Baylor coach James Rike
As attention is thrust on the opening of the movie, “42,” and the filming of part of it at Engel Stadium, I started thinking about a story I wrote on the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s debut as the first black major league baseball player.
I remember doing some research at the time and discovering that the famous baseball pioneer had played exhibition games at Engel Stadium at least three times – in 1951, 1952 and 1953.
However, that is not the only real world connection Chattanooga has to the famous story of Mr. Robinson. Baylor School once had a longtime coach named James Rike, who had played football at Ohio Wesleyan University.
That is significant because his coach was none other than Branch Rickey, who went on to become the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and made the decision to sign Mr. Robinson and play him. In the movie, the famous Harrison Ford plays the character of Mr. Rickey.
Coach Rike was a member of the Class of 1908 at Ohio Wesleyan and a football star, who would go on to be elected into the school’s sports hall of fame in 1963.
Mr. Rickey was the athletic director at Ohio Wesleyan from 1906-09 and also coached baseball, football and basketball. It is not known whether Coach Rike played other sports at the school, which is located in the central Ohio town of Delaware and is nicknamed the Battling Bishops.
But he made enough of an impact that his old coach always remembered his impact. A history of Baylor School written by James Hitt quotes Mr. Rickey as once saying of Coach Rike, “He is the best example I know of (regarding) what a little man can do when he puts his mind to it.”
Whether that was made at the time of his 1963 induction or earlier is not known, but the comment was likely cherished by Coach Rike.
Coach Rike had come to Chattanooga shortly after his graduation in 1908 to be the football coach of both Central High and the University of Chattanooga. It would be safe to assume that Mr. Rickey likely recommended him, but how someone in the city found out about Coach Rike would make for an interesting story.
Apparently, he contracted typhoid fever before the UC season could start, so he ended up just serving as an assistant at most and never became the head coach of the Mocs.
In 1919, after a stint in World War I, Coach Rike began serving as football coach at Baylor. He would serve until 1937 and then return for the 1939 season. He enjoyed good success, which included a 14-6 record against rival McCallie School.
He also was a successful track coach and in 1927 started the Baylor Relays, which was a popular prep track meet for several years and was held in the early years on the now-razed old Baylor cinder track. The football field also stood there for years and was called Rike Field, a name that remains for that part of campus.
While his sports records tell of success, a look at his personal side tells of a much more colorful and human character. Although he was known for working his players very hard and being demanding, while also preaching character, he could also draw lighter reactions from students for his somewhat eccentric personality.
Former headmaster and president Herb Barks had him as both a teacher and seventh-grade football coach and remembered seeing the humorous side of him.
“Coach Rike was a character,” he recalled with a laugh. “He was a biology teacher and Bible teacher, and you would be his biology class and he would say, ‘Barks, name me the 12 disciples.’ You would tell him that was Bible class and he’d say, ‘Who is running this class?’ ”
The 1951 Baylor graduate, whose father, Herb Barks Sr., was also headmaster, recalled playing seventh-grade football for Coach Rike and the coach would preach to the players a basic fundamental rule – when anybody has the football, tackle him.
A short time later, Coach Rike grabbed hold of a football and a young player tackled him, startling him.
“Coach Rike said, ‘What are you doing?’ And he replied, ‘You said to tackle anybody with the ball,’ ” Mr. Barks added. “He was sharp as a tack, but he was just kind of an eccentric coach.”
Whether Coach Rike inwardly shared or empathized with Mr. Rickey’s view of integration and racial tolerance is not known.
While playing professional football and as a student coach at Ohio Wesleyan before Coach Rike arrived as a student, Mr. Rickey was associated with two black athletes who played on each team. Those experiences were later said to have influenced Mr. Rickey greatly.
Mr. Rickey, a staunch Methodist, went on to become involved in pro baseball general management and on-field management beginning in 1913 with the St. Louis Browns. He had played briefly in the big leagues about the time Coach Rike was getting started at Ohio Wesleyan and was known for not playing on Sundays.
He died in 1965, just a little more than a year after Coach Rike did.
Coach Rike had been operated on for cancer of the larynx about the time of his retirement from Baylor in 1959 and lost his voice.
By that time, Mr. Rickey had become a leading voice of his generation for progressiveness on racial matters.
And Coach Rike evidently used whatever lessons he learned from Mr. Rickey to inspire Central and Baylor students to make a positive difference in the world as well.
As Mr. Hitt wrote in the history book of Coach Rike, “He was an unpredictable blend of rough humor, boundless energy, shrewd resourcefulness and partisan loyalty to the institution he served.”
Editor’s Note: To see the 2007 chattanoogan.com article on Jackie Robinson playing at Engel Stadium several times, click here: http://www.chattanoogan.com/2007/4/22/106006/Jackie-Robinson-Starred-At.aspx
Jcshearer2@comcast.net