UT's 1911 season brings a new coach

According to the University of Tennessee's Baseball Record Book the coach of the 1911 team was Z. G. Clevenger.

2014 University of Tennessee Record Book

There's even a nice narrative about him.

2014 University of Tennessee Record Book - page 98

But it isn't quite true.  Zora G. Clevenger came to UT from Nebraska Wesleyan University.   But he arrived in Knoxville after the 1911 baseball season.  I spoke with Alex Linden, Sports Information Director at Nebraska Wesleyan University, who confirmed that Clevenger was coaching the baseball team in Lincoln, Nebraska, during the 1911 season.

So, if not Clevenger, who was coaching the Volunteers?  It appears that it was Andrew Alexis Stone.

1911 Volunteer

So, the 1911 season results in the Record Book should look something like this:

Please note, this new info has not been verified or approved by the University of Tennessee, hence the overlay.

But, since I'm playing "let's rewrite the record book",  here's what Clevenger's new mini coaching bio would look like:

In addition to updating his stats I've used a more contemporary picture that I found at Wikipedia.org. They picked it up from the National Football Foundation website.

This post focuses on the coach of the 1911 team, not the games played.  But setting up for a future post, UT's first game was against Mooney.  That would be Mooney School.  Or Mooney's School.  We now call it Battle Ground Academy, based in Franklin, Tennessee.  It was a college prep school.  A high school.  Yes, it was an opponent, but should high school games be included in the official records? 

UT played Murphy College in 1908 and 1916.  In a post about the 1908 games I wrote:

...they [UT] should footnote the wins as being against a High School.

I supported it then and support it now.

Prince Henry

The Advance-News - January 6, 1937

Henry Kawaihoa Oana, also known as Prince Oana, played ball in Knoxville for a partial season (1937) before going to Little Rock, also of the Southern Association.  He eventually made it to the Majors in 1943 and 1945, pitching for the Detroit Tigers.

image from NYS Historic Newspapers

UT's 1910 series against Kentucky

Moving on to the University of Tennessee's 1910 series against the University of Kentucky I run into issues right at the start. According to the results of the season, UT played Kentucky State six times over two weekends.  That isn't typical scheduling.

2014 UT Record Book

The UT yearbook starts to sort out some of the confusion.  We learned from the last post that KSU became UK.

1910 Volunteer

Central of Kentucky became Eastern Kentucky, but I don't see any mention of the 1910 season games.

2014 UT Record Book

Let's look at the 1910 UK schedule and results to verify schools and dates.

2014 UK Baseball Media Guide

The 1911 UK yearbook supports the scores and dates in their media guide.

1911 The Kentuckian

Well, the dates and score match up between UT and UK baseball media guides.  What do the newspapers of the day say?

Dallas Morning News - April 23, 1910

Dallas Morning News - April 24, 1910

So the scores reported in the Dallas Morning News are:

• April 22, 1910, at Knoxville - UT 5, KSU 4
• April 23, 1910, at Knoxville - UT 5, KSU 1
• April 23, 1910, at Knoxville - UT 4, KSU 6

Compared to the media guides, the W-L is correct, as are the scores of the final two games of the series.  The score of the first game does not match the media guides which list it as a UT win, 15-12.

Ah, wait.  Let me check another newspaper.

The Paducah Evening Sun - April 23, 1910

I guess the game score was 15-12.


Turning to Central of Kentucky and the games that next week.

Dallas Morning News - April 30, 1910

Beaumont Enterprise - May 1, 1910

Here the scores are:

• April 29, 1910, at Knoxville - UT 5, Central 0
• April 30, 1910 - UT 4, Central 3
• April 30, 1910 - UT 9, Central 6

And in UT's Record Book:

• April 29, 1910 - UT 5, Central 0
• April 30, 1910 - UT 9, Central 6
• April 30, 1910 - UT 4, Central 3

The UT Record Book has games 1 and 2 of the second day reversed, but the scores match up.  Eastern Kentucky University (formerly Central University of Kentucky) does not yet have this season listed in their media guide.

My opinion is that the first three games attributed to Kentucky State (4/22 and 4/23) should be placed under the University of Kentucky group, and the second three games attributed to Kentucky State (4/29 and 4/30) should be placed under the Eastern Kentucky group.