The Battle to Defeat Robert E. Lee in a Kentucky Town
One war veteran and attorney — and, yes, football coach — is fighting back against his state’s outworn traditions
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“Can’t think of another reason why Grandma, one generation removed from slavery, would have picked that name,” says Sherman Neal, a few days after he took up the same battle his namesake died thinking was already won. A portrait of General William T. Sherman hangs in Neal’s office — a wedding gift from his brother — with a favorite quote from the legendary Union leader engraved along the bottom edge of its frame: “War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want.”
“Basically just saying I like to fight,” Neal jokes. “I don’t know — sometimes I think everybody’s going to war with me.”
For Neal, who became a lawyer and spent six years on active duty in the Marines (including tours in Iraq and Kuwait) before returning to the football field as an offensive assistant coach at Kentucky’s Murray State University, his next fight took some time to become clear.
