Old Knoxville Base Ball: 1910

Showing posts with label 1910. Show all posts

Thursday, April 9, 2015

More Coca Cola Boys

Two years ago I wrote about the Coca Cola Stars of Knoxville. I found another mention of their team and that they were victorious in three games.

This tidbit comes from The Nashville Globe. It is from the "Harriman Notes" section.

The Nashville Globe - July 1, 1910

At this point, I know nothing more about them. Hopefully someday some more information on the team will be found.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

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.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Coca Cola Stars

I came across a reference to the Coca Cola Stars of Knoxville last night. The three articles were all from 1910. I have not yet had a chance to look at the local papers, only the ones on GenealogyBank. Since they were mentioned in The Freeman of Indianapolis I'm making an assumption that they were a black team. I'm wondering if their name was derived from a sponsorship with the soda company or if it refers to the color of their skin. Hopefully I can find some answers.