Imagine you're a high schooler in 1920, traveling with your friends from school to play football against a team the next county over. You're excited, that is, until you arrive to find your opponent appears to have three stout, 25-year-old coal miners on their team. What do you do? After all, there were no rules against it.
This scenario wasn't hypothetical for many Tennessee students in the early 20th century. The chaotic world of unregulated high school athletics created situations ... more