Posted in Central Athletics, Early History, Football

More of Charlie Sedman’s Posts to The Central Connection

Posted on by Bob Johnson

September 9, 2008:

On Tuesday, September 10, 1907, the Chattanooga Times reported on page 3, “The Central high school is now figuring on a football team.   Among the members of the county high school faculty is Coach (Curtis) Green, formerly of the Battle Ground Academy, Franklin, Tenn….it is believed he will put out a fast team at Central high school, providing money can be secured to start the movement..”

This answers the question, “Which came first, Central or the football team? And the answer is the school, but only by a few days.   The football team did precede classes in the new building by nearly three months. I’ll have a few followup notes under the 101 Years ago heading, leading to Central’s first two football games in October 1907 against Baylor and City.

September 12, 2008:

Central’s football teams have faced many great players and coaches over the years.   One such encounter occurred in the Fall of 1919. New head coach Rusty Cornelius had to cope with losses of star players who were “recruited” along with Coach Rike to Baylor, and an inexperienced team that had played only three games the previous year with no head coach. Cornelius hastily cobbled together a schedule of seven games with whoever was available. Remarkably, with great leadership from a junior quarterback named Dean Petersen, Cornelius forged a 5-1-1 record, with five shutout wins, the only blemishes being a 0-0 tie with Rike’s all-star Baylor team and a decisive 33-6 thumping by an obscure military school, Fitzgerald-Clarke Academy of Tullahoma, Tennessee. The 33 points by Fitzgerald-Clarke were the only points allowed by Central that season.

So what was Fitzgerald-Clarke Military Academy? Turns out it was one of a handful of college prep schools used by Vanderbilt and other colleges to help promising athletes pass college entrance exams. In this particular year, 1919, Fitzgerald-Clarke had, amongst others, a 6-1, 210 lb lineman named Lynn Bomar from Texas, who would later become an All-American at Vanderbilt and play professional football for the New York Giants. Ironically, 1919-20 was Fitzgerald-Clarke’s last year as an institution, for the school barracks burned down just after the football season ended, then the school burned down and never reopened.   But perhaps more noteworthy was their young football coach who, out of a job after the school calamities, followed the pipeline to Vanderbilt as an assistant coach. By 1923, at age 31, he was head coach at Alabama, then by 1930 head coach at Duke, where he would remain until 1950. Overall he won three National Championships at Alabama in seven years and had an unprecedented winning   (110-36-7) record at Duke. Plus a 1-0 career record against Central. His name   –   William Wallace Wade.

Posted in Early History, Historical Background

More of Charlie Sedman’s Posts to The Central Connection

Posted on by Bob Johnson

September 5, 2008:

On Friday September 6, 1907, Central High School opened for registration at the old Ridgedale School on the corner of Peachtree St. and Bennett Ave.   Central thus became the first high school in Hamilton County to offer a four-year curriculum (City didn’t adopt a four-year program until 1912) and the first county high school (Tyner opened the following Monday).   By September 19,   registered students totaled 156, and this number would grow to 230 by mid-year, and then to 306 by the end of the year, aided by the promotion of 76 area eighth graders to the ninth grade at mid-term, as the new building opened.   [Central would not move into the new building, designed to accommodate 500 students, until January 6, 1908.]

September 7, 2008:

The new Hamilton County Plan (1906) was to have one four-year high school offering a full college prep diploma with peripheral high schools offering three-year certificates, requiring all students seeking a diploma to complete their fourth year at the new central high school, thus the name Central High School. Of course this was very difficult for students living in the Soddy and Sale Creek areas, so in short order their schools, along with Hixson and Tyner, were expanded to a full four-year program. But the original central school retained the name Central High School. So now you know.

September 8, 2008:

The majority of Central students in the early days were mostly nearby, i.e, within walking distance or a streetcar ride from school, meaning that students from areas north of the river or well east of the ridge had some logistical problems getting to Central.   Teachers and students mostly lived in the Glenwood-Ridgedale-Highland Park-Eastside-East Chattanooga area. A very few of the notable early grads like Creed Bates (1911) commuted all the way from St Elmo. Very little indication that the farm kids came into town to go to school. Also Soddy, Tyner, Sale Creek, and Hixson then were very small schools by comparison to Central and City; graduating classes in the 1910-20 era were single digits compared to Central and City being near 100 each. In the 1920s more students from Eastdale-Brainerd-East Ridge and Hill City (North Chattanooga) flowed in as those areas transitioned from rural to suburbs.

The Hoodenpyl (Signal Mtn) and Olinger (moved from Soddy to Riverview) clans are examples of large rural famililes sending their kids to Central in the 20s as transportation improved. This necessitated the big expansions of the building in 1923 (auditorium and south wing) and 1927 (Science or north wing), and again in 1937 (west extensions off the north and south wings). In summary, early Central students were mostly urban kids and did not have to choose between school and farm chores. This is also the reason the rural high schools did not field competitive athletic teams for decades – fewer students and limited time for after school activities, e.g. gym was athletic team practice. Think of it Ed, NO two-a-day practices in August.

Posted in Football, Purple Pounders

Ledford’s Biggest Hit; a Football Story Almost Forgotten

Posted on by Bob Johnson

The following posted on The Central Connection November 11, 2008

On October 15, 1937 Central made a return trip to Cleveland where two years before they had so decisively dominated the Bradley County football team, that Chattanooga Times reporter Springer Gibson anointed them the “Purple Pounders” for the first time.   On this evening, Central again ruled the first half in front of a disgruntled group of Bradley fans.   During the opening kickoff of the second half, the Pounder’s football Captain, Dexter Hodges, was running free on an apparent 80-yard touchdown return, when he was rudely upended by a shoestring tackle via one Charles Ledford on the 10 yard line.   On the next play Central would fumble near the goal line, and Bradley would temporarily hold, eventually losing 21-0; so Ledford’s solid hit would not change the outcome of the game, other than shaving 6 or 7 points off Central’s winning margin. Hodges would later remark that Ledford’s tackle was the hardest hit of the game against Central.

There would not be a story here, except that the 5 ft 8 inch, 130 pound tackler was a 21 year old taxi driver, who, taking the dare of some buddies at halftime, resolved to tackle the next Central runner approaching Bradley’s goal. And the opening kickoff breakdown by Bradley’s coverage team gave him ample opportunity to show his talent.   As Hodges looked back to see if any Bradley player were in close pursuit (they weren’t), he didn’t see the fan come out of the stands and lunge headfirst at his ankles, ending his race down the sidelines.   The referees didn’t know exactly how to rule, and curiously decided (as home refs are wont to do) to penalize Bradley half the distance to the goal, rather than award the visitors a touchdown that was the certain outcome, had Ledford not inserted himself into the fray.

The Chattanooga Times gave this play the game highlight, as it was the most newsworthy action that occurred that evening in Cleveland.   Some 16+ years hence at the Cotton Bowl, an Alabama player named Tommy Lewis came off the bench to tackle Rice star Dickie Moegle , abruptly ending what would have been a 95 yard touchdown from scrimmage.   In that venue, the referees rightly awarded Rice a touchdown in a 28-6 win over ‘Bama.   The following day, Wirt Gammon of the Times favorably compared the 1937 Bradley-Central and 1954 Cotton Bowl fiascoes in his “Just Between Us Fans” column.   Upon reading Gammon’s essay, Mr. Ledford, still a resident of Cleveland, made a hasty phone call to Gammon, in which he protested the comparison, asserting that (1) he was a civilian in street clothes while Lewis was a highly skilled athlete in full pads, and (2) Lewis did not prevent the opposing team from scoring, while his own effort had indeed prevented Central from scoring.

Most of the above information was recently e-mailed to me by Charles Ledford, Jr. of Hiram, GA, who had read my Central Football history essays at the Chattanoogan.com and wanted to know if I had any details of the incident (I didn’t, other than that an unnamed Bradley fan had indeed tackled Mr. Hodge to start the second half). This was apparently a favorite family story of the Ledford’s for many years. Charles E. Ledford Sr. went on to serve in the Army during WWII, and was on Iwo Jima when the famous flag-raising occurred on Mt. Suribachi February 23, 1945. Ledford returned to Cleveland after the war and raised a family, serving as a firefighter.   His youngest son played for Bradley County against Central in 1967 in a game won by Central in Cleveland 26-7, but was marred by the collapse and eventual death of Central’s star end Mike Perkins.

[Just another hidden story in the annals of Central football; thought some of you would enjoy it.]

Posted in Historical Background

Hamilton County History

Posted on by Bob Johnson

Charlie Sedman’s post to The Central Connection on February 28, 2009:

Hamilton County was formed Oct 25, 1819 as a result of the Calhoun Treaty giving all Cherokee land North of the Tennessee River and Hiwassee River to Tennessee.   First county seat was at Dallas. Joseph Vann, a wealthy Cherokee, owned a large plantation at the mouth of Ooltewah (Wolftever) Creek across the Tennessee River from Dallas, and operated a ferry to Dallas. In 1828 Georgia confiscated all Cherokee lands, driving Vann from his largest plantation in Georgia to refuge in Tennessee.   Vann lived at his Tennessee plantation (which in 1828 had 110 slaves, 35 houses, a mill, three horse racing courses, and a ferry boat) until 1838, when all Cherokees were removed forcibly.   The New Echota treaty of December 1835 gave all Cherokee lands to Tennessee, so Hamilton County was extended to the Georgia border. A land office was set up in Cleveland in November 1838 to sell the parcels south of the Tennessee River, including the Vann plantation.

A group of prominent citizens was charged by Hamilton County to consider relocation of the government and that group chose the new community of Harrison near the old Vann plantation, to be the new county seat in January, 1840. Coincidentally, that same group of prominent citizens had previously purchased all of Vann’s estate and much more, had surveyed and laid out a new town, and had named the new location Vanville, and were offering lots for sale in 1839.

The name was changed to Harrison (named for the new US President) in 1840 when the county government was moved across the river.   Harrison began competing almost immediately for the new railroad planned from Marthasville (now Atlanta) Georgia to the Tennessee River, but lost out when the State of Georgia was offered a large piece of land by Chattanooga (later housing the old Union Station on Broad Street).

So Chattanooga became the railroad center and Harrison remained a small community. In 1870, the County seat moved to Chattanooga, and, in protest, Harrison residents successfully petitioned the courts to form a new County, James, with intentions of becoming the new county seat. However, in an 1871 referendum, Ooltewah was voted the James county seat. So Harrison remained a small community until flooded by Chickamauga Lake in 1940.   As a footnote, one of the earliest Hamilton County residents south of the Tennessee River was Thomas Guthrie, who on August 7, 1839, secured a land grant of 160 acres one mile north of Vanville (Harrison) on Georgetown Road, where he lived and raised 8 children.

Posted in Early History, Faculty

Faculty Additions for 1911-12

Posted on by pounder21

New Faculty 1911-12

 

In the fall of 1911, Central hired four new instructors, two at the beginning to replace departed Domestic Science teacher Mabel Agnes Fair and Commercial instructor Walter Harrington and one in December to replace math teacher C E Rogers, who left to help start up the East Tennessee Normal School in Johnson City.  Lillie Schwartz was also hired to supplement John Setliffe in teaching Latin and German.

 

Claudia Frazier was born April 27, 1883 in Washington, Rhea County, TN to Samuel  Frazier Jr. and Josephine Locke Frazier.  The fourth of five children, Frazier attended  Soule College in Murfreesboro and entered UT as a special student in 1905. While at UT Frazier was president of the student YWCA and captained the women’s basketball team in 1909. At the same time, her father’s first cousin, former Tennessee  governor  James Beriah Frazier, was a US Senator representing Tennessee.  She graduated with a BA in 1909, her thesis being, ” Life and Works of Tennyson.”  Frazier began her teaching career at Rhea County High School, Dayton, TN that fall.

Because of her lifelong interest in nutrition, Claudia Frazier was chosen to replace a former classmate, Mabel Agnes Fair, at Central in 1911 to lead the Domestic Science Dept.  Frazier hosted a nutritional seminar at the National Conservation Convention in Knoxville in March, 1913. At the end of the 1912-13 school year, Frazier resigned and married another former UT classmate, John Gilbreath, a newspaperman with the Associated Press, and moved to Atlanta. The Gilbreaths shortly thereafter returned to Chattanooga permanently, when Gilbreath became editor of the Chattanooga Times. Claudia Gilbreath became involved in many civic activities, including being named the local director of the Red Cross in 1919. She had become Tennessee’s first Red Cross certified dietician in 1917.

Ms. Gilbreath returned to academics in 1930 as the principal of Central Elementary School, a position she held for over a decade, retiring in 1942.  She and her husband owned and published several regional weekly newspapers and co-founded several Chattanooga institutions, such as the Chattanooga Federal Savings & Loan and the Chattanooga Little Theater.  When her husband and younger sister, Katherine, passed away in 1964, Claudia Gilbreath initiated a scholarship endowment in their honor at UC, still active today. She passed away on Signal Mountain  June 7, 1980.

Walter Pitts Selcer was born January 12, 1880 in the Falling Water area of Hamilton County, the only child of Richard F and Mary E Selcer . He married Laura Stewart on April 12, 1905 in Madison County, AL. Sons Walter P and Richard were born in 1907 and 1909 before Selcer came to Central in 1911 to direct the Commercial Dept, replacing Walter Harrington. Selcer was an ally to Supt. Brown in the removal of Principal Darrah at the end of the 1911-12 school year, was given a bonus for his actions, and remained at Central with Principal Ziegler until Ziegler left at the end of the 1920-21 school year.  Daughters Laura and Loe were born in 1913 and 1915. Selcer then directed the Commercial Dept. at City High for the remainder of his career, retiring in 1951. His youngest son, Stewart, was born in 1924.  Selcer passed away Jan 4, 1968 in Falling Water.

Arthur L Rankin was born to W. C. and Ida May Rankin on Dec 20, 1887 near Tullahoma, TN.  Rankin graduated from Fall’s Business College, Nashville, in 1905. He  taught at the Morgan School in Fayetteville, TN for two years, and then at Bedford and Coffee County schools until 1911, when he accepted an appointment  as the Chattanooga YMCA educational director.  When C E Rogers left Central in December 1911, Rankin replaced him, appointed by Supt Brown,  and was also instrumental in having Principal Darrah removed at the end of that  school year.  Just after Darrah was deposed, Rankin married Eleanor McKinney on May 25, 1912. Rankin, however, proved to be a very competent educator and eventually became Central’s first Assistant Principal. During the 1926-27 school year, Rankin penned Central’s Alma Mater.  While at Central, Rankin worked on his BA degree at UC, which he achieved in 1924. Rankin left in 1927 to become principal of Bradley County High School, then returned as Superintendent of Hamilton County Schools in 1932, a position he held until April, 1939, then again in 1941-42. In 1942 he retired from the Hamilton County system and became head of the math department at Baylor, staying until 1959. He passed away on Signal Mountain  April 9, 1975. He and Eleanor had three children, Arthur L Jr. born 1914, Ida M. (1915), and William J. (1919).

Lillie Schwartz was born in Chattanooga Dec 24, 1889 to German Immigrants Henry and Jane Poss Schwartz. The youngest of six children, Lillie graduated from City High in 1905 and received a BA from Ohio Wesleyan in 1909. Schwartz taught Latin and German at City before moving over to Central at the beginning of the 1911-12 school year. She taught, at various times, German, French, and Latin at Central over a long, but intermittent, career that spanned  48 years, retiring at the end of the 1958-59 school year.  Ms. Schwartz  never married, passing away in Chattanooga on Nov 10, 1963.

Posted in Early History, Faculty

Central Faculty Additions 1910-11

Posted on by pounder21

New Faculty 1910-11

For the 1910-11 school year,  Central added three faculty members, one to replace the departed A T Roark as director of the Commercial Dept. and athletics business manager. For the first time, photos of the faculty are available with the issue of Central’s first Yearbook, The Sleepless Eye.

William Ketcham Anderson was a math teacher at Central only for the year 1910-11, while taking courses at UC. He was born April 27, 1888 in New York City and graduated from Wesleyan (CT) with a BA in 1910. He left Central and attended Columbia University, receiving an MA in 1913, then to Union Theological Seminary for a Bachelors in Divinity in 1914. He then performed missionary work in Europe and Africa, and became a pastor at Ohio State University 1915-18. He married Fanny Spencer  Dec  19, 1916 and had two daughters -Almeda Jane (1918) and Elizabeth Cushman (1921). After serving as a pastor in Pittsburgh, he relocated to Nashville in 1939 when  the Methodist Episcopal Church, North, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and Methodist Protestant Church reunited, and Nashville was chosen as the site for a consolidated publishing facility–the Methodist Publishing House.  Anderson is credited with editing and publishing many religious books, tracts and pamphlets during his eight years  there. He died in Nashville Feb 7, 1947 and was buried in Vanhollow, NY.

Frank Eugene Gunn was born in 1877 to Melvin and Peorlina Gunn of Novelty, MO. He served in the Spanish American war and afterward entered Simpson College (Methodist college in Indianola, IA), receiving  a BA degree in June, 1903, and was married in Villisca, IA on July 22 of that year to Delia B. Jones of Princeton, IL.  Gunn came to Chattanooga as a teacher in the Hamilton County Schools and by 1906 was Principal of the East Chattanooga School.  Gunn came to Central in the 1910-11 school year as an English and history teacher, even though Central already two English and one history teachers on board.  At the end of that school year it was revealed in school board hearings that Superintendent Brown intended to not renew Principal Darrah’s contract and that his main ally was Gunn, whom he had personally appointed to Central. Gunn was bolstered the following year by appointments of Selcer and Rankin to Central by Brown to help end Darrah’s reign. After Darrah had been deposed in 1912, Gunn remained at Central as a history teacher (as Harriett Greve took leave for a masters degree) and instrumental music instructor (replacing Charles Garratt who was booted along with Darrah). Gunn left Central at the end of the 1915 school year (Greve returned the following fall) and took a similar position at City High, where he remained until retirement around 1940. He was the Chattanooga Area Leader of the Boy Scouts for 8 years.  Gunn passed away in Chattanooga on July 31, 1957. He and Delia had no children.

Walter Leo Harrington replaced A T Roark as Commercial Dept. instructor for just  the 1910-11 school year.  Harrington was born  Nov 26, 1871 in Boston, MA  to John and Mary Noonan Harrington, the fifth  of six children.  Harrington attended the Boston Latin School, taught elementary school  until entering Harvard in 1898, and received a BA in Commerce from Harvard University in 1900. Harrington returned to teaching and was headmaster of the Charlestown Evening School in Boston until 1905.  During that time he co-authored four books on English as a second language, based on his experience as headmaster.  He pursued a writing career until 1910, then inexplicably migrated to Chattanooga. Once at Central, Harrington was probably overwhelmed with managing the ambitious football program under Rike, as only four games were scheduled that fall; none with local teams.  However the Sleepless Eye gave kudos for Harrington in scheduling basketball games, in which Central was undefeated for the year, and he authored a rousing  write-up of Central’s Commercial Dept in the 1911 Sleepless Eye.  Harrington  relocated to Greensburg, PA and was a no-show for a commercial teaching position in New York in the fall of 1911. Working with Coach Rike had longer-term benefits, as Harrington next surfaced in fall of 1917 as the head football coach and commercial instructor of Rollins College, Winter Park FL, announced in the Sept 6, 1917 Winter Park Post, page 4. Fortunately for Harrington, Rollins only enrolled 10 male students that fall, so the football season was forgone.  Harrington, as a business professor, became a fixture in the local papers for his speeches on the bright future of Rollins College and the inevitable  economic boost on Winter Park.  Harrington was last reported by the local newspaper as having a serious illness in Washington DC while on a recruiting trip for Rollins in late March, 1918. Harrington re-emerged as a commercial instructor for the Charleston, WV schools in 1918-20, then as a speech instructor at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN for 1921-22.  He authored a fifth book entitled, “Speaking Well: The Art of Conversation” in 1924, and faded into obscurity afterward.

Posted in Military Training and JROTC

Rich History of JROTC at Central

Posted on by Bob Johnson

In anticipation of World War I, Central’s Principal Ziegler and faculty requested a military training program in 1916.  The program was approved by the Hamilton County School Board, preceding JROTC at Central.  On December 29, 1919, the first Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) unit in Tennessee activated at Central.  The Principal’s vision, preparedness for junior military training, and the fine reputation Central held in the State undoubtably were factors in Central’s choice as one of the first 30 pilot JROTC units created by Congress and the War Department in 1916 for the United States.

In 1927, the United States Army instituted Honor Unit (later renamed Honor Unit with Distinction) awards.  The Central Unit has been an Honor Unit with Distinction since 1927.  Further, it has been continuously in operation since 1919, making it the longest continuously operating unit in the South.

An average of 185 cadets graduate annually, approximately 16,000 since 1919.  Many have gone on to serve as commissioned and noncommissioned officers in one of our Country’s military services.  If you are one of them, please share that with us by clicking on comment and telling us about your military service.  If you know of Centralites who died in combat, please help us identify and honor them.

Posted in Historical Marker on Dodds Avenue

Monument & Markers Committee Changes Central Historical Marker Text

Posted on by Bob Johnson

On January 31, 2012, the Monument & Markers Committee of the Tennessee Historical Commission considered our application, modified our proposed text, and recommended approval of our marker.

Modifed text:    “From 1908 to 1969, this was the site of the first Hamilton County high school to offer a full four year curriculum.  From an initial graduating class of 19, the school grew to an enrollment of approximately 2000 students, making it one of the largest high schools in the state for a significant period.  In 1919, the first Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps unit in Tennessee was organized here.  In 1963, Central proudly accepted the 22nd annual National Bellamy Award, one of the nation’s highest merit honors for secondary schools.”

On February 17, 2012, the full Commission will vote on our application.