High school football standout Tim Couch announced his intention to sign a letter-of-intent to play football at the University of Kentucky, Dec. 24, 1995. About 200 fans attended the news conference in a ballroom at the downtown Lexington Radisson Hotel, 90 minutes before the tip-off the annual Kentucky-Louisville basketball game across the street at Rupp Arena. “I came up to watch the basketball game, but I would have come up just to see this,” said fan Eddie Evans, 49, of Corbin. After considering Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Notre Dame, Penn State and Ohio State, among others, Couch narrowed his list to UK and Tennessee. The Tennessee spin was that Couch could play behind star Vols quarterback Peyton Manning for a year, then step in as a starter in 1997, when Manning turned pro. “I didn’t want to just be another name in a great line of quarterbacks at a school. I wanted to start my own name here at Kentucky and hopefully get a big tradition started here,” Couch said. Rated the nation’s best quarterback prospect by most recruiting services, and possibly the best Kentucky football prospect since Paul Hornung left Louisville Flaget for Notre Dame in the 1950s, Couch threw for a national record 12,104 yards and 133 touchdowns over his four years. During his senior year, the 6-foot-5, 215-pounder threw for 3,916 yards and 42 touchdowns, leading Leslie County to a 12-2 record. He was named Gatorade’s national high school player of the year. “This is the best day of my life,” said Tim’s father, Elbert. “This is where we wanted him to go all along.” Couch signed with UK the following February. This year’s national signing day is Feb. 1 and UK expects to have one of the programs best recruiting classes. Click here to see other images of Couch from our archives. Photo by Mark Cornelison | Staff