posted May 5, 2003
) Photo by GPS Teresa Lawrence Phillips was proud to be inducted as a charter member of the GPS Athletic Hall of Fame with her fellow inductee and former teacher Peggy Evans Thomas. Her education at GPS, Phillips said, was, like the Master Card commercial, "priceless." Click to enlarge. |
The first inductees are alumnae of the school or former coaches and were chosen for their outstanding accomplishments in, and contributions to, the GPS athletic program. The charter members are Eula Lea Jarnagin, Dr. Janet Parks, Teresa Lawrence Phillips, Peggy Evans Thomas, and Peggy Patten Winningham.
Honored posthumously was Eula Lea Jarnagin, one of three founders of the school in 1906. She went against the thinking of the early 20th century that physical activity was bad for girls’ health and made headlines by announcing that athletics would be part of the school’s curriculum. She personally led the students on long strenuous walks and made arrangements with the YWCA to use its gym each week for the intramural basketball teams at the school, officials said.
Miss Jarnagin was instrumental in organizing the first city-wide Girls’ Basketball League, with participation by Chattanooga High School, University of Chattanooga, Central High, and Cooper High along with GPS. Doubleheaders were played every Friday afternoon with over 400 people, the largest crowd at that time in Central’s gymnasium, attending the first game. During four basketball trials, Miss Jarnagin led by showing. She was the only one to sink all four baskets.
According to a knowledgeable GPS historian, “Girls’ athletics in Chattanooga have come a long way in the last 97 years, thanks to the initial spark lit by the founders of GPS, particularly Eula Lea Jarnagin.”
Dr. Janet Parks, ’60, has distinguished herself in a career devoted to sport management. A Distinguished Teaching Professor at Bowling Green State University, Dr. Parks received a B.S. in Health and Physical Education from the University of Chattanooga, a M.S. in Physical Education from Illinois State University, and a doctorate in Physical Education from Middle Tennessee State University.
A two-sport athlete at GPS, she captained the basketball team and played varsity tennis. According to her, “UC didn’t have an organized sports program for women in the early 60’s, so we organized ourselves. Even though we weren’t official, the volleyball and tennis teams traveled to other universities for competition and hosted tournaments at UC.” She played industrial league basketball and tennis and volleyball.
Dr. Parks is a founding member of the North American Society for Sports Management, which has honored her with an award for professional achievement and the Distinguished Service Award in 2001. The first editor-in-chief of the Sport Management Library, she was one of the founding co-editors of the Journal of Sport Management.
She was the recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Sport Management Council of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, and has twice been an Honorary Fellow in the Women’s Studies Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The Hall of Fame inductee most recently in the national spotlight is Teresa Lawrence Phillips, ’76. The Tennessee State University athletic director became the first woman to coach an NCAA Division I men’s basketball game in February when she coached the Tennessee State Tigers against Austin Peay.
As a student at GPS, Phillips lettered in volleyball, swimming and basketball before accepting an academic scholarship to Vanderbilt University. There she played center on the school’s first women’s basketball team. As a senior, she was awarded the Lady Commodore Athlete of the Year Award.
Phillips was an assistant coach for the women’s team at Vanderbilt and head coach at Fisk University before accepting the head coaching job at Tennessee State in 1989. She took a program that had been 2-25 and went 12-14 in her first season, accumulating a 212-189 record. She has served as the school’s athletic director since June 2001.
Inductee Peggy Evans Thomas was one of Phillips’ mentors at GPS. In a 35-year career as coach, director of dance, chairman of the P.E. department, and athletic director, Thomas was a role model of physical fitness for many students. She developed a physical education curriculum, an intramural program, implemented varsity athletic programs in basketball, volleyball, tennis, swimming, golf, and track; and coached several varsity teams. Along with her involvement in athletics, Thomas designed a creative modern dance program, which included Terpsichord, the state’s first high school modern dance ensemble, and planned and directed the annual May Day Pageant.
Thomas received her undergraduate degree from University of Chattanooga and her master’s from UTK. She has received specialized training at Duke University and Skidmore College and has taken master dance classes under such renowned artists as Twyla Tharp and in workshops with the Alvin Ailey and The Martha Graham dance companies. Since retirement in 1988, she has taught at Cleveland State Community College and Dalton State College, served on the Elderhostel staff for programs in Georgia and Arizona, and directed the Chattanooga Cotton Ball pageant.
A charter member of the Tennessee Association of Dance, she has held offices in the American and Tennessee Alliances for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. She has been honored as a Distinguished Faculty Member at GPS and as an Outstanding Teacher by the Physical Education Teachers’ Association. In 2000, the dance studio at GPS was dedicated in her name by the Alumnae Association of GPS.
When Hall of Fame inductee Peggy Patten Winningham entered GPS, the school, located on Palmetto Street, had no fancy athletic facilities, and the only sport was intramural basketball. In her junior year on the new campus in North Chattanooga, there was still no gym, and P.E. classes played softball, kickball, and basketball on the lower field. As a senior in 1949, Winningham was elected captain of the school’s first varsity basketball team. She recalls practices at First Methodist Church or at Red Bank High School and half court games with only one-bounce dribbles allowed.
By the time she attended Vanderbilt University, two-bounce dribbles were allowed, but basketball was still half court. She played badminton there, too, winning the tournament all four years.
Her competitiveness was resurrected in the 1970’s when she “took a few lessons, joined a tennis club, and entered a few local tennis tournaments.” Those few lessons led to age division state and southern tournaments in singles and doubles. She captured the City Closed title and the State Closed title in 1983. In 1986, she was the top-ranked player in Women’s 50s and 55s singles in Tennessee and in the USTA’s Southern rating and No. 17 nationally. At one TVI Tennis Championship in 1987, Winningham won in three divisions, 55s doubles, 45s doubles, and 35s singles.
Since then, she has been ranked 5th in 60s singles in 1992, 5th in 65s doubles in 1997, and 10th in 70s singles and 7th in 70s doubles in 2002. She is also a member of the Chattanooga Old Timer’s Sports Hall of Fame, inducted in 1999.
| Dining Out | Business | Movies | Focus | About Us |
| Church | Living Well | Memories | Outdoors | Real Estate | Student Scene | Travel |