Sam Royse reminisces memories of Richardson Stadium after fire

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - Glasgow Scotties baseball head coach Sam Royse has been coaching the Scotties since 1982, but Thursday morning he faced his biggest opponent.

“I hate it for him and all the people of Glasgow because it’s a legacy. It’s a landmark.” Glasgow Fire Chief Joey Rock said.

At about 1:45 am Thursday morning, Richardson Stadium caught fire burning most of the stadium and its wooden grandstand.

The stadium was built in 1957 and is one of two wooden ballparks in the state of Kentucky, in 2018, the field was named Sam Royse Field after the legendary head coach.

“A lot of people think right now we just thought it was the greatest place in the world to play baseball”

For Royse, some of his oldest memories came at the ballpark in Gorin park.

“I started playing in the Glasgow what was it’s called the Glasgow Little League,” Royse said. “It was the Lou Gehrig league for eight years old and there were two fields in town at the time, one, the little park and one we all called the big park (Richardson Stadium).”

When Royse heard the news of the tragedy, he drove right over to the park to witness the fire with his own eyes.

“I got down here and there was nothing to be done. I just kind of stood around and pretty quiet through the whole thing.”

From coaching future major league players to winning district championships at the park, Coach says he was pretty emotional seeing the aftermath.

“I’m sad. I’m very sad, but I’ve had my moments today. I’ve had my moments.”

The baseball season doesn’t begin until February 2023, but coach Royse thinks the Scotties will play there once again.

“We’re going to rebuild, I feel confident we’re going to rebuild there’s going to be baseball here and we hope that it’s gonna be here in the spring.”

Even with a new stadium, the legend of Richardson Stadium and Sam Royse field will live on.

“They’ll talk about the memories and talk about that. That didn’t get burned in the fire. They’re still there.”

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