SPORTS

People in College Grove have always liked sporting events of all kinds. One of the earliest competitive sports was baseball, and College Grove had teams early in the 1900s. Pete Drumright was one of the players who told tall tales about those games. The greatest rival was Chapel Hill and usually on the days of the big games, both teams got at least one professional player from the Nashville team. These games were taken seriously!

Baseball has continued to be a popular sport, and through a summer recreation program begun in the early 1960s by the Lions Club and the PTO, many boys and girls have enjoyed this summer sport.

Basketball has been one of the favorite games, and has created much excitement through the years. Around the turn of the century most basketball was played outdoors, but College Grove opted for a gymnasium. In 1924, it was almost

1949 CGHS Men's Team

completed when the people working on it told some players from Eagleville, if they would come help to finish it, they would play a game. The gymnasium was finished and this was the beginning of the Eagleville-College Grove Christmas Eve basketball tradition that lasted for over forty years.

Of course, the most famous basketball team was the 1929 Tennessee State Championship team that went to a National Tournament in Chicago, losing in the quarterfinals. Members of the team were Albert “Goat” Wilson, W. D. “Dink” Scales, “Butch” Young, Millard Lamb and Hamp Thomas, Jim Long, “Bungho” Hatcher, Robert Sanford. Mr. Brinkley, High School Principal, was the coach and was assisted by Mabry Covington. The girls’ team also won District and Regional tournaments during this period, but there were no state tournaments for them.

College Grove School had a winning tradition

1949 CGHS Women's Team

and almost all years ended with a winning basketball season. Most successful coaches were R. L. Windrow, Douglas Graham, and Bob Greathouse.

Every year, each team had its stars. Many were good – really good! Through the years rule changes altered the style of playing for both boys and girls. Perhaps most people who have kept up with the sport all through the years will tell you that those early teams were the best, but in the early 1930s, the person considered the most “naturally accurate shooter” was Lucille Culberson. In the late thirties and into 1940, two players – Dora and Blanche McPherson – “made a name” for themselves on the basketball court. They went on to play for semi-pro type teams.

Another sport, football, began at College Grove High School in 1970. Charles Dale and James Smith were the first coaches, then Mike Jones, assisted by Jerry Flippen, took the first varsity team to the State Championship playoffs. College Grove Football formed the nucleus for the first teams at the new Fred J. Page High School.

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