Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Some more of UT's 1918 Season

In the previous post I looked at the games between Maryville College and the University of Tennessee during 1918.  I'll continue with the rest of the season.

2013 University of Tennessee Baseball Record Book
Note the asterisk.  * All scores not available. There's a gap from mid April until early May.  My guess is that a few games were played during that time.

Dallas Morning News - April 13, 1918
As the major league teams headed back to the northeast they'd wind their way through home playing each other, college teams, and other semi-pro teams to keep in shape and to give the locals a bit of a thrill.  "Look, Billie, the Pirates are comin' to town.  Major leaguers."   Generally the pros would win.  They did this time, but there is a discrepancy in the score reported.

The next week the Volunteers headed north to play Georgetown College.
The Lexington Herald - April 18, 1918

The reported score matches the Record Book.  Now we have a location.  It was an away game for UT.

The Lexington Herald - April 19, 1918
The following snippet caught my eye, just part of an editorial section in sports page.  I don't hear the term "wicked whip" used much anymore.

The Lexington Herald - April 19, 1918

The date and scores match up and it was an away game for UT.

The Lexington Herald - April 20, 1918

Apparently it was supposed to be a double header, but the weather had other plans.

The Lexington Herald - April 21, 1918

Jumping ahead in time by about a month, during which UT played Maryville, the Volunteers welcomed the Wildcats.

With the Kentuckians coming to Maryville we see a bit of name discrepancy in the press.  "Kentucky State?  Aren't they The University of Kentucky?"  They are now.  A short history of UK can be found here.  It explains when and why the institution changed names.  In 1916 they became the University of Kentucky.

The Highland Echo - May 21, 1918

The Lexington Herald - May 19, 1918
Charleston News and Courier - May 19, 1918


With UK's names being semi-interchangeable it is easy to see how confusing might have entered the Record Book. 

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Maryville College vs. University of Tennessee - 1918

The Highland Echo - May 14, 1918

Charleston News and Courier - May 4, 1918

The Highland Echo - May 7, 1918

The Highland Echo - May 7, 1918

So what can we learn from the above two articles compared to what we think we know?  Here's the season info from the UT Baseball Record Book.

2013 University of Tennessee Baseball Record Book

The first article says: The great series of the season started last Friday when U.T. came to Maryville and beat the Highlanders in the first game 5-1.

Then it says: After being defeated the day before on her home grounds Maryville went to Knoxville Saturday to haul U.T. into camp in a thrilling eleven inning contest, 9-8.

The second article says: The third game of the U.T. series was lost Friday 4-3.


Looking at a calendar for May of 1918, we see that the first Friday mentioned was the 5/3, not 5/10 as the UT Record Book says and the score was 5-1, not 5-3.  The game was played in Maryville.

The info on the Saturday game lines up.  5/4, with the score being 8-9 in 11 innings.  The game was played in Knoxville.

The second article's Friday would have been on 5/10, not the 5/11 listed in the Record Book.  The score from the article was 4-3, not the 9-4 listed.  The game was played in Knoxville.

A look at more of the UT 1918 season is in the works.

Friday, December 13, 2013

UT's 1897 season

I've been in touch with Brian Bruce, Assistant Director of Media Relations, University of Tennessee Athletics, about updating their Baseball Record Book.

What a better place to start than the beginning?  Here's what's published in the 2013 edition of the UT Baseball Record Book.

from the
2013 University of Tennessee Baseball Record Book
page 110

I wondered where they got their information.  Student newspapers?  Scorebooks?  Yearbooks?  Local newspapers?

I called the UT Special Collections to see if they had the yearbooks onsite that I could look through.  They gave me a better answer than I could have expected.  The yearbooks are online.

from the
1897 University of Tennessee Volunteer

Comparing the games listed in the yearbook to the Record Book, I find some discrepancies. The game against Zaneville isn't listed in the yearbook.  Neither are the games against Alabama.

If you look through the Record Book you'll see that many other coaches and managers have a photo attached.  Here's an image cropped from the 1897 UT yearbook.  What a handsome looking young man.  I've found a first name and a photo.
Doak Aydelott
an editor of the Volunteer from the 1897 Volunteer
From the yearbook we can see the location of the games.  UT played Grant at Athens the second time.  UT played the University of the South at Sewanee for the first series.  UT played Vanderbilt at Nashville.  Why is this important?  It helps establish the Home and Road records.

Now, let's try to verify some of the info.  Here's some info from the Alabama Baseball Media Guide.


The scores match up for the Alabama-UT games.  I went to the University of Alabama's website and found that they also have their yearbooks online.

from the 1897 University of Alabama Corolla
Ah, UT did play them.  But not in time for the yearbooks to get to the printer.  Were the games actually on June 10-12?  Those days were Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

I have not yet been successful in finding online newspaper content that corroborates the games played and their outcome.

Here's a photo of the 1897 Alabama baseball team.
1897 University of Alabama baseball team
Let's go back to the game with Zaneville.  I think that it is actually Zanesville.  As in Zanesville, Ohio.  There is currently a campus of Ohio University at Zanesville, but I don't think that they were around in 1897.  The UT Record Book mentions just the one meeting between the two teams.  In the Record Book they are listed as the Zaneville Tracers.

from the
2013 University of Tennessee Baseball Record Book
page 109
A few issues with this one.  The year was actually 1897.  Understandable mistake.  I can't count the number of times I've had finger dyslexia.  The city is Zanesville.  With an "s".  The Tracers is the name given the the OU-Z athletic teams.  I've sent an email to their current coach asking if he knows when the program started and how long they've had their name.

I'm thinking that it was probably played against the Zanesville minor league / semi-pro team, part of the Ohio-West Virginia League.  UT has played against many professional teams over the years in exhibition games.  But that's for another blog entry.

Please know that the corrections offered here are not to cast a poor light on the University of Tennessee in their compilation of the Baseball Record Book, for it is a formidable task, but to enhance what they've assembled.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

UT vs. Cumberland - May 1907

Some information regarding UT's 1907 season came to my attention last evening.  As I looked into the season a bit more I found this nice write up of "one of the most brilliant games of baseball ever played at Baker-Himel Park."

This is the second series for Cumberland and the University of Tennessee that season.  The first series, held in the latter part of April, resulted in Cumberland winning two of the three games.

The Orange and White - May 10, 1907


Interesting thing that I learned is that UT used at least two fields that year, Baker-Himel Park and Chilhowee Park.