LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Somebody vandalized the historic Dirt Bowl basketball court in Louisville’s West End with a car. The driver marked the court with skid marks after performing “doughnuts.”
The Dirt Bowl Summer League has played at Shawnee Park since the late 1960s. The man who helps runs the league said the court was painted about a month ago. He estimates all the damage to be around $20,000.
Anthony Richardson was born and raised in the Shawnee neighborhood. He loves it and spent countless hours playing in Shawnee Park growing up. He has played in the Dirt Bowl since he was a kid.
Richardson said, “Having something of our own that’s legendary. It’s the second-oldest summer basketball league in the country. For me, that’s history enough that we’ve got to protect our assets and what little we do have down here.”
Louisville Metro employees powerwashed the Cornell Bradley court, hoping to remove the skid marks.
Richardson said, “There’s too many of us that are trying to uplift the community and do what’s right. So it’s frustrating, it’s mad, but I put the onus on what I call the neighborhood OG’s, the parents. We’ve got to speak life to the kids.”
Dirt Bowl co-organizer Ravon Churchill said the vandalism happened between 6-7 a.m. Wednesday. He said Metro Parks called him about it.
Churchill said “Look at the picture and it’s like stunned, shocked, mad, angry, disappointed. The disappointment was probably one of the biggest feelings I felt. I felt embarrassed too.”
The crew working to clean the court said they had been at the court since 6 a.m. trying to clean up the damage. Churchill said Louisville Metro Police are aware of the incident. He added the community, corporations and area council members are stepping up to help.
“Talk to some people in Metro Government. We’re going to see what we can do going forward to prevent something like this from going forward. The silver lining is hopefully there is a permanent fence that’s going to be put up instead of this temporary fence. Maybe that’ll deter some of this from happening. This is not the first time people have come and done doughnuts on the court. This is the worst time,” Churchill said.
Churchill added he is not pressing charges.
“Did it sting? Yeah. Does it hurt? Yeah, it’s hurtful, but they didn’t do enough to stop us though. We can still dribble on the court, we can still score on the baskets so that’s what we’ll be doing for the rest of the summer,” he said.
Churchill confirmed this weekend’s games will take place on the court.
Churchill said the Dirt Bowl is growing at a phenomenal rate. He said over 400 players are playing in the Dirt Bowl. There are 24 men’s teams, four women’s teams and six kids teams.
Games started on June 7 and have been played every Saturday and Sunday from 1:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. since. They will continue through Sunday, Aug. 3, which is Championship Sunday.