The football team was annointed “Purple Pounders” during football season of 1937, but when were the Anvil and Hammer symbols adopted?
Working backward, the earliest photo I’ve found is in 1944 Champion – The footbal coaching staff are wearing tee shirts with anvil and hammer printed on the front. You can view a copy of this photo in Charlie Sedman’s football history articles.
I would love to know the story behind our beloved Anvil and when it was first represented our Purple Pounders.
Preservation of Chattanooga Central History 
Not sure but the logo looks an awful lot like the logo on Arm and Hammer backing soda. Arm & Hammer is old but not sure how old.
In my Mother’s 1936 “Champion”, they are not referred to as the “Purple Pounders”, simply “Central”. She told me about the football games with City High, which were huge local events and how each school would procure a wooden coffin and drape it in paper ribbons of the other school’s colors. After the game, the school that won (usually Central) would carry the coffin draped in the other school’s colors in a parade to downtown, set it afire and dump it in the Tennessee River off the old bridge. Apparently, those games were such a nightmare for the police, the two schools were forbidden from playing each other at some point.