Baseball Standouts Grew Up On These Diamonds

Baseball grew in popularity throughout North Carolina following the Civil War.  By the late 1800s most towns, colleges and high schools had teams.  Transylvania County has been home to town teams, industrial league teams and Major Leaguers since the early 1900s.

In 1903 the Brevard Baseball Club played 28 games against other town teams, including Hendersonville, Tryon and Spartanburg.  They finished the season with a 17-11 record.  Newspaper articles boast of defeating their archrivals, Hendersonville, several times.

Within a few years other Transylvania communities and the Brevard Institute also had baseball teams.  Information on these early teams is limited to scattered reports in local newspapers.

In 1931 the Sylvan Valley League in Transylvania County consisted of teams from Lake Toxaway, Penrose, Pisgah Forest and Rosman.

Can you help identify these 1941 Ecusta ball players?

Industrial or textile league baseball was popular from the 1930s through the 1960s.  Local teams began forming in 1934.  The Gloucester CCC Camp, Pisgah Cotton Mills, Rosman Tannery and Transylvania Tanning all had teams.  Ecusta formed a baseball team in 1940.  Their first game was against Brevard Tannery on April 27, 1940.  Ecusta won by a score of 6-4.  The team finished their first season in 5^th place but won the WNC Industrial League pennant in 1941.



Gil Coan came to Brevard College to play baseball in 1941.  Coan worked for Ecusta in the early 1940s before signing to play professional baseball with the Washington Senators.  His first major league game was April 27, 1946.  Over the course of an 11 year career he also played for the Baltimore Orioles, New York Giants and Chicago White Sox.  Coan had a .254 batting average with 39 home runs and 83 stolen bases in 2877 at bats.

This Brevard team made up of mostly African-American players
played teams from Western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina.
Back, l to r:  William Mills, Eddie Moss, Jake Smith, Charles Whitmire,
Joe Lewis Norman, Dolphus Robinson, Arthur Robinson, Johnny Whitmire
and Lewis Howell.
Front, l to r:  Willie Bussey, Herbert Avery, Charles Gardin, Charles Whitmire, Jr., 
Hugh Whitmire, Lawrence Mills, Dennis Robinson and Walter Mall Benjamin.

Transylvania County native Art Hefner played baseball in the Negro Leagues for five years.  Hefner played minor league ball for the Nashville Black Vols in 1945 and the Asheville Blues in 1946 and part of 1947.  On the Major League level he played part of 1947 and 1948 with the New York Black yankees and 1949 with the Philadelphia Stars of the Negro National League.  Few Negro League statistices survive but Hefner did hit .273 with the Stars.






Next week Picturing the Past  will feature athletics at Brevard College.  A short series of articles on the history of Brevard College will begin on October 26.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-3151 x242.

Locals Play Golf For More Than 100 Years

It is generally accepted that modern golf developed in Scotland in the 15^th and 16^th centuries.  The earliest U.S. golf organization dates to the late 1700s but it was not until the late 1800s to early 1900s that the popularity of golf erupted across the U.S.

The first golf course in Transylvania County was at Lake Toxaway.  “Extensive Improvements and Additions for Lake Toxaway Hotel Property” were announced in the Sylvan Valley News on November 6, 1911.  This included a 9-hole golf course and a 20 room clubhouse for guests at the Toxaway Inn.  That course, which was located near present day Lake Cardinal, closed in 1916 when the dam burst ending Lake Toxaway’s tourism boom. 

In the 1960s the dam was rebuilt and the lake restored.  The new Lake Toxaway Country Club included an 18-hole golf course.  The old Moltz mansion, with its pool and tennis and croquet courts, served as the club house.  Since that time improvements have included new clubhouses, a new pool and tennis courts, as well as major renovations to the golf course and croquet lawn.

In 1912 a man-made lake was built in the Seeoff community with the intention of creating a resort that would include a golf course.  In 1921 plans were made for a summer resort with a lake and golf course in the Blantyre community.  Neither project was successful however.

A group of golfers at the Hunter home which served as the original Club House
for the Brevard Country Club.

Plans for the Brevard Country Club and golf course, a half miles northwest of Brevard, were announced in 1925.  The first 9-holes were opened the next summer with the Hunter Mansion serving as the temporary clubhouse.  Original plans were for 18-holes, a residential development and a large hotel. 

A 1929 tourism brochure states, “For scenic grandeur the Brevard golf course can hardly be equalled anywhere.  Part of the course is located in the wide valley of the French Broad River, but the most fascinating fairways are situated on rolling plateaus that command a view of the entire links with distant mountain peaks in every back-ground.”

Miss Barbara Talley at the Ecusta's 3-hole practice course at
Camp Strauss, July 1953.

Although the Brevard Country Club never grew as planned it did serve the community for about 40 years until the communities of Lake Toxaway (1965), Glen Cannon (1966) and Sherwood Forest (1967) built golf courses.  Connestee Falls golf course opened in 1974.

Today nearly 50% of the golf courses in the world are in the US.  In Transylvania County there are currently four golf courses—Burlingame Country Club, Connestee Falls, Lake Toxaway and Sherwood Forest.

Visit the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street exhibit, “Hometown Teams” at the Library through October 24, 2015.

 Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-3151 X242.

BHS Has Fielded Teams Since 1920

Brevard’s first high school opened in 1908.  Almost from its beginning Brevard High had intramural sports.  The earliest record of teams competing against other schools are from 1922 when a men’s basketball team was formed.  Baseball, football, track and tennis teams were added in the 1920s, as well.

The 1928 Brevard High girls' basketball team was the
Western North Carolina Champions.
L-R: 1st row:  Coach Tilson, Mildred Clayton, Lillian Ponder, Josephine
Clayton, Vera Jones, Dot Fetzer.
2nd row:  Molly Snelson, Liza Nicholson, Francis Morris, Sue
Hollingswoth, Beulah May Zachary, Adelaide Silversteen.
3rd row:  Mary Osborne Wilkins, Ethel McMinn, Ruth Snelson.

In the early 1920s with a fast growing enrollment plans were made to construct a new high school.  An August 22, 1924 Brevard News article states, “In order to cut down the cost, the Board of Education cut out the swimming pool which was in the original plan.”  This would have been an indoor pool in the basement of the school and may have led to the addition of a swim team.

Girls began playing inter-school basketball during the 1925-26 school year.  These early teams wore black uniforms with loose fitting bloomer-style shorts.  Vera Jones Stinson talking about the first game they wore shorts stated, “We were so busy trying hide behind each other out of embarrassment, we lost the game.”

First Brevard High football team, 1925.

Brevard High School played their first football game on October 10, 1925 against Canton.  Their first win was a 6-0 victory over Weaverville on November 27.  Initially all games were played during the day. 

In 1945 the Brevard Athletic and Recreation Association was formed with the goal of providing improvements to the athletic fields at Brevard High and Brevard College.  The Blue Devils played their first night game on October 5, 1945.  Approximately 500 people attended the game despite a cold and rainy night.  Three weeks later the second night game draw over 2000 people.

The Blue Devils won their first State Championship in 1960 under Coach Cliff Brookshire.  In 1963 the team made history when it became the first integrated high school team in North Carolina.  That team finished the season with a record of 10-1-1 and was the Class AAA Co-Champions.  The championship game was a very somber affair as it was played on November 23, 1963—the day after President Kennedy was assassinated.  The championship trophy is on display at the Library with the Hometown Teams exhibit.

As schools went through the integration process of the mid-1960s cheerleading squads lagged behind.  At Brevard High African-American girls tried out for cheerleading every year but were led to believe they were not talented enough.  Finally in 1970 the African-American students protested by refusing to leave after school one-day.  There was a lot of controversy involving students, parents, community members and the School Board before an African-American girl was selected and added to the squad as an alternate.  She was only allowed to cheer at home games though.

Today Brevard High athletes participate in baseball, basketball, cheerleading, cross country, football, golf, softball, soccer, tennis, track & field, volleyball and wrestling. 

Cheer on the Blue Devils this coming Friday evening when they meet Tuscola High for the 2015 Homecoming game.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-3151 X242.

Rosman High Has Strong Sports Tradition

1933 Rosman High School basketball teams.

Sports have a strong tradition at Rosman High School.  While early records and statistics are difficult to find Rosman High had basketball teams by the mid-1920s.  A January 21, 1926 newspaper article mentions the boys’ team being defeated by Brevard High while the girls’ team won their game against Brevard.

Rosman fielded its first football team in 1959 with Bill Cathey as the head coach.  During Cathey’s 10 seasons the Tigers compiled a record of 52-39-7.  They were named co-champions of the Pisgah Conference in 1964 and co-champions of the Appalachian Conference in 1968.  Coach Jim Fox, who led Rosman during two stints as head coach (1980-1983 and 1997-2006) has the most wins (88) and most games (170) with the Tigers.

For several years in the 1970s and 1980s Rosman High held an annual powderpuff football game.  Two teams of girls would compete in flag football.  In a change of roles the boys served as cheerleaders.  One former participant remembers it as a fun-filled evening with support from the entire community.

 

1954 Rosman High School cheerleaders--Polly Petit, Sylvia Robinson, Joann Hall and Hope Owen.

Rosman High fielded its first baseball team in 1965, track & field started in 1973.  Girls gained two new sports during the 1976-77 school year with the addition of volleyball and softball.  Wrestling began in 1985, cross country in 1989 and a golf team was formed in 1999. 

In 2002 Rosman captured its first state championship in any team sport when the volleyball team defeated Midway High School for the 1-A title.  They finished the season with a record of 33-2.  Their trophy will be on display at the Library throughout the Hometown Teams exhibit.

Information on athletics was gathered from newspaper articles, the Rosman High School football statistics website and high school annuals.  The Local History Room at the Library still needs copies of several Rosman High annuals, including 1949, 1952, 1953, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1972, 1973, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002 and 2003.  If you would like to donate any of these to the Library please contact the Local History Room.

Today Rosman High athletes participate in baseball, basketball, cheerleading, cross country, football, golf, softball, track & field, volleyball and wrestling. 

Go out and cheer for the Tigers this coming Friday evening when they take on Hayesville in the 2015 Homecoming game.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-3151 X242.

Nature's Playground

The Smithsonian traveling exhibit, Hometown Teams, is now up at the Library.  As part of the Museum on Main Street program the goal is to bring the Smithsonian to small towns across America and to connect local history and resources with the communities across the nation.  While the exhibit is here Picturing the Past will be featuring stories of how sports have shaped Transylvania County.

Tennis at the Franklin Hotel in Brevard.

Although the exhibit features traditional sports and their impact on American culture it purposefully does not define sports.  In Transylvania County recreational sports and activities have played an important role since the late 1800s.   Early advertisements and tourism brochures urged city dwellers to enjoy the outdoor life in “Nature’s Playground.” 

Thousands of visitors came for clean mountain air and water and the cool summer climate.  They took full advantage of the leisurely lifestyle and recreational activities offered at exclusive mountain resorts and homey boarding houses where the emphasis was on health and relaxation. 

Fairfield Inn on Lake Fairfield was actually in Jackson County but visitors travelled through Brevard and Transylvania County to reach the resort.  Fairfield offered swimming, boating, fishing and horseback riding.  The last standing of the famed resorts, Fairfield Inn burned in 1986.

Sapphire Inn on Lake Sapphire provided boating, fishing and horseback riding for its guests.  The Sapphire Inn was destroyed by fire on July 25, 1906.

A day on Lake Toxaway.

The most developed of the mountain resorts in terms of recreational offerings was Toxaway Inn on Lake Toxaway.  In addition to boating, fishing, horseback riding and swimming, Toxaway Inn had a golf course and tennis courts.  The Toxaway Inn closed after the dam burst on August 13, 1916 draining Lake Toxaway.

Although Toxaway Inn was torn down in 1947, Lake Toxaway was revived by Reginald Heinitsh, Sr. in the early 1960s.  Today Lake Toxaway offers boating, fishing, swimming, golf, tennis and croquet to residents and visitors.

With the creation of the Pisgah National Forest in 1916 thousands of acres in Transylvania County truly did become a natural playground for those with less financial means as well as the wealthy.  In 1938 the Pisgah Forest Highway (Hwy 276) was built and construction on the Blue Ridge Parkway from Mount Pisgah to Beech Gap began in 1939 expanding access to recreational opportunities throughout the Pisgah National Forest.

Enjoying a bike outing.

Today Transylvania County’s natural playground provides an outdoor gym for residents and visitors in its forests, rivers and parks. Bracken Preserve, DuPont State Recreational Forest, Gorges State Park, Pisgah and Nantahala National Forest and the French Broad River and its tributaries offer mountain and road biking, boating, canoeing, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, kayaking, rock climbing and swimming.

Transylvania County truly is a place for both competitive and recreational sports.  Next week Picturing the Past will feature sports at Rosman High School.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-3151 X242.