Jerry Summers
A recent June 19, 2022 article in The Chattanooga Times Free Press Sunday edition in the Breaking News Section discusses the elimination of the successful college baseball program at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga but does not reveal the specific answer to the asked question.- Why?
A few general observations should be made initially.
Within a 75 mile radius of the Gig City lies a fertile area of outstanding baseball talent that has been demonstrated over the years with superb teams in amateur baseball in both public and private high school, American Legion and amateur teams from the 1930s forward in Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia.
Historically the area has always been a hot bed of the “Nation's Pastime.”
Local players have excelled in college, minor leagues and even several have made it to “The Show” in the big leagues.
In the glory days of Joe Engel (before television) Chattanooga was a revolving door for the Washington Senators and other major league teams.
The UTC baseball team was successful from the beginning more than 40 years ago. Local financial support and otherwise was prevalent. A committee of alumni and supporters including a wealthy carpet manufacturer executive from northwest Georgia was involved. His son was a coach from a successful college program in South Carolina and was a candidate to head the fledgling diamond club at UTC as coach. Whether his failure to get this job may have had a negative impact on his dad’s introductory support of the club and contributed to its demise is also unclear?
Several potential reasons for the discontinuation of the program 40 years ago are suggested but all seem to fail to sufficiently again answer the question.-Why?
In the 06-19-2022 article three possible reasons are given for elimination of the program after a 37 wins-20 losses season.
(1) Budget
(2) No playing field
(3) Title IX
The support of the program from alumni fans and interested businesses suggest this was a red herring as corporate leader Coca Cola also “said they would double the budget, so money would not be an issue.” A frequent guest on a local popular sport talk radio program was also a Coke-executive and avid supporter of baseball.
Although there was talk of preliminary plans for the university to build an on-campus baseball stadium, this seemed impractical and became moot when Engel Stadium was offered by the Chattanooga Lookouts as a playing field.
The third and most likely reason for discontinuing the program was the emergence of the Title IX gender-equity federal law that had been in existence for 10 years in 1982 but its regulations had not been as vigorously enforced after it had been enacted by Congress on June 23, 1972.
In Sunday’s article the UTC athletic department insists that Title IX “was not the cause.”
“Meeting Title IX criteria was the reason the school no longer has a track program but was not the reason for the baseball program being eliminated.”
So the mystery lingers after 40 years. Is there no direct answer to the Why? Question?
After the long period of time records may get destroyed, employees of the athletic department may have moved on or died.
Yet there might be one small possibility to solve the dilemma?
The Freedom of Information Act(FOIA) enacted in 1966 by Congress might be applicable to ask the university to make a concentrated search of records and to release any information that might answer the inquiry to balance effectively at least three sets of competing interests:
(1) Public accountability, or the public’s right to know,
(2) the university’s need for institutional autonomy to preserve academic freedom and funding effectively,
(3) and the rights of faculty, staff, and students.
(At the very least it might answer the questions of a sophomore first baseman in 1982 as to why his participation in his favorite sport would have to be taken elsewhere?)
P.S: UTC does have a non-scholarship baseball club in the National Club Baseball Association (NCBA) with headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and competes in a division with Auburn, Kennesaw State, Georgia, and Georgia Tech. During the 2021-2022 it compiled a record of eight wins and nine losses.
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Jerry Summers
(If you have additional information about one of Mr. Summers' articles or have suggestions or ideas about a future Chattanooga area historical piece, please contact Mr. Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com)