BASKETBALL MEMORIES

Lonsdale Recollections from long ago

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In my younger years, football was my favorite sport. I played for a neighborhood team in Happy Holler, when my family lived on Oklahoma avenue. Our home field was the Brookside field and our away games were played at sites including the old Alexander Park on Fifth Avenue, Moses school, Fountain City, and where other communities that fielded football teams in a loosely organized league. Years? Game examples?

I attended Christenberry Junior High for two years, where I walked daily to the school, about a mile from our house. In the fall of 1948, We moved to Lincoln Park, and the distance of the walk to school was a bit shortened. My earliest school, Mynders, had no gymnasium, and although there was one at Brownlow -- where I had been a student in the sixth grade -- the only games I recall ever playing in that gym was "Battle-ball". I touched a basketball for the first time at Christenberry, and I played as an eighth grader for a team in a Saturday morning recreation league, where the games were played at the Christenberry gymnasium.

I had abandoned the Happy Holler football team when we moved to Lincoln Park. In the ninth grade I continued to play in the Saturday morning basketball league, but never even considered trying out for the school's basketball team that year. By that time, I had become a decent shooter. In fact, I led the recreation league in scoring, and even the gym teacher Kenneth Parry, who was the coach of the school basketball team, had noticed my accuracy (he refereed those games in the recreation league) and asked me asked me to be a member of the school's "B" team. But it was just before the basketball season ended, and I only played in one game of those games before the season came to a close. However, I did manage to drop in some long set shots in that one contest. But I thought it was just an anomaly, and still favored the sport of football. I had been a quarterback for the Happy Holler team, and I passed, ran, and kicked (including the now long-forgotten art of drop kicking) and envisioned myself at least moderately talented in the sport. We had no football team to speak of at Christenberry, other than a two-had touch team that usually played among ourselves, although one time we did once play one of those touch football games against Park Junior High School, at the old Evans Collins field.

I attended Rule High School in the fall of 1949, rather than go to Knoxville High School, which was the only other high school (for white students) in Knoxville at the time, other than the Stair Tech school. I wasn't particularly interested in "learning a trade" at the technical school, and Knoxville High School was so large and had so many students, with its choice of a variety of talented athletes, that I figured I might have a better chance of making the football team at Rule.

The football coach at Rule was Ralph Hutchins, affectionately known as "Hutch" by the players, students, and faculty alike. He was a fine man and a good football coach. In the fall of 1949, I went out for the football team. I got one of those worn scrub uniforms, and spent the fall being splattered all over the practice field by players like Jay Sentell and Jim Johnson, both outstanding players who mopped up on the scrubs with regularity. Hutch had already told me that among other things he was grooming me to kick extra points in future years for the team. In fact, he had scouted our Happy Holler team down at the Brookside field when I was playing for the team there, and had put the bug in my stepfather's ear to convince me to go to Rule. I played on the B team that year, seeing very limited action, but I was essentially looking forward to the next season. As to basketball, assuming that I didn't have the talent to even make the "B" team, the thought never even crossed my mind to try out for that team.

In the spring of 1950, I continued throughout spring practice on the football team, but was not making that much progress, and I still did not make the varsity team that fall, again being relegated to the B team, and I was becoming a bit discouraged. By spring practice in 1951, I was alternating at first string fullback with another player, and I actually got out of some of the hard work almost every day, when Hutch would send me to the opposite end of the field to practice drop kicking extra points. He was the last of the local high school football coaches who preferred that method of kicking extra points, and likely one of a handful in the nation who was still doing so.

That August, the hot late summer sun was beginning to wear me down. Not only that, it suddenly occurred to me that anytime during practice when I broke away from the line of scrimmage on a run I usually soon was caught and tackled by a player on the defense. The simple fact was that even if I was sometimes shifty, I was as slow as molasses. The wind sprints at the end of each practice session further convinced me, since not only all of the other backs, but the ends and guards, and sometimes even the tackles, were outrunning me to the finish line of those grueling fifty yard runs. On one particularly hot afternoon, just a week or so before the season would begin, I returned to the gymnasium to put on my uniform that was standing there as usual in its upright position from that morning's practice, where all one had to do was merely step into the stiff and stinking thing. That day, again displaying my lack of speed in a draining practice, I wondered what the hell I was doing there. That night, my body aching and dreading the next day's practice, I simply decided not to return to the field the next day and dropped my dream of playing football. I wasn't making much progress, I was obviously too slow to ever amount to much as a player, and suddenly my desire for the game was gone.

I noticed a printed announcement on the gym door one day indicating that Coach Willard Martin was holding basketball tryouts. On nothing more than a whim, I decided I may as well try out for that team, although I still envisioned myself just mediocre at best at basketball. At that time, an extensive renovation project was going on at the school, including the construction of a new gym, lunchroom, auditorium, and additional classrooms. It was a part of the drastic changes in the city high school system, when Knoxville High School would be closed at the end of the school year in the spring of 1951, and students would attend new high schools that would be called Fulton, East, and West. Whether the additions at Rule were in anticipation of additional students at that school, or perhaps to pacify community residents in Lonsdale, Beaumont, and West View, with the upgrading of the school with badly needed new facilities, I didn't know. But there was no gymnasium at Rule for the 1950-1951 season, and those pre season try-outs were held at the YMCA gymnasium downtown.

I rode the KTL bus after school to get to the YMCA for those tryouts. They lasted about two weeks. I discovered that somehow I had apparently improved my shooting ability, and I was regularly hitting long set shots, and shorter one-hand shots, with considerable regularity during the scrimmages. We practiced in the both the main gymnasium and in an adjoining court. Coach Martin obviously could not be in both places at once, and one or more of the school's assistant coaches -- D. M. Miller, Ermal Howard, and Roy Wallace -- were regulars at those practices, to observe and grade performances of the candidates for the team. In those days, all of the coaches participated and helped out in various ways with the school's various sports teams. Those coaches apparently saw something in my ability, and when the list of those who had made the team was posted on the door of the gymnasium following the try-outs, my name was among those who had made the team.

1950 - 1951 season

Rule didn't have nearly the number of players on its varsity basketball team as there were on the Knoxville High School team. The Trojan, the KHS yearbook for 1950, pictures twenty-seven players in uniform as members of their basketball team that year. At Rule in 1951, our varsity team numbered ten players, and that included three boys who also played on the B team that year -- Allen Wright, Jim Fowler, and myself. While I sat on the bench much of the season, when players either got into foul trouble, were in the coach's doghouse, or we occasionally had a substantial lead in a game, I did get the chance to play, and actually played in every game that year, but usually making little contribution to the cause.

The rosters for the basketball teams at Rule at the beginning of the season that year were the following. Varsity team : Tim Williams (captain), Jay Sentell, Tiny Bell, Earl Bruce, Harry Russell, Lee Roy McCoy, Don Walker, Ronnie Allen, Allen Wright, Jim Fowler. B team : Doyle Human, Jack Weaver, Richard Landon, Jim Fowler, Allen Wright, Bob Jarnigan, Orville Finley, and Carl Cooper.

I didn't discover until years later that coach Martin had once coached the YMCA team, and also had been the basketball coach at Knoxville High School during World War Two. Our schedule during the 1950-1951 included twenty-two varsity games and eleven B team games. The reason for that difference was that sometimes when we played games against teams from Knox County, and occasionally against teams from other surrounding counties, those schools did not have B teams, and sometimes they fielded girl's basketball teams. Apparently Alcoa had no B team, and Carter was an example of a school that had a girl's team, a team Rule did not have at that time.

We opened the season against Catholic, losing that game in a low scoring affair by a single point, 31-30, with Tim Williams leading the Rule scoring with 16 points. We then played at Karns, winning that game handily by the score of 70-38. When the season opened, I had developed several blisters on each foot, either not having previously been involved in the extensive workouts wearing tennis shoes, or maybe I was even wearing Chuck Taylors that were too small for my feet. In any event, for at least the first two or three weeks of the season, before each game I would have to put something that I think was called "Tuff-Skin" on my feet, wrap them in heavy gauze, and also put some greasy substance from a can that was kept in the school locker room, which made the socks slide around inside my shoes instead of worsening the blisters.

Our next game was at Young, and we lost another close game, 61-56. In that contest, Rule missed a whopping nineteen free throw attempts, else we likely would have won the game. That Young contest was also a rough and tumble affair, and I was inserted late in the game when many of our players had fouled out. With a minute left in the game, another of one of our players fouled out and we played the rest of the game with only four players on the floor. I intercepted an inbounds pass that led to an easy crip at the other end of the floor and the margin was down to two points. Young then failed to score, but not looking closely enough at the clock I got my hands on the ball and heaved a desperation shot from mid court with a few seconds still left in the game. That shot almost went in, hitting the back of the rim and bounding into the hands of a Young player, who quickly threw the ball the length of the court when one of their players made a crip and was fouled and then made the free throw for the final five point margin. Our next game was against Carter, which we won. 60-49. The was no B team game and the preliminary game that night was a girl's basketball game between Carter and New Market. We than played Powell, losing a close game by the score of 46-42, with Earl Bruce leading the scoring for Rule with twenty points. For the first five games, we had won two games handily and lost three games by a total of eleven points, so our team was at least competitive. I got to play in all of those games, but only in a token role.

We then took a trip to Florida to play two games against teams in Jacksonville, Lee and Landon high schools. The trip was during the holiday vacation and the games were played on December 29 and 30, 1950. Coach Martin and two assistant coaches at the school drove their personal automobiles to and from Florida, carrying the ten players who made the trip. We lost a close contest to Landon by the score of 54-51, then were blown out of the gym by the Lee team, 64-38. I got to play in both games, as did every player who made the trip. I doubt that there were funds available from the city athletic department to pay for such an excursion, which of course included not only travel expenses but meals and lodging at a downtown Jacksonville hotel, and while I never thought to inquire at the time, I imagine the school administration and likely some of the coaches themselves managed to scrape up money to finance that trip. That trip turned out to be particularly painful for coach Willard Martin because of a situation that occurred one night at the hotel where the team was staying. Following the game against Landon, I was with three other players as we were returning to our rooms. The rooms were on an upper floor, accessed by an elevator. In those days, those conveyances had an operator, usually a female. Such was the case that night, and one of or players decided to make a pass at the operator as the elevator was taking us to our rooms, even reaching over and pinching her on the butt. His name shall remain anonymous here, but the elevator operator soon reported the incident and all hell broke loose. We promptly had a team meeting, everybody was read the riot act, and not only Martin but the other coaches were obviously both disappointed and disgusted with what had occurred. I was never sure what measures were taken against the boy who caused the commotion, but apparently it was not an overly severe punishment, since he continued in the starting lineup and never lost his fist string position on the team. I rode home with some team players in coach Martin's car. He really didn't say that much on the return trip, but somewhere along the way he mentioned that it had been the first time a basketball team from Rule had taken an out of state trip during the regular season, and considering what had happened he doubted that another Rule team would ever be taking another similar trip. I can't confirm it, but I believe his prediction was probably right during all of the years thereafter, until the school was closed.

When the season again cranked up in January, we visited Central. We had acquired new road uniforms that season, gold with blue trim, and they had been sent to the cleaners following the Florida trip. Somehow, the cleaning establishment had apparently used excessive heat, and all of the elastic was suddenly gone from the bands of the shorts of those uniforms. Unfortunately, we didn't discover that until we arrived at the Fountain City school. Everybody was scurrying for safety pins and extra adhesive tape, and our players performed with their uniform shirts hanging out that night, their shorts hastily adjusted so they would at least partially stay put, with a combination of those safety pins and a healthy wrapping of tape. We lost that game, 43-41. Tiny Bell led Rule with 14 points. Coach Martin was still experimenting with the lineup. Our B team lost to Central, 56-41, and I led our scoring with twelve points.

We then visited Carter, the uniforms having been hastily sent somewhere to replace the missing elastic in the waist bands. We again defeated the Green Hornets by the score of 55-47, with Tiny Bell again leading the scoring with fifteen points.

We played Knoxville high school at their antiquated gym, never being in the game as the Trojans romped by the score of 60 - 36. Our B team also lost to KHS, 58-37. We then played our second game against Karns, again defeating the Beavers, 38-27. Allen Wright, Jim Fowler, and myself continued to dress out for the varsity and played briefly in all of those games. We then went to Alcoa and beat the Tornados, 44-41, Tim Williams leading our scoring with fourteen points.

Our second game against Knoxville high school was a far cry from the earlier contest. Tiny Bell got hot and couldn't miss a shot, personally outscoring KHS on his own in the first quarter and scoring twenty-two points by halftime. He finished with 32 points, Tim Williams added fifteen points, and we barely lost to the Trojans, 62-20. Leading KHS that night in scoring were J. D. Byington and junior Buddy Cruze. Our next game was an afternoon contest against Young, when we avenged the earlier two point loss by posting a 47-40 victory, with Bell, McCoy, and Russell leading the scoring. Our B team eeked out a 41-40 win, Jim Fowler scoring eleven points and I added ten points. We visited Powell and once again lost to the Panthers, 55 tp 48. Our B team won the preliminary game, 38-34 and I led the scoring with eleven points.

Both the football and basketball games between Stair Tech and Rule were often promoted as grudge matches in local newspapers, although an early victory in the 1930's was Stair's only ever win against Rule in football, and the same was usually true in basketball games. In the first contest between the basketball teams in 1951, Rule won handily, 74-31. We also won the B team contest. The game was played at the Knoxville high school gymnasium, with Tiny Bell leading the scoring with 24 points.

In a return match against Catholic, we upset the Shamrocks with a convincing 59-39 win, something of a shocking game considering Catholic was considered a very good team that year, having won games against significant competition, including a victory over Knoxville high school. Our team was briefly on a roll, and we went to Fountain City for the next game and defeated Central, 57-55, avenging an earlier two point loss to the Bobcats. Lee Roy McCoy suddenly showed up as an offensive threat for Rule, having scored 17 points in the victory over KHS, adding another seventeen in the victory over Central, then leading the scoring for Rule once again in the following game against Farragut, in a 56-49 victory.

In the final regular season game against perennial opponent Stair Tech, we again defeated the Engineers, 74-48. Again, that contest took place at the Knoxville high school gym.

The district tournament was played at the Chilhowee Park arena. Apparently forgetting about the stellar performances in winning four of our last five regular season games, and almost upsetting Knoxville high school in the other game, either the Rule team had experienced enough for the year, or perhaps the players were interested in something else that was going on in Lonsdale, or elsewhere. We barely defeated Farragut in the first game of the tournament, 46-44, then lost to Powell by the score of 45-37, to close out our season.

Rule finished the season with a record of twelve wins and nine losses.

1951 - 1952 SEASON

An article in the News Sentinel on January 21, 1951 announced that the TSSAA had issued a ruling that was designed to solve a potential problem in Knoxville concerning the requirements for attendance at city high schools. To assure equal sports participation at the new high schools that were to open in the fall of 1951 -- Fulton, East, and West -- it was ruled that students who lived in designated residential zones would only be permitted to play sports at the high school located in their zone. Knoxville high school would close, and the requirement was designed to discourage the possible enrollment of an inordinate number of the experienced players from KHS to attend the same new high school in Knoxville, to avoid initially potentially creating an advantage for the sports teams at a particular school. The ruling resulted in a relatively equitable distribution of the players. In basketball, it turned out that three talented basketball players who had been juniors at KHS the previous season -- Kyle Testerman, Barry McKinnon, and Tommy Ayers -- opted to attend prep schools in Chattanooga for their senior year. When the new schools opened in the fall of 1951, East was one school where several players who earlier had been members of Knoxville high school's teams were in attendance. However, there were examples to verify that the ruling was effective. Dewey Thomas, who had been a starter on the KHS basketball team, played and starred for the new West high team in that school's initial year. There were other examples as well. I had never been aware of that ruling in 1951 until running across that original newspaper article in recent years, but there must have been an exception for certain students, such as those who were already attending a school that was already in existence. Although I lived in Lincoln Park and was in the residential zone that would have required that I attend the new Fulton high school, I had no problem continuing to attend Rule during my senior year.

During the laate practices leading up to the opening of the basketball season, Coach Martin had one of our student team managers, Tony Earl, keep a daily account of the shooting percentages and points scored in our scrimmages. I was playing the forward position during much of the pre-season, and I led the team both categories in those statistics. One of our team's glaring weaknesses was a lack of height, Jim Fowler and Tiny Bell being a slight taller than six feet, but our average being less than six feet tall. Just before the season started, coach Martin moved me to the guard position. Between that situation, that proved to be a bit uncomfortable to me in playing at the new position, and the inner feeling, once I began playing before crowds, that despite those pre-season statistics I probably would not be very successful on the basketball court, I had a season in which I seldom came close to playing up to my potential that year.

The varsity basketball team roster at Rule at the beginning of the season was as follows : Ronnie Allen, Tiny Bell, Jim Fowler, Tommy Ensor, Doyle Human, Bob Lawson, Arville Patrick, Ott Kidd, Don Walker, and Allen Wright. As coach Willard Martin later tried some new combinations during the season, players later elevated from the B team to the varsity during the season included Richard Landon and Jack Weaver. Others on that year's B team that year were Jim Harper, Bobby Bell, Don Kelso, Leslie Johnson, Ronnie Daniels, Myles Tillman, Jack Beckham, and Carl Cooper.

While my memory is rather foggy today concerning the date, I believe it was in the fall of 1951, before the basketball season started, that our team went to the gymnasium of another local high school, where our players and members of other local high school basketball teams heard and saw an exhibition by Chuck Taylor, then an older gentleman and the man whose name was on the sneakers of virtually all basketball players in those days. After discussing some of the finer points of the game at length, Taylor, with a basketball in hand, lined up members of those teams, with each player stand facing him, one by one, to demonstrate various way to pass the basketball beyond a defender. Old Chuck made virtually every one of the boys look silly, as he calmly passed the ball over their heads, between their legs, around their bodies, and elsewhere, as each of the players attempted -- usually with little success -- to defend the passes.

On Sunday, December 2, the News Sentinel mentioned that we played a "non-scheduled" game that would not count in the record, against a Rule alumni on Saturday night, December 1, 1951. That technically was the first game played at the new Rule gymnasium. The school yearbook records the score of that game as a victory for the alumni team, by the score of 50-46. I locate no detailed newspaper report of the game, nor the box score. Today, I have no recollection of that basketball game, but obviously it was played.

Our opening game of the regular season was against Bearden, at their court. We won the contest, 54-46. Tiny Bell led our scoring with nineteen points. I started the game but only contributed four points, and our center Jim Fowler, who would eventually lead the team in scoring, only managed to score a single field goal. Bob Lawson came off the bench and scored nine points. At least we had started with a victory. There is one mystery concerning that Bearden basketball team. Their center was named Elvin Coker, a talented player who led all scorers in that game with twenty-eight points. But b,y January local newspapers no longer list his name as a player on the Bearden team. The school's 1952 yearbook lists him as a graduating senior that year, but that same annual does not picture or mention him as a member of that year's basketball team. A puzzlement that I'm sure someone somewhere could answer.

The next game was a stark reminder that with the overall height of our players, we would often be at a distinct disadvantage during the season, unless we played flawless basketball. We played a much taller Clinton team in a Saturday night game and lost, 45-37. The fact that I led the scoring for Rule with fourteen points seemed of little consequence, as we had christened our new gymnasium with a loss.

Our next game was also played at home, against Gibbs. At least we didn't follow our opening loss with another defeat, although we were lucky to come out with a victory. That season, a new free throw rule was in effect, giving players who were fouled on a non-shooting violation the opportunity to take free throws, instead of taking the ball out of bounds. Rarely remembered or mentioned today, the original rule stated that if a player missed the first free throw, he was given a second opportunity to make the shot. The rule came into play in that game. Gibbs scored and took a one shot lead with a few seconds left in the game and I took an inbounds pass and was fouled near midcourt before I could loft a long distance two-hand shot with a prayer. I went to the foul line and was so nervous I didn't even get the ball to the front rim. But the new bonus rule gave me another chance, and when the ball went through the basket to tie the score, the crowd noise was deafening. We pulled out a narrow 50-49 win in overtime. By 1954, the rule had been changed, giving players a bonus shot only if the first free throw was made.

We weren't as lucky in our next game, also played at what should have been the friendly confines of our home court. Visiting Catholic defeated us by twelve points, 46-34. Tiny Bell, who had led Rule's basketball team in scoring the previous year, led our scoring with seventeen points, about the only semi-bright spot in that contest.

We should have found some way to stay out of Blount county the next time around. We visited Alcoa, and they literally turned us every way but loose as they demolished us by the score of 89-36. I managed to score nine points, as did center Jim Fowler, in that forgettable slaughter. Like some other schools, the gym at Alcoa was a fairly small place, and it seemed that every one of their players had a favorite spot, where they managed to make baskets with nothing short of uncanny accuracy that night. In a turn-around game when they later visited Rule in a return match, the end result would be the same, but the margin would be quite different.

In our next game we played Young high school at home. Somehow, we managed to click that night and gave the Yellow jackets their first defeat of the season, 50-43. It was considered an upset, and rightfully so.

We then played in the JCC tournament in Maryville. By the luck of the draw, our first opponent was Young, the team we had just defeated. In that game, we again prevailed, but in a much closer contest, by the score of 52-50. Players at Young included Tom Lockett, Jerry Tuttle, and Gerald Oliver, and I had little doubt that they probably were the superior team, but somehow we had managed to beat them twice in a row. Another of my old Christenberry classmates, Bob Blackstock, played for Young that season. Later that year, we would record a third victory over the South Knoxville school.

In our next game, we were booted from the tournament by Loudon, losing by the score of 57-52. Tiny Bell led our scoring with sixteen points.

We then played Powell Panthers, a team that to date had been hot and winning their games against quality competition. Played on our home court, and following the loss to Loudon but playing more like the team that had taken consecutive games from Young, we managed to upset the Panthers, 50-48. Coach Martin removed me from the starting lineup for that game, but I did play enough to score seven points, second to Tiny Bell's thirteen. I remember that during that game when I got anywhere near the backboard there were always large bodies and flying elbows seeking rebounds, and I pretty well stayed away from that section of the court when possible, admittedly intimidated by the size of Powell's front line, led by Leo Cooper, who poured in twenty-eight points that night in a losing cause.

We then traveled to east Knox county to play Carter, and proving that we never were able to stand prosperity very long, we managed to lose that game, 45-40. Nobody on our team scored as many as ten points that night, and the coach still had me on the bench when the game started. I managed to score six points, and probably played in less than half of that contest. I didn't understand why my playing time had been limited, but that's the way it was.

Tiny Bell's twenty-four points were not enough, as we lost our next game, to Catholic, 46-43. I was becoming disheartened, since again I not only didn't state but I only played a few minutes in that game. It was the only game I ever played at Rule when I didn't score a single point.

We then entertained West at our home court. Again, I was not in the starting lineup, but I managed to get in enough playing time to add ten points to Tiny Bell's nineteen points and help contribute to our 50-40 win. One thing I remember about that game was in the aftermath, when West's star player Dewey Thomas was in the dressing room following the game and kicked a locker, obviously disgusted that we had beaten the Rebels, which he obviously thought shouldn't have happened. It might have been that he was right.

Central visited our place next, and the Bobcats managed to barely grab a victory, 52-49. I was again a bench-warmer for much of the game, as Bell, Wright, and Fowler led our scoring. I was obviously in Martin's doghouse for some unknown reason. I never found out why, and was getting to the point where I didn't care that much anymore at that point.

Coming off five consecutive games when I had been removed from the starting five and spent considerable time warming the bench, for unknown reasons the coach again inserted me in the starting lineup. It was for a game played in Clinton. Their gymnasium was a real crackerbox, a small facility where one side of the court dropped off to a dark forbidding room that was perhaps a classroom or a cafeteria, several feet below the level of the playing floor, and really a rather frightening obstacle. We lost that game, 63-47, to an obviously superior team. I did manage to lead our scoring with thirteen points. During that game, just before halftime, I took a rebound from the defensive board and turned and made a one-handed shot at the opposite end of the court just before the halftime buzzer. It was an actual shot, and not a desperation throw, which gives an indication of the small dimensions of that gym. Actually, that goal was not a great rarity for me. I kept a record of my scores and shots during the season, and that year during games I made seven shots from midcourt or even longer, at the end or quarters, halves, and games. Sometimes, those that I missed came pretty close. I would often practice such long distance shots, and I had a knack (or the luck) to make several of them that year.

The Clinton game was the last game Tiny Bell played on the basketball team at Rule. The word around school was that he was ineligible because of his age, but contemporary newspaper articles in local sports pages told a different story -- that he had been dropped from the team for "academic deficiencies" -- apparently he failed to pass enough classes to qualify to continue as a member of the team.

Our next game was against Fulton, at their gym. We lost that contest, 71-64. I was playing that game against a number of boys who had been my classmates when I had attended Christenberry junior high school, including Buddy Rhea, Jimmy Rogers, Jay Bayless, Bill Byars, and others. I also knew many of the Fulton students who were in the stands that night, since I still lived in Lincoln Park, and my residence was actually in the zone where I normally would have been required to attend the new Fulton school. Tiny Bell was gone from the team, and while I started the game coach Martin pulled me fairly early and I didn't contribute much to the loss. I later thought that perhaps the coach limited my playing time that night because of the loud catcalls that were shouted in my direction while I was on the playing floor, from some Fulton students who apparently thought I had been a traitor by not attending Fulton. I always thought it was interesting that none of the boys who had been on the starting basketball team at Christenberry ended up making the starting team at the new Fulton school, or at any other local high school that I was aware of. On the other hand, several who were now playing for local high school teams were, like me, those who had not made the team at Christenberry, but instead had played in a recreational Saturday morning league at the junior high school back in 1948-1949.

Back at the Rule gym, we played a return match against Alcoa, the team that had humiliated us in the Blount County debacle earlier in the season. This time the game was much different. We played the Tornadoes toe to toe, and with two minutes left in the game they held a slight two point lead and went into a freeze. I was guarding their star player, Herman Thompson, who was just standing there dribbling the ball and attempting to run out the clock. It wasn't that difficult to time the rhythm of his dribble, and I made my move and stole the ball with my left hand, transferred the ball to my right hand, and headed down the court with a clear path to the basket. Unfortunately, one of my overanxious team mates, who had hustled in from my right in an attempt to assist, somehow managed to kick the ball directly back into the hands of the trailing Thompson. I fouled Thompson on his shot attempt, he made the free throws, we failed to score when we got the ball again, and Alcoa added another open crip shot. Our meaningless last second two pointer left the final score at 48-44 in favor of Alcoa. It was a heartbreaking loss, but an astounding turnaround from the earlier game, when the same team had blown us out of the Alcoa gym by fifty-three points.

We then traveled to east Knoxville to play East high school. We were soundly defeated by the score of 69-43, as Frank Hall scored twenty points and Buddy Cruze added nineteen for the Roadrunners' easy victory. Coach Martin continued to shuffle the lineup and had brought up Leslie Johnson from the B team to the varsity. We were not nearly as bad as the score in that game indicated, but even so we played a lackluster game that night.

Our next game was at West, where we led from the outset and won that game, 71-60. It was our second victory over the Rebels during the season, and proved that when we played as a team we could compete with most of the local teams. In that victory, Jim Fowler had eighteen points, I had fifteen, Allen Wright had ten and Doyle Human scored fourteen, as we somehow displayed a balanced attack.

We then played a return match against Fulton, at home. I was again playing against several boys from my Lincoln Park neighborhood, but now the game was on my home floor. We had some players out of school suffering from the flu, and Martin not only had no choice than to put me on the starting team, and even played me at forward that night. For much of the game it was a closer game than the earlier contest against the Falcons, but we again lost, 73-63. Buddy Rhea scored twenty-nine points for Fulton, but the Sentinel only credited him with twenty-three points, reporting in newspapers the following day that my twenty-five points had taken scoring honors for the game. Years later, I saw Buddy, now living in Florida and visiting Knoxville, and he still remembered that oversight and reminded me of it.(I actually looked up a small Sentinel correction that appeared in the following day's newspaper, buried on the sports page, correcting that error and giving him credit for his actual point total, and I sent Buddy a copy, although of course he had never known of that article.) It was the most points I ever scored in a high school game. A couple of my friends from the old Happy Holler neighborhood were in the stands that night -- Wimpy Oxendine, who had graduated from KHS the previous year, and Wayne Dennis, my old friend from the neighborhood, then a student at Fulton. Both lived on Oklahoma, where I still frequently spent the night with my grandmother, who still lived on that street, and I was determined not to have a lousy game. I was also more comfortable at forward, the position that I had played throughout the pre-season practices, until the coach had put me at the guard position just before basketball season opened.

Coach Martin obviously was not impressed with my performance, since he promptly moved me back to guard for our next game, against Young, although I was still in the starting lineup. For the third time during the season, we inexplicably defeated Young high school. This time the game was as close as they get, as we took the game by a single point, 42-41. Jim Fowler scored sixteen points and Allen Wright added ten to lead the victory.

I had not had a very good game in our win over Young, but then I had been disappointed that I had been returned to the guard position, particularly considering the game I'd had against Fulton. Whatever the reason, Martin again had me benched for the Central game that we played at the Fountain City school. We lost that game, 62 to 54, although I played most of the game, and I found that I was not nearly as concerned about the loss as I had been about being booted from the starting lineup. I knew a couple of the boys who played for Central, who also had earlier attended Christenberry. One was Bob Dafferner, then a junior, who lived on Oglewood, a couple of blocks from the junior high school, and had a basketball goal at his house where earlier neighborhood boys would often play pick up games. The other was Buddy Helton, then a star for the Bobcats in both football and basketball. Buddy had a motorcycle after he left Christenberry to attend Central, and occasionally he would ride over to visit me at our house in Lincoln Park, although I'm not sure that he didn't sometimes come over there to eat some of my mother's sandwiches, made with her homemade pimento cheese, a favorite of his back then.

To this day, I don't know whether I was in a rebellious mood or what. It was the afternoon of our scheduled game against East, to be played at our gym. I thought if we played well we certainly had a chance to win that game. For some reason, I can't remember why, we were out of school early that day, and the coach held a brief team meeting. He told the players to go home and get plenty of rest, so they would be ready for that night's game. It seemed silly to me, since I could easily become apprehensive and nervous about upcoming games, and the last thing I could do was be "comfortable" trying to rest or relax. I got together with some of my teammates and we all decided to head downtown. We all had previously been up at the WKGN radio studios in the Park National Bank building, where popular radio disk jockey Eddie Parker played records, often songs requested by telephone call-ins from local high school kids. His morning radio show called the Morning Express was in the same format. We got off the elevator and walked down the hallway, where the then-popular song "Wimoweh," recorded by the folk singing group the Weavers, was blaring through the speakers. Thick plate glass lined the left side of the hall, where Parker could be seen sitting in front of the turntable and surrounded by shelves full of 78 rpm recordings. Eddie apparently had an excellent memory, as he often appeared at local high school functions, including serving as master of ceremonies at various events, and he had the ability to remember the names of many the students at those schools. He had seen us standing in the hallway and waved, and when the song was finished -- although some of use were frantically waving and shaking our heads in the negative -- he blurted out all of our names. When we got back to school late that afternoon, it turned out that coach Martin had been listening to Parker's radio program that afternoon. I was really surprised at his reaction. It turned out that he had been serious about that "get some rest" directive, and was more than ready to see to it that we did what he said thereafter. He benched all of us for the game against East, and we watched the game from the stands, dressed in street clothes. While I had not recently been on the starting team, I had been playing most of the time in games, and all of the other boys who with me in those stands were starters. Pickings were slim among the remaining bodies for a basketball team, but players were brought up from the B team to play for Rule that night. Ott Kidd played center and did a more than admirable job, scoring nineteen points and keeping the team in the game until East finally pulled away for a victory, 61-52. That score was even more surprising considering that many of Rule's players fouled out, and the team played the final four minutes of the game with only four players on the floor.

I was still out of the starting lineup when we played our final regular season game against Carter. We won the game 60-55. I came off the bench and contributed nine points to the eighteen by Jim Fowler and dozen scored by Allen Wright. Next up was the district tournament.

Our first game in the district tournament was against Carter, the same team we had defeated the previous week. The tournament was played at the Fulton high school gym. Once again, I was relegated to the bench when the game started. Halfway through the first quarter Martin put me in the game, and I played most of the rest of the way, adding fifteen points to Jim Fowler's nineteen in that victory.

Our next opponent was Fulton, a team that had beaten us twice during the regular season. Again, I was on the bench when the game tipped off. Coach Martin finally put me into the game with a couple of minutes left in the first quarter. Doyle Human was hot that night, making a number of crucial shots, sometimes stealing the basketball, and otherwise harassing Fulton players. He finished with 23 points, and I played decently in my final high school game, adding seventeen points to the cause. It was a rough and tumble affair, and a close contest throughout the game. Near the end of the game, Fulton's Buddy Rhea went up for a crip and two or three of our players went up with him to block the shot and were probably overly aggressive in the process. He crashed against the wall behind the backboard and fell to the floor. The new gymnasiums at the schools in town that year had not been designed to allow very much room between the backboard and the wall, including the Fulton gymnasium. In fact, at that time there was no padding or other protective materials on those cinder block walls. A number of Fulton's fans poured out of the stands and it looked like there would be a total melee before order was finally restored and the game resumed. It turned out that Rhea had a broken bone and serious ankle contusions. Arville Patrick was charged with the foul, Fulton hit free throws and had a four point lead. There was just over a minute left in the game. Unfortunately for us, Patrick was our sixth player to foul out, and we had to play the remainder of the game with only four players. I made a shot from the corner to cut the lead to two points, but Fulton scored and the margin was again four points. We failed to score when we got the ball again, but Human stole a Fulton inbounds pass and made an open crip shot and the margin was down to two points. As we tried to press Fulton in the dying seconds, with only four players on the floor, one of their players found Jay Bayless alone under the basket for an easy lay up, and Fulton won the game, 71-67. The following day, News Sentinel sports writer Red Bailes called it one of the roughest high school basketball game he had ever seen. It was the third time while I was at Rule that our team had finished the game with only four players on the floor -- the others were a game against Young in December, 1950, and the March, 1952 East game.

For the season, we won ten games and lost sixteen. We should have won two or three of the games we lost, but likewise we got a couple of victories that we just as easily could have lost. Jim Fowler was far and above our most prolific scorer that year. He finished the season with 304 points. Despite not playing after January, Tiny Bell scored 198 points before he left the team. I actually came in third in total scoring, with 198 points, despite sitting on the bench some of the time, particularly during the later part of the season, and my twenty-five points against Fulton were the most points scored in a game by any Rule player that year. Allen Wright' racked up 187 points for the season.

1951-1952 was something of a topsy-turvy season for high school basketball in Knoxville. Teams would look good one night and then lose their next game. We defeated Young three times that season, yet those same Yellow jackets defeated Fulton twice, a team we never won against that year. We also defeated West twice, a Rebel team that defeated both Central and East, also being teams that defeated us in both games played that year.

A few random thoughts ...

For whatever reason, since the days I was playing in high school, basketball players seem to have grown considerably in this country. There were a few tall players in my day -- Bob Reeverts at Fulton comes to mind. But generally, the players seem to be much taller these days. My daughter, Jennifer, coached the girl's basketball team at Bearden Middle School, before her multi-year stint in the same position at Bearden high. I saw several of those middle school girl's basketball games, and following one of those games the boy's team came onto the floor for a crip line, preliminary to their game. I was passing beneath the basket, and stood there a minute or two watching, as the different players took their turns. Only one of those boys was shorter than me, and the others were not only taller, several of them towered over me by several inches. And those were eighth graders!

My stepfather worked the 3-11 shift at the Southern Railway, and my mother was a homemaker. But he didn't work seven nights a week, and she probably had little if any interest in watching sports events of any kind. In any event, neither of my parents ever came to watch a basketball game that I played in. That's not a reflection on them, but just a revelation of those times. These days, one or both parents eagerly attend every game their youngsters play in any sport, beginning in youth leagues when the kids are seemingly barely old enough to walk, let alone to play on a team. The times they are a'changin'.

Some months ago, I read on the sports page that the long popular "jump shot" came into vogue in basketball in the middle 1960's. That's was an inaccurate assumption. Several players for high school teams in Knoxville were using that shot during the 1951-1952 basketball season. One such player was Jimmy Rogers of Fulton, who had developed that maneuver. I personally developed the shot later during my senior high school season in 1952, and when I later played for a basketball team in a local recreational league -- when I was first in college in 1953 -- it had become my primary offensive weapon. Lots of players were regularly using that shot long before 1960.

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Rule High School closed following the 1990 - 1991 school year. A sports writer from the News Sentinel attended the final basketball game played at the school, and wrote an account of that game. Reading that article, I was initially insulted, when he reported that it was obvious that least one of the reasons the school was being closed was because of the antiquated gymnasium. My initial reaction was indignation. After all, that reporter surely had never seen some of those old crackerjack gyms where we played some games at area schools back when I was on the team at Rule, and the gym he was deriding had been a brand new, modern, and comparatively large facility when we played our first game there in December, 1951. But I soon calmed down, and not long afterwards I happened to take a look in a mirror and noticed the person who was staring back at me. I reluctantly conceded that perhaps that gymnasium at Rule wasn't the only thing that had become antiquated since then.

Finis