May 14 – Tommy Bell Award Program

Each year, our Club sets aside a lunch meeting to honor the legacy of one of our own, Tommy Bell, and to present the Tommy Bell Award. More on Mr. Bell below.

Assisting with today’s program is a name familiar to many of us: Doug Flynn. Doug is a former Bryan Station High School three-sport star. He played baseball professionally for eleven seasons with the Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets, Texas Rangers, Montreal Expos and Detroit Tigers. Flynn won two World Series titles with the Reds and a Gold Glove while with the Mets. He earned the moniker of “the glue” of the fabled Big Red Machine.

His post-baseball career consists of working as a banking officer for Central Bank and broadcasting college baseball for the University of Kentucky on the SEC network. Flynn also worked in radio and television for the Reds beginning in 2013. For eight years he and Rotarian Jeff Piecoro co-hosted Reds Weekly, a magazine-style show on Fox Sports Ohio. A Lexington resident, he currently hosts The Doug Flynn Show podcast.

Tommy Bell was born in Lexington, Kentucky on July 2, 1922. He graduated from Henry Clay High School in 1939 where he was all-state in football and track. He then attended the University of Kentucky, but he was called to serve the United States Air Force in World War II. Thereafter, he graduated from UK in 1948 and obtained his law degree from UK in 1950.

Tommy Bell’s chosen profession was that of a lawyer, and he was a good one; so respected by his peers that he was chosen in 1966 as the Henry T. Duncan Memorial Outstanding Lawyer in Lexington. Mr. Bell was one of the founding partners of the law firm now known as Fowler Bell.

Mr. Bell is a member of the University of Kentucky Hall of Alumni, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity Hall of Fame, the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame and Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame. He also received the Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He served on the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees and the University of Kentucky Athletic Association Board and was a member of the University of Kentucky Development Council and chairman of their Fellows program. He was state chairman of the Character and Fitness Committee for the Kentucky Bar Association, past president of the Greater Lexington Chamber of Commerce, and state chairman of the Easter Seals. He served on numerous boards of directors.

His hobby was sports officiating, which he did at both the collegiate and professional levels. Some people are probably not aware of his refereeing two NCAA championship basketball finals in 1956 and 1959, before joining the National Football League, where he officiated eight championship games and two Super Bowls, Super Bowl III and Super Bowl VII.

Finally, Mr. Bell was in heavy demand as a public speaker, having spoken in many countries and most of the United States. Tommy Bell believed in God, the church, family, education, marriage, honesty, respect for the law and order, authority, America, and hard work. By any measuring device, Tommy Bell was a success.