Gordon Crawford has been ‘hard to beat’ as Louisville Quarterback Club President

Gordon Crawford with Kentucky signee Cutter Boley at the Paul Hornung Award ceremony in Louisville. (Elliott Hess/UK Athletics)

The Louisville Quarterback Club was founded in the mid 1940’s by Earl Ruby, the long-time sports editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal, to provide support for all area college and high schools.

The club is not just about football and has plenty of Kentucky and Louisville fans as well as others.

Many major cities have a club like this and speakers have included Paul “Bear” Bryant, Adolph Rupp, Denny Crum, Bobby Knight, Ralph Beard, Muhammad Ali, Mary T. Meagher, Mark Stoops and Jeff Brohm.

The club also sponsors the annual Paul Hornung Award given to the state’s top high school football player based on performance, recruiting ranking, character and more.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend a club meeting years ago and have been able to attend two or three meetings per year, including the Hornung Award ceremony I attended last week when Lexington Christian Academy quarterback Cutter Boley received his award.

Gordon Crawford has been club president since I started attending and last week was his final meeting as club president. He’s stepping down and former UK basketball player Mark Krebs is taking over as club president.

“The Louisville Quarterback Club has had a ‘president for life’ in Gordon Crawford. This gentleman has served our club for nearly a quarter of a century,” said club member John Karem. “Imagine a guy presiding over 223 club meetings. He has done so with passion, due diligence and class.”

Crawford will remain on the club’s board of directors where his experience and expertise will continue to be invaluable to the club.

Karen said it was fitting that Crawford’s last meeting as club president was for the Hornung Award because he attended Flaget High School in Louisville the same time Hornung, an all-American at Notre Dame and NFL MVP, was there.

“Today Gordon gets his (all-American) honorable mention,” Karen told the club. “There is a line in the Flaget fight song that said, ‘The Flaget Braves are hard to beat.’ Here is another quote: ‘Gordon Crawford is hard to beat.’”