Amid Plans For New Baseball Stadium, Engel Stadium Still Sits Quietly

While plans are falling into place to move the Chattanooga Lookouts baseball stadium from downtown to the old U.S. Pipe and Wheland Foundry properties on the Southside by the Interstate, Engel Stadium still sits idle like a runner stranded on base.

For a variety of reasons, the old stadium where the Lookouts played from 1930-99 – minus 1966-75 – has been little used in the last decade or so. It received a lot of visibility when the 2012 Jackie Robinson biopic, “42,” starring Harrison Ford and the late Chadwick Boseman, was partly filmed there, but it has recently not had even the collective attention of a movie extra.

It is definitely on the inactive list, to use one more baseball-related reference.

So, what is its future? Owned by UTC (and the UT system) since the transfer was finalized in 2011 after the Third Street landmark had been formerly owned by the city of Chattanooga and Hamilton County, its future at least publicly seems uncertain.

Tom Ellis, the UTC assistant vice chancellor for operations in the Office of Facilities, Planning and Management, said in a recent phone interview, “Currently we don’t have any scheduled activities at the stadium.

We are in the process of completing a facilities assessment. It will report on the condition and the areas that can be addressed. We will then get an idea on the scope of that.”

The assistant vice chancellor, who remembers attending and enjoying baseball games there, said the assessment is supposed to be completed this fall.

Whether the university and others offering input will likely say that UTC cannot find much use for it and that any restoration would be expensive, or that plans for a positive future use are being finalized, Mr. Ellis did not say. He simply indicated that they are waiting for the report.

Longtime local community volunteers and advocates Becky Browder and Mickey McCamish, who are involved with the Engel Foundation that encourages the preservation and historical retelling of the stadium’s story and had early on been involved in fundraising, also do not know. They said they did attend a meeting this summer with UTC and other interested parties but still do not know a lot.

However, they are definitely pushing for the stadium’s preservation, increased future use and the telling and retelling of its colorful history.

Both also imagine how some Chattanoogans familiar with its rich history might greatly protest if a decision were made to tear the structure down. “To me the highest level of protest against tearing it down are the generations of Chattanoogans who have enjoyed it,” said Mr. McCamish, a retired U.S. Navy captain, who works with the Friends of the Festival that produces the Riverbend Festival and Riverfront Nights.

The building is on the National Register of Historic Places, although that does not prevent it from being torn down. However, a demolition would have to go through proper state channels due to its connection to UTC.

Both Ms. Browder and Mr. McCamish worry a razing could still happen if Engel sits unused.

“We are worried about demolition by neglect,” said Ms. Browder, the former real property manager with Hamilton County. “That happens a lot of times to historic properties.”

Although some repainting and infrastructural improvements were made more than a decade ago through the Legendary Pictures movie production company, an inspection of the stadium last week from the outside showed several holes and rotted wood beams in the roof.

While Ms. Browder and Mr. McCamish say UTC has been interested in using it and such past officials as administrator Richard Brown were very interested in creating a respectful legacy of use for Engel, they say it has not been used a lot since the Lookouts vacated it.

Tennessee Temple used it for baseball for a period, the UTC business school had some special events there, and the Southern League all-star game home run derby was there in 2014. But it has largely been unused. The area around it, meanwhile, has been developed by UTC into an attractive complex for intramural fields, a varsity women’s soccer field, a walking track, a fieldhouse, and a beach volleyball facility.

The juxtaposition of the two complexes creates quite a contrast.

Ms. Browder and Mr. McCamish said they don’t care what specific uses are made for Engel Stadium; they just hope to see something viable. “What we’d like to see is the history of the stadium preserved and shown,” she said, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic likely delayed attention being placed on the stadium by UTC.

Some of the stadium’s history is on a state historical marker by the stadium, as well as on some plaques along the nearby walking track done as a UTC student project under the coordination of Dr. Michael Thompson.

The stadium was built more than 90 years ago by Lookouts head Joe Engel. Designed by architect James Gauntt with a nice-but-simplistic brick frame, several windows, a roof and wooden seats, it was opened in 1930. For years it was known for its uniquely long distance of 471 feet to the centerfield corner.

Memorable games played there included a 1931 exhibition in which local teenage girl pitcher Jackie Mitchell struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig of the Yankees, and an unforgettable house giveaway night in 1936 attended by more than 24,000.

Such athletic greats as Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Satchel Paige, Bo Jackson and Michael Jordan also played there, as did Harmon Killebrew and Ferguson Jenkins for the Lookouts. Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby was also a Lookouts manager.

Evangelist Billy Graham and nationally known politician Bob Dole also spoke there.

But perhaps the name most associated with Engel Stadium was Mr. Engel, who was known for his promotional gimmicks, including a drama-like fake “elephant’ hunt before an occasional game. In 1929, he had been sent down by the Washington Senators to run the farm team here.

“All the stories are funny and so interesting,” said Mr. McCamish of the noted promoter. “Joe Engel was one of Chattanooga’s early entrepreneurs.”

Mr. McCamish grew up in Chattanooga before graduating from Chattanooga City High and remembers how much a part of Chattanooga Engel Stadium and the Lookouts were. That included local youth and high school games being played there, as well as the Knothole Gang club for youngsters. It was just a main place to be during the warmer months and was a center of social activity, he added.

“People would dress up when they would see the Lookouts,” he said of that different era.

He and Ms. Browder also believe that Mr. Engel, who grew up in Washington, D.C., was perhaps slightly more advanced regarding racial relations than a typical Chattanooga businessman during that era. Games involving black players were staged there over the years, the Lookouts integrated in 1963, and black and white children could freely mix when on the field during the segregated times.

As far as potential uses for Engel Stadium if it is restored, the two most obvious possibilities for UTC – using it for baseball and/or softball – are seemingly not likely at present. UTC does not have a varsity baseball team, despite the almost fanatic popularity of the sport in the SEC and a wish by many for UTC to restart a program. And the women’s softball team already uses not-too-old Frost Stadium at Warner Park.

High school or other youth baseball games, UTC intramural games, music concerts, special UTC events like graduation or a freshmen/Greek day are a few other obvious ideas that have been thrown out over the last few years. Using it for an occasional Lookouts game if the field and stands meet proper specifications is also a possibility. That has been done some with the historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham, which is 20 years older than Engel Stadium.

UTC administrator Mr. Ellis, who said they have also had contact with the Preserve Chattanooga historic preservation group, did say that the goal would be to have Engel Stadium as a multipurpose facility if feasible. That might include everything from soccer to intramurals to club baseball.

“The more potential uses, the better the outlook for it,” he said. “Land is at a premium for us. If we can make use of it, we’d like to.”

 

Todd Morgan of Preserve Chattanooga said he knows UTC would love to see Engel Stadium restored, but added, “The issue is what kind of use works for them and also meets current code requirements and, of course, how is a potential multi-million dollar project financed? The school would have to raise all of the money similar to other sports facilities, which are funded differently from education-related facilities."

Mr. Morgan added that his organization gave money to make roof repairs to the stadium many years ago.

While it is not clear if it could become another “Field of Dreams” if UTC does decide to restore it and people come to events there, to quote the movie loosely, Ms. Browder and Mr. McCamish and others with the Engel Foundation are staying wishful.

“My hope is it won’t be torn down,” said Ms. Browder. “At some point in the foreseeable future, we hope there will be some kind of use established by UTC.”

Added Mr. McCamish, “It would just be nice to see life returned to Engel.”

* * *
Jcshearer2@comcast.net