Pride Of Hyden

Elbert Couch parks his white Ford Bronco next to another emblem of American infamy: the Richard M. Nixon Recreation Center in Hyden, Ky. "There's two kinds around here," Couch says. "There's Republicans, and there's Damn Democrats. I'm a Damn Democrat, but we're outnumbered four to one in this county."

This is Leslie County, in the mountains of eastern Kentucky's Cumberland Plateau. It was here, in 1978, that Nixon made his first postexile public appearance, for the dedication of a grand gymnasium that honors his presidency. "Everybody knew us because of Nixon," says Leslie County High School basketball coach Ron Stidham, standing on his home court inside the Tricky Dick. "But that notoriety aside, Tim Couch has made Hyden—well, if not a household name exactly, at least people know where we are again."

Tim Couch, Elbert's son, is the best high school basketball player in Kentucky. He led the state in scoring last season, with 36 points a game as a Leslie County High junior. He is expected to be named Mr. Basketball of the Bluegrass after this season, which is why most Division I basketball coaches want to upholster Couch in their school colors come 1996.

Trouble is, Tim is also the most highly sought after football recruit in the nation, one who almost certainly will break the national record for career passing yardage this Friday night in the state quarterfinals. He is 50 yards away from breaking the mark of 11,700 set two years ago by Josh Booty of Evangel Christian High in Shreveport, La., and Couch needs only five touchdown passes to break that national record as well. "Couch is the best quarterback prospect I've seen in 17 years," drools Tom Lemming, who publishes a national recruiting newsletter. "Better than Jeff George, Ron Powlus and Peyton Manning. He reminds recruiters of John Elway." ESPN draft nitwit Mel Kiper Jr. agrees and considers Tim, who is 6'5" and 215 pounds, one of the best pro quarterback prospects in the nation. And to think that Tim is just 18.

"Everybody around here is just so happy," Tim says of Hyden (pop. 375). "They all want to see me go to the NFL and become a big star. It gives me a lot of pride, the way such a small place has rallied around one person."

Through it all Tim has remained unfailingly polite, genuinely humble and undeniably charismatic. Everywhere one goes in Kentucky, people talk about the closely-cropped Couch. He's like Gump, with a pump fake. And there's another important difference: "He's an A-B student," says Leslie County High principal Omus Shepherd. "In fact, to see him in school, you wouldn't know he's an athlete, you wouldn't know him from any other student. I don't know of any problem we've ever had out of the boy."

The boy was excused from class one afternoon early in the football season when Governor Brereton Jones came to Hyden to make Tim an honorary Kentucky Colonel, one of the youngest recipients of the state's equivalent of knighthood. The next evening the colonel threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more in a 34-27 win at Woodford County High, after which several opponents wanted a piece of him. "I saw them coming at me and thought we were in a fight," says Tim. Instead, they wanted his autograph.

The next day Tim drove 124 miles to Lexington to watch the Kentucky- Louisville football game with his folks. En route, they stopped at a diner. Recently retired Los Angeles Laker center and former Kentucky star Sam Bowie approached Tim's table to say how much he has enjoyed following Tim's career. Emboldened, Adolph Rupp's grandson Chip, who also happened to be in the diner, did the same. After the game the Couches repaired to the Lexington home of Miami Heat guard and ex-Wildcat star Rex Chapman, who simply wanted to meet Tim.

"I told him he was my hero growing up," Tim says of Chapman. "I told him how I dreamed in the backyard about filling his shoes some day at Kentucky."

"Tim used to shoot baskets outside for hours in the winter, until his fingers were bleeding," says Tim's mother, Janice. "I always had to make him come in before he got frostbite."