OTD in Knoxville baseball history

104 years ago today... May 18th, 1922

The Appalachian League Johnson City Soldiers and the Knoxville Pioneers, managed by Frank Moffett, were rained out. Knoxville was sitting at 7-7 in the Appy League standings.

79 years ago today... May 18, 1947

The Knoxville Smokies, managed by Dale Alexander, took down the Tri-State League leaders, the Anderson Rebels, 8-7 at Smithson Stadium in Knoxville. The Smokies would finish the regular season in third place, 15-1/2 games behind the Spartanburg Peaches.

54 years ago today... May 18, 1972

The Knox Sox defeated the Charlotte Hornets, a farm team of the Minnesota Twins. Team batting leader, Russell (Bucky) Dent, went 2 for 5, batting in 2 runs and scoring 2, including a 375' homer over the scoreboard at Bill Meyer Stadium.

29 years ago today... May 18, 1997

The Blue Jays won the away game and the series from the Memphis Chicks, the then league leaders, 5-1. The Smokies would go on to live in the basement of the Southern League West at the end of the season.

Durell Tigers of Harriman

This picture of baseball team surfaced on the Historical Negro League Baseball Site facebook group.  I wasn't aware of the Durell Tigers, so I did a bit of looking.

image lifted from the facebook group, The Historical Negro League Baseball Site.
Originally posted to fb by Paul Mashburn.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel - June 24, 1951

The Knoxville News-Sentinel - September 11, 1952

The Knoxville News-Sentinel - September 15, 1952

The Knoxville News-Sentinel - April 26, 1956

image lifted from the Roane County Heritage Commission facebook page
originally posted February 27, 2016 (link).
I have added names to the photo, based on info provided by the RCHC.

H. M. Edmonds

 

H. M. Edmonds was elected captain of the University of Tennessee baseball team in February of 1898.  A month earlier he was elected as Vice-President of the local YMCA.

Alcoa takes down Mascot

 The Calvin McClung Digital Collection recently released several issues of the Mascot Concentrates, a "Magazine for the residents of Mascot and employees of the American Zinc Company of Tennessee to express interesting news and information of the town and draw everyone in Mascot closer together and improve conditions all around."

The August 1920 issue has a round up of baseball happenings.  One of the stories concerns a game between the Alcoa and Mascot teams.

Mascot Concentrates
Vol. II, no. 4, page 19

The Journal and Tribune
Knoxville, Tennessee
July 21, 1920

The Knoxville Sentinel
Knoxville, Tennessee
July 21, 1920

The news stories have a different view on the number of hits compared to the magazine.  They were reporting  on the events of the prior day's game.  The magazine was reporting on a game that was played the previous month.  Also, it never hurts to pad the numbers* for your audience.

* Yes it does hurt.  

1923 and 1924 Knoxville Pioneers photos

I came across these two photos from two different seasons.  The clarity of the images is lacking, but the text is clear enough.

1923 Knoxville Pioneers
from The Sporting News - January 17, 1924

1924 Knoxville Pioneers
from Spalding's Official Base Ball Guide (1925)

Chilhowee Institute vs School of the Evangelists - 1903

I'm doing some research on the early athletic exploits at the School of the Evangelists in south Knox county.  SotE became Johnson Bible College, which is now Johnson University. 

Chilhowee Institute, located in Seymour, became Harrison-Chilhowee Baptist Academy, which is now know as The King's Academy.

In early April of 1903, the two teams met at Kimberlin Heights, home of SotE, with Chilhowee Institute beating the Evangelists, 6-4.

This is the earliest mention of organized sporting events by either school that I've found.  That is not to say that earlier games didn't happen.  I just haven't found records of them.

Knoxville's linen uniforms of 1936

 

The Knoxville News-Sentinel

Sun, Mar 15, 1936

The Knoxville News Sentinel of 1936 showed off the new uniforms of the Knoxville Smokies.  Lighter and cooler.  Not super attractive, but better for the players.

More uniform bits and bobs can be found at Base Ball Stats and Stuff here.