense, and we held them to 98, so I must have done a pretty good job," Webb joked.
Kentucky's powerful three-guard combination was "held" to 59 points in the second game, a 96-88 loss.
Kentucky had a slew of major-college recruits: Houston went to Tennessee, Ford played at Missouri and later at Kentucky, Allen went to Georgia and then moved to Southwestern Louisiana, and the team also included Troy Smith (Louisville), Dan Hall (Vanderbilt), Sam Liberatore (New Mexico State), Allen Polley (TCU) and Sean Hammonds (Wright State).
Impressive opponents
But its opponent was also well-stocked with a roster that included its Mr. Basketball, Pat Graham, who went to play at Indiana along with fellow all-stars Greg Graham, Todd Leary, Chris Lawson and Calbert Cheaney, who missed the all-star games with an injury. That team also included Matt Painter (Purdue), Tony McGee (Michigan football) and Casey Schmidt (Arizona and Valparaiso).
"I'm sure they thought there was no way they were going to get beat," Webb said.
He said an even more impressive team was the group of Indiana schoolboy legends who were honored at a banquet that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Indiana all-star teams and sat courtside at Market Square Arena.
Players such as Oscar Robertson, George McGinnis, Jimmy Rayl and Kent Benson were seated just a couple of tables away at the banquet inside the Hoosier Dome, where Webb was the third person introduced.
"They shined the (spot)light on me, and I was thinking, 'I've come a long way for a guy from Estill County,'" he said.
Webb's memories include returning to the team hotel late one night after traveling to an interview at Logan and finding Houston alone in the team's hospitality suite. Houston was in a talking mood, and Webb soon learned that Houston had just been released from the letter-of-intent he signed with Louisville so he could play at Tennessee, where his father, Wade, had recently been hired.
"He was really tickled," Webb said. "He's the type of kid you want to pull for. One reason we were pretty competitive was because Allan was a heck of a leader. He was not only our best player, but he was an outstanding kid."
Webb said he was impressed by how hard all of the all-stars practiced and played, and he said he and Wenderoth "really meshed very well together."
By participating in the all-star games, Webb also shared a special link with his father, who had played on the 1945 Kentucky team that was the first to beat Indiana.
Webb spent three years at Estill after stints at Bell and Harrison counties and as an assistant at Georgetown College, and he coached at Logan for four years before getting into school administration in 1993, when he took a job as principal at Harrodsburg Middle School.
He said he still keeps in touch with some of the all-stars occasionally and runs into others from time to time, and he still loves to look back on those three weeks.
"It's one of those things where you don't really appreciate it until it's done," he said.
