The Dirt Bowl in Louisville is in its 55th year. Future college basketball stars and NBA players have played in these games for decades.
Shawnee Park will be the site of several playoff and championship games this Saturday and Sunday, with match-ups between junior players, women, men and seniors.
LPM’s Giselle Rhoden spoke with the tournament’s lead organizer and announcer Ravon Churchill ahead of this weekend’s championship games.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What made you want to become one of the lead organizers and an announcer?
Actually, being an announcer was one of my first dreams. I used to sit nights to watch the legendary, the great, the iconic Cornell Bradley [when he was a] young guy. And I would go down there and I was like, “There’s good players, but he's the most entertaining part of the Dirt Bowl.” So I was like, “Huh, I would really love to do that.” I was about 10 or 11 years old when I figured that out. And then it just kind of evolved. I was a spectator. I was a player, I was a coach. And then, one day Cornell had another assignment. I got the mic, and I've been rocking with it ever since. So almost 20 years now that I've been doing a little bit of stuff on a mic.
So you grew up around the Dirt Bowl?
Absolutely. I remember going to the Dirt Bowl. One of my earliest memories was at four years old. I remember the first time I ever saw my father, my biological father. The first memory that I have of seeing him was at the Dirt Bowl.
In the audio documentary called “I Said Bang!”: The History of the Dirt Bowl, you mentioned that the Dirt Bowl didn't happen for a few years in the 2000s. So what happened?
There was a number of things like our mayoral administration. It was changing. The temperature in the city had changed. So it was some violent times early on, there was a couple other things too, just like finances, who was going to be backing it, who's going to be supporting it financially. And then, it was about a two by two- or three-year stretch that we didn't have it. Then, Mayor Greg Fischer came in and right before he was elected as a mayor, he would come down to the park and he would be like, “Man, I promise you if I get elected mayor, the Dirt Bowl is going to come back because I remember coming to the Dirt Bowl.” And he kept his word. They were able to bring it back around 2012, and we've been rocking ever since.
What's it been like this summer, just watching all these people play?
This summer has been great, wonderful, fantastic, stupendous. All those words that you can come up with. Not necessarily unexpected. I expected it to be like this. I just didn't know it was going to be like this this year. We would have a target date of 2025. We wanted to be back to what it was. But, I think this year has been a phenomenal year. As far as everything involved, like the talent on the 24 teams that we have. The women wanting to be a part of it like begging to play like, “We want to be in.” The Junior Dirt Bowl teams and their parents and their grandparents and aunts and uncles and they come down on Saturday morning. And they really get into it. Then the crowds though. The Dirt Bowl is not just about the basketball games. The Dirt Bowl is about the culture, like the West End and basketball. It's a culture that's involved with it. But it's not just for the West End, it’s for the entire city. But the culture was cultivated in the West End. And there’s a culture about the Dirt Bowl, like the smell, the sounds, the people. You go down and sometimes you don't even watch the basketball game.
Is that kind of what makes the Dirt Bowl so special to you and to everyone that goes?
Yeah. You feel there’s an ownership to it. This is something that is much bigger than any one individual, because it means so much to so many people. And it's a generational thing like me, personally, five generations of my family have been a part of the Dirt Bowl and enjoy. So you know, we want this to continue for generations and generations to come. We just hope that it gets bigger and better.
What can people expect at the championship game this year and whenever they come to catch a game at the tournament?
We normally have a group of about four or five teams that are traditionally, historically a little bit better than some of the other teams. Some of those teams are basically like [a] neighborhood team. So the East End — that are the reigning and defending champs — represent the Smoketown area. Then, we have Newburg. They won the championship a couple of years ago. So it's been a steady climb between Newburg, the East End, Park Hill, Jewel Park from West Market, and then a couple other teams: the Trailblazers [and] Redemption. The favorites are probably Park Hill and Eastern. They played in a championship game last year. The last five years, every game they've played has basically come down to the last shot. So right now, if I was a betting person, I will probably say East End and Park Hill are on a collision course.
People that come to the Dirt Bowl, what have you noticed about their reactions, maybe even it's their first time at the Dirt Bowl?
I've had some of those conversations with some first timers and very interesting conversations. It's not a racial thing. But I do want to make this point that it was two white ladies that I had this conversation with. And they don’t know each other, and these conversations came at different times. But they both expressed to me that they were nervous when they first came because of what they thought the Dirt Bowl was because of what they had heard. You know, unfortunately we get that a lot. But both of them were like “I was 100% wrong about the feelings that I had. It has been nothing but exemplary fun and fellowship.” And they're accepted and people spend money with them and they become a part of our Dirt Bowl family.
It's not like it's for this group or that group. It's not like it's for young or old, rich or poor. It's not about Black or white. It's about just wanting to come out and have a good time and eat some unhealthy food that's really, really good. Watch some basketball and then catch up on the fashion and see all the new cars. So it's much more about the culture than the basketball.
