As Baylor and McCallie meet again this Friday night at 7:30 at Baylor in their annual series rivalry in Division II, both teams have outstanding programs and multiple college prospects.
Also, Baylor currently sits at No. 1 in the Division II statewide poll, while McCallie is second.
While the level of individual talent on each squad in terms of college interest seems to have gone up significantly in the last decade or so, the rivalry has always been intense. They first played in 1905 in McCallie’s first year of existence, and within a short period realized the game initially featuring boys’ college preparatory schools was the most important on their schedules.
And that has not diminished after Baylor began admitting girls in 1985 and after Girls Preparatory School became more loosely aligned with McCallie in terms of cooperation and extracurricular activities.
While I am not sure if an official from either school has recently totaled the series record, I had last year after the state championship game tried to painstakingly add up the wins, losses, and ties from the pre-overtime days. I used an old Baylor history book by James Hitt and my humble memories of the games played since the rivalry was renewed in 1971 after a 31-year hiatus. I also included the four playoff games they have had beginning with the first in 1974 and ending with last year’s state championship encounter at Finley Stadium won by McCallie.
The best I can tell is that Baylor still leads 45-44-3 if one counts at least two McCallie wins in games played prior to 1908. Baylor had evidently been predominantly an academically focused school during its early days after its founding in 1893, although the school in red and gray did play some sports possibly at what the school leadership considered club level. But the school had begun focusing more on sports as part of the total education of the child beginning in 1908, according to Mr. Hitt’s book, “It Never Rains After Three O’Clock.”
McCallie had originally set up its campus on the old family farm as more of a complete college preparatory school patterned after such schools as Culver Military Academy in Indiana, with activities focusing on the whole child. As a result, they offered football as a varsity sport.
The coach in McCallie’s inaugural school year beginning in 1905 was Professor E.L.”Ed” McCallie, who had been a halfback at Davidson College the previous year. To show how serious McCallie was that first year about sports, an assistant coach was Walter Watkins, who had been the head football coach at Vanderbilt in 1901 and 1902 and had a winning record there! Mr. McCallie would actually later go back to playing college football at Cornell after taking a break, so perhaps McCallie School also had older adult supervision in coach Watkins and recent college players L.W. White from South Carolina and Harry Gerstle of Virginia.
Of course, football was still in its early stages of development in popularity in Tennessee and the South, although the passion for it was already seemingly there due to the natural excitement of the sport.
A look at McCallie’s first varsity season of 1905 reveals that it played such teams as Morgan Training School in Fayetteville, Tn., in the first game on Saturday, Oct. 7. Despite reportedly being smaller and shorter and having only practiced a week, the McCallie team in blue and white played to a 0-0 tie, which was evidently considered a moral victory.
Although last names were usually just mentioned, players for McCallie that first season included Hahn, Thomas, White, Murphy, Rose, Wester, Smartt, Simmons, McCallie, Krause, and McCollum. The story said McCollum was Clarence McCollum, who was evidently the star and had a good ground game carrying the ball.
A McCallie history book by George Hazard Jr., “When We Came to the Ridge,” identifies some of those players as Fred Hahn, Earl Thomas, Len White, Pat Murphy, Earle Wester, Knox Smartt, William Simmons, and Ed McCallie.
On Oct. 14 they played Condor School of Huntsville in what was evidently the first home game in the history of McCallie and which resulted in another 0-0 tie.
A couple of weeks later in that inaugural season, the boys in blue played at Dayton in what was apparently a victory. Among the other highlights of McCallie’s first season was a 17-5 victory over Baker-Himel in Knoxville in what was an upset. After the game, sportsmanship seemed to take place, as the former private school no longer in existence hosted McCallie for what was described as a theater party.
McCallie also beat Chattanooga High, 2-0, on Nov. 25, after McCallie player Simmons tackled the Chattanooga player in the endzone for a safety early in the second half. Chattanooga High at that time was simply known as “the high school.”
But the game that mattered, according to people of today, was against Baylor University School two days earlier on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 23. In a contest played at Olympia Park where Warner Park is today. McCalie won, 5-0, in what was described as an exciting contest. The lone score was a Blue touchdown in the second half in the days when a TD counted only 5 points. An extra point kick attempt by Mr. McCollum was no good.
Baylor was said to be under the tutelage of a Capt. Moon in 1905. A look in Mr. Hitt’s Baylor history book shows that Baylor never had a faculty member named Moon, but William Deaderick Moon Sr. attended there from 1899 to 1906, so he was evidently the captain of the team. That would add more credence to the fact Baylor considered itself more of a club team and did not say it started a more formal football program until 1908.
Somehow Mr. Hazard’s book, apparently depending on some hand-written records by school co-founder Park McCallie’s wife, Hattie, said that McCallie won that first year, 41-0. If there was another game that resulted in that score, it could not be found.
No information could also be located on a game in 1906, either, by looking at old copies of the Chattanooga Times now available online and by typing in keywords in the search box. But the two teams did play for sure in 1907.
On Tuesday, Oct. 23, of that year, they played in what was headlined as a “rattling good game,” with McCallie prevailing 6-0 after a first half score. The newspaper writeup said the pioneering forward pass was even enacted in the game.
“Both elevens showed the effects of good training,” the writeup said, although it does not say where the game was played. “Each side used the forward pass to advantage, and the trick plays of the McCallie teams were directly responsible for their victory.” The article also said Baylor was considerably lighter in weight.
After Baylor likely saw the popularity of varsity sports at McCallie, it decided to focus even more on that realm, too, and S.J. McAllester was hired as the head coach before the 1908 season and would remain there through 1911. Coach McAllester had been the coach of the University of Chattanooga (aka Grant) the year before and would go on to be a lawyer and federal bankruptcy judge.
After a Halloween Day tie of 0-0 against McCallie in 1908 at the University of Chattanooga’s Chamberlain Field, the Baylor squad would finish 3-1-1 on the season, with Will Broxton the captain and underclassman Ed “Skinny” Whiteside the Baylor quarterback.
And thus the rivalry was born in the eyes of both schools and would become so intense that it was discontinued after the 1940 season. As a result, Baylor’s highly successful coach, “Humpy” Heywood, was only able to play against McCallie one time in his 21 successful seasons as coach.
After the rivalry was resumed in 1971, the intensity returned, but in a mostly classy way.
While Baylor still apparently barely leads the series record, McCallie has a 20-8 advantage since the Blue Tornado victory in 1998. And that includes two playoff games. Baylor did win every year from 2009-2013 and had a playoff win during that stretch.
But Baylor fans are hoping for a long run of success under third-year coach Erik Kimrey, while McCallie hopes to continue its success under first-year head coach Joel Bradford while still being assisted on defense by the highly successful former McCallie head coach Ralph Potter.
If McCallie wins, it will apparently tie the series record if the early games are included, while Baylor would pull a miniscule two games ahead.
If the passion on both sides seems similarly intense, it seems only fitting that the series record is close, too.
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Jcshearer2@comcast.net