The city of Chattanooga was really a HUGE part of all those world gold medals … a number of community organizations and individuals stepped up and built the Chattanooga Rowing Center so we would have a state-of-the-art training center …

“Businesses hired our athletes and provided them with part-time jobs … The generosity of the community truly made Chattanooga our “Home Base” and 1995 will forever be one of the greatest years in the history of US Women’s Rowing”

--Yaz Farooq, coxswain (women’s eight), 1995 world champion 

 

 

World champion.

  It doesn’t get any better than that and Chattanooga has an abundance of individuals and teams who have won at the highest levels in sports.

From a 10-year-old girl capturing a junior worlds in disc golf to the US Rowing Women’s team honoring us with their presence for four years and winning world gold’s in 1995 to a hall of fame wrestling coach winning a Veterans world title in 2004 and the most recent being UTC’s Steven Fox and the USA team capturing the world golf title last weekend, Chattanooga has produced an impressive number of world and Olympic champions since the late 1960s.

The champions cover a wide spectrum of sports, including baseball, basketball and football, disc golf, rowing and skeet shooting as well as swimming, tennis and wrestling.

Baseball – Rick Honeycutt – pitcher on 1989 World Series champion Oakland A’s

attended Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe HS and U. of Tennessee and won a game in the 1989 World Series.

Basketball – Venus Lacey – Olympic gold medal, 1996 U.S. Women’s Basketball Team … attended Brainerd HS and Louisiana Tech

Disc Golf – Gabrielle Gray won the under-13 junior worlds as a 10-year-old in 2010 ... now is an 8th grader at Heritage Middle School and who plays at the national level in volleyball …Gabrielle holds the world record for distance in her age group.

Disc Golf – Nick Powell won the under-19 junior worlds in 2007 … he is now on the disc golf pro tour

Football – Reggie White (Howard HS and Tennessee) won a Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers in 1996 ... Halls of Fame: Pro and College, Tennessee, Chattanooga

Football - Ray Oldham ... defensive back in the 1978 Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers

Golf – Steven Fox ... UTC senior ... member of USA world team champions (October) … also won the U.S. Amateur title in August …

Golf – Vance Randall – 1971 world putt putt champion … was golf pro and high school teacher in Chattanooga area for years … 1960s putter of the decade …  Halls of Fame: Pro Putters Assoc., Greater Chattanooga

Rowing – UTC alum Dan Beery has an impressive resume with an Olympic gold medal (men’s 8 in 2004) and three world gold medals in 2003 (2+), 2005 (4+), 2007 (the 8)

Rowing – Robert Espeseth – UTC rowing coach … 1986 world champion in the straight 4 … also has a world bronze (straight 4) in 1987 and an Olympic bronze (the coxed pair) in 1988 … Robert has been the UTC rowing coach since 1989 and was a key factor in the U.S. women’s rowing team training in Chattanooga, 1993-96.

Espeseth Comments - “It was a dream to win the world championship in 1986 as we (USA men’s 4) were pretty much an unknown commodity going against the two-time world champion West Germans … I had watched videos of their races and scouted them so I knew their race strategy and tactics, but they didn’t know ours … our disadvantage was that we had not competed together in many international competitions … our advantage was that we were an unknown commodity … we were a fast boat … I knew this, but most countries did not …

“In the heat and the semis at the world championship we took at early lead against the West Germans, but were contend to let them pass us the last 500 meters as long as we advanced to the next round … in the finals we made our move the last 500 meters and it was a sprint of a lifetime as we held off the West Germans down the stretch to beat them by a foot for the gold medal … the West Germans were shocked and couldn’t believe four guys from America who had not been together very long could beat them .. but we did … what a dream to win the worlds and the way we did it and who we beat was such a great accomplishment.”

“My goal when we put our boat together in 1986 was to embrace and savor the moment of sitting on the starting line at the world finals … to have a chance to medal was great, but to win a gold medal against the best in the world was something special.”

Women’s Rowing – in 1995, the Women’s eight, four, pair and lightweight pair all won world gold medals …

The women’s team moved to Chattanooga from Boston in 1993 to train for the 1996 Olympics … thanks to Robert Espeseth, Bill Raoul and many others the Rowing Center was built in 1993 mainly due to the fact that the USA Women’s Team decided to re-locate to Chattanooga.

The women’s eight had won silver medals at the worlds in 1992 and 1993 behind the Romanians, but 1995 was different. The US women’s program won four golds that weekend in Finland.

Comments by Yaz Farooq (coxswain for the US women’s 8) …

“1995 was such an amazing year. It was our third year being based in Chattanooga. In the eight, we were coming off two silver medal world championship finishes (both times to the Romanians in 1993 and 1994) and a couple of World Cup wins ... but that summer we finally broke through and captured the world gold … It was the first time in history for the US Women’s eight, but on top of that our women’s four, pair and lightweight pair also won …

"The city of Chattanooga was really a HUGE part of all those medals … For the first time (1993), the US Women had a permanent training base … a number of community organizations and individuals stepped up and built the Chattanooga Rowing Center so we would have a state-of-the-art training center … and helped us purchase racing equipment …

“Businesses hired our athletes and provided them with part-time jobs … The generosity of the community truly made Chattanooga our “Home Base” and 1995 will forever be one of the greatest years in the history of US Women’s Rowing”

Yaz was a two-time Olympian, world gold and world silver medalist and has coached the Stanford women to an NCAA rowing championship (2009) and NCAA runner-up)

Women’s Four – Melissa Iverson, Cindy Brooks, Katie Scanlon, Lianne Bennion Nelson

Women’s Eight – Anne Kakela, Mary McCagg, Laurel Korholz, Monica Tranel-Michini, Betsy McCagg, Catriona Fallon, Amy Fuller, Jen Dore, Yaz Farooq (coxswain)

Women’s Pair – Missy Schwen, Karen Kraft

Women’s Lightweight Pair – Christine Smith, Ellen Minzner

Head Coach – Hartmut Buschbacher ... Ass’t coach: Tom Terharr

Skeet Shooting – Carl Poston Sr and Carl Poston Jr .

Carl Poston Sr. (deceased) – won a world championship (410 bore, 98 of 100) in 1968 and 1969 (champ of champs, perfect score) … world team record 998 of 1000 with Shuford Johnson … Halls of Fame … National Skeet, Armed Forces Skeet Shooting, Tennessee and Chattanooga

Carl Poston Jr. – 1973 world champion (international, 197 of 200) … and is in the Armed Forces Hall of Fame ... has won several national titles and all-U.S. Armed Services titles …  graduate of East Ridge HS …  Halls of Fame: Armed Forces Skeet Shooting

Poston Jr. Comments – “A lot of people aspire to become a world champion, but not many reach that goal … It takes a great deal of time and effort and you have to have a mentor and I did have one in my dad.”

Swimming – Geoff Gaberino … 1984 gold medalist on USA 4x200 meter freestyle relay team  … swam in the Olympic prelims and USA set a world record, only to have that record broken by the USA team in the finals that night (Gabrino did not swim in the finals), beating Michael Gross and the West Germans for the title … Geoff swam at Baylor School and U. of  Florida ….  15-time All-American and four-time NCAA champion … member of two NCAA championship teams … Halls of Fame: Tennessee, Chattanooga, Baylor School, U. of Florida.

Gaberino Comments – “Looking back at my Olympic experience, is so important to me now knowing I represented my country … it was all about the priceless experience of competing in the Olympics and not so much about the gold medal … which turned out to be the cherry on top.

“I had no expectations of receiving a medal since I did not swim in the finals … but the rules were changed in 1984 and all athletes on gold medal winning relay teams received medals after the Olympics.

“I also had the privilege to be one of eight Americans to bring the Olympic flag into the stadium during the opening ceremonies at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.” 

Tennis – Ned Caswell – won the World Men’s 35s in singles and doubles (1999) and 35s doubles in 2001 with Orlando Lourenco … attended Furman Univ. and is the head pro at Manker Patten and head tennis coach at Baylor School … has won 15 national and world gold balls.

Caswell Comments – “Winning the world championships in singles and doubles in Amsterdam in 1999 was the greatest accomplishments I have had in tennis …”

“In 2001, Orlando Lourenco and I played unbelievable tennis in beating the top seeds 6-1, 6-0 in the semis and then beating Michael Pernfors and Nick Fulwood in the finals … Pernfors went on to win the Wimbledon Men’s 35 singles later that year …”

“And I am grateful and appreciative to Manker Patten for letting me take time off to play nationally and internationally.”

Tennis – Orlando Lourenco … (UTC alum)  he and Ned Caswell won World 35s Doubles in 2001 .... Halls of Fame: Chattanooga

Wrestling – Gordon Connell … McCallie wrestling coach, emeritus … 2004 Veterans World Champion (56 and older) … attended Brainerd HS and Pembroke College ..

has won an individual or team championship in every decade, 1960s-2000s .. state champ at Brainerd (1966) … coached Hixson (1973) then McCallie (11) to state wrestling titles …Halls of Fame: National Wrestling, Tenn. Chapter … MTSU Wrestling

Connell Comments:  “What meant the most to me was that I trained two years for the event following my injury from the 2001 U.S. Veterans Nationals ... God blessed me
in that I was healthy going into the 2004 Worlds Veterans ... I drew the
defending champ in the 1st round, who was from the host country (Czech Republic) …and I won, 8-6, in overtime … I then won two more matches, and met a Russian in the finals who had won the worlds several times and beat him 4-1, also in overtime … (he won again this year) … “

“Interesting note: all place winners that year were 56 yr of age …It meant a lot that my
wife, Jan, was there.”

Contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net