I was on the inaugural University of Chattanooga Baseball team in 1967-68 (starting right fielder and clean-up hitter). As the record shows and many have written, we were good.
Thank you to Mr. Summers for his continued interest in a UTC Baseball program. Several reasons for the termination of the program are contributing factors, but one to my knowledge has not been mentioned and it may be the culminating answer Mr.
Summers seeks.
A few years ago, a friend, the late head of the UTC College of Business, learned I had been a Moc baseball player. He said, “I hated the baseball program, all those missed classes and waivers ….”
Note when we re-started the program ’67-’68, we played 8 and 20 games. Mr. Summers reported that the last Moc season spanned 57 games. Given all of the games UT-Knoxville, Vanderbilt, and other major programs play, their players must have a special academic track that was not going to be available at UTC.
Weather, short season, no dedicated field, money, Title IX – all factors – but the solution to the “mystery” may be faculty opposition.
Ken Harpe
Signal Mountain