Football in Gadsden in 1908

In recent months I've gone through numerous 1930s and 1940s issues of the Gadsden Times. My grandmother Rosa Mae Wright saved these publications, especially during World War II. I found a lot of fascinating articles [and advertisements!], and this blog post features one of them. 

I've also recently enjoyed Lars Anderson's 2007 book, Carlisle Vs. Army: Jim Thorpe, Dwight Eisenhower, Pop Warner and the Forgotten Story of Football's Greatest Battle. He's written several books, lives in Birmingham and is on the University of Alabama faculty. I find early college football in the U.S. to be fascinating, and there is a lot about the game in those days in this book. Jim Thorpe, Pop Warner and the Carlisle Indians also form a number of incredible stories.

American football was a very different animal in those early days before World War I. On November 6, 1869, Rutgers and Princeton played what is considered the first intercollegiate game in the U.S. Each side had 25 players and tried to kick a round ball across the opposing team's goal; carrying or throwing the ball was not allowed. By 1872 several other schools in the northeast including Columbia and Yale began play. Over the next two decades more teams entered the sport and the rules of play and the size of the field underwent great changes, many introduced by Walter Camp such as the system of downs and the line of scrimmage. In these early years betting on games was common as were hired players who did not attend the schools. 

By the early 20th century football had become so violent that efforts began to change or ban the game. A military formation called the flying wedge had been used in that first 1869 game and caused numerous injuries and even deaths. Nineteen players died from various causes in the 1905 season alone. The forward pass was legalized in 1906 to hopefully reduce injuries, but did not catch on for some years. The flying wedge was banned about the same time. Although various conferences had already been founded, a national organization to oversee college athletics was organized in late 1905 by 62 schools that met in New York City. 

The article below, published October 29, 1940, describes Gadsden football in 1908. By that time the game had already started to develop on college campuses in the state. Auburn and Alabama fielded their first teams in 1892 and played each other initially in 1893. The rivalry paused in 1908 for many years due to arguments over player payments and other money issues. Both teams became charter members of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association when the group was organized in 1894. 

This article outlines the history of football in the Gadsden area in 1908. Former college players met and an eleven man team was proposed and a "complete schedule for the season." Possible players who attended the meeting included two former Alabama stars, two from Auburn, one from "Carolina", another from the University of Chicago and four "regarded as apt pupils of the game." The two Alabama players were selected as coaches.

Opponents would include Ninth and Seventh District schools, Jacksonville, Anniston, and "other cities in the district." Thanksgiving Day contests with Jacksonville Normal School [now Jacksonville State University] and the Seventh District Agricultural School were scheduled. 

At the time Jacksonville, captained by "a local boy", presumably one from Gadsden, was undefeated. Gadsden actually played Jacksonville in one of the Etowah County team's earliest games on November 2, 1908, and won 7 to 0 with one touchdown and a safety. At this time a touchdown gained a team five points and a safety two. The article includes the lineup of Gadsden players for that game.

The team lost its next game on November 14. "Gadsden football enthusiast" Lonnie Noojin coached the Blountsville Ninth District School to the win 20-2. A contemporary account is given in the second article below: "Gadsden Downed by Farmer Lads." The school is described in the article as Blountsville Agricultural College. 

Another team in the area was Disque High School [1901-1924, when it became Disque Middle] coached by Prof. J.R. McClure. That team beat Gadsden Athletics 20-15 and tied Birmingham's Woodlawn 5 to 5 on November 23, 1908. On Thanksgiving Day Birmingham High School beat the Gadsden Athletics 19 to 4. 

The 1940 article and the two 1908 ones below are a good start for a history of football in Etowah County. I found the 1908 ones on Newspapers.com; I'm sure more could be located. Several of these games are noted as taking place at Elliott Park, which was just west of Alabama City. One research area that would be interesting is to search for all these names of individuals at Ancestry.com, Find-A-Grave, etc., to learn something about them. Perhaps another day....

The history of football in these early decades at the high school and self-organized levels is largely unknown. You can read more about early high school football in the state at the Alabama High School Football Historical Society. 

Gadsden Times 14 November 1908

Gadsden Times 9 December 1908

Birmingham's Five Points South in 1987

The historic Five Points South area of Birmingham's Southside has been in the news over the last year or so and not in positive ways, unfortunately. In September 2024 four people were killed and 17 injured in a shooting outside the Hush Lounge. This past Halloween a fire did extensive damage to the Cobb Lane block of structures including an historic home and buildings housing many cultural and eating establishments over the years. This fire echoed the 1986 blaze that heavily damaged the iconic Studio Arts building in 1986. A new reproduction of that structure opened in 1994.

Five Points South has seen waves of positive development and decline over the decades. This pamphlet reflects one of the former efforts. Fifty churches, businesses and historic houses are highlighted in this "Walking Tour". A history of the area and a map are included and then descriptions of the various locations. Thus we also have a snapshot of Five Points South in 1987, when the publication was apparently issued. I base that conclusion on the "SM 2-87" code on the last page.

Although I began working at UAB in 1983, in a building just down the hill, I didn't visit Five Points South much in those days. I do remember making the hike one lunch hour to visit a book store, sometime in the mid-eighties, but I forget the name. I do remember when Pickwick Plaza with its retail shops and hotel opened in 1987, and the 1992 controversy about the installation of Frank Fleming's sculptures at the Storyteller fountain, which happened after this pamphlet's publication. I did visit Charlemagne Records a couple of times and once ate at Highlands Bar and Grille. 

Visiting Charlemagne was a deja vu experience. During my decade in Auburn I visited Aboveground Records many, many times, a store up a steep flight of stairs in an old building just like Charlemagne. AR is one of many gone but not forgotten Alabama record stores included in the long list at the bottom of this article from 2018 by Matt Wake. In the October 13, 2011 issue of the Black & White ["Birmingham's City Paper"], Ed Reynolds published an article  about Jimmy Griffin who worked at Charlemagne for many years. 

I wonder how many businesses have come and gone since 1987. Five Points South has a long positive retail and cultural history, such as Gene Crutcher's bookstore that operated from 1962 until 1974. I hope that continues.

Of course, many places on this list still exist, such as Highlands United Methodist Church and Highlands Bar and Grille. In more recent years Dianne and I were regular patrons of such eateries as the Original Pancake House and Makarios. 

A Family Visit to Vulcan Park & Museum

This past March our daughter Becca, her son Ezra and stepson Zach visited us in Pelham. She came to help us pack for the upcoming move and to give the boys a last visit to the house and to see a couple of Birmingham sights. One of those trips involved an afternoon at Vulcan Park and Museum.

Vulcan is the largest cast iron statue in the world, and was designed for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair by sculptor Giuseppe Moretti. The 56-feet tall statue arrived at the fair site in pieces--the chest alone weighted 8000 pounds and the head 15,000. Only partly erected by the time the fair opened on May 1, its completion by June 7 made Birmingham's entry a sensation. 

The iron man's history after the fair has mirrored the city's, full of ups and downs. Returned in pieces to Birmingham, they were left beside the railroad tracks for two years. Finally, Vulcan was rebuilt at the Alabama State Fairgrounds and remained there for three decades. Since then he has been taken apart and moved to a park atop Red Mountain, and in 1999 disassembled again for restoration. Since 2003 Vulcan has once again become the star attraction of the park and the city's best known symbol. This summary has only touched the many insults and issues suffered by the statue over the decades; read more here and here. 

The literature about Vulcan is large and much can be found via the two websites linked in the previous sentence. I would also like to note an article by Karelisa Hartigan, "A Roman God in Alabama: Birmingham's Vulcan" in Alabama Heritage winter 2004, pp. 4-7. She includes much information about Vulcan's role in Greek and Roman mythology. 

A few of the photos I took that day are below. 

Becca, Zach and Ezra pose in front of the great view of Birmingham available at Vulcan Park. 

The visitor center houses an excellent museum devoted to the history of Vulcan and Birmingham and Jefferson County. Fun stuff for kids, too!

Efforts to create a museum devoted to the history of city and county began in 2004. The museum was eventually named the Birmingham History Center, and son Amos and I visited one of its many locations as it searched for a permanent home. Those rich collections were finally transferred to the Vulcan Park Foundation in 2017 and now form displays at this museum. 

I was glad to find this exhibit highlighting the extensive histories of theaters and theatrics in Birmingham. 

Ah, Tallulah...one of Alabama's best-known and most notorious exports. 

Over the years many postcards featuring Vulcan have been published. 

This postcard features "Vulcan--Forging by Moonlight" a photograph by Thomas Kingsley. You can see more of his Vulcan photos and other work here.

The day before the Vulcan visit we took the boys to Oak Mountain State Park for a little hiking--or running-- on one of the trails and a walk through the Alabama Wildlife Center. 

Youth Hockey in Birmingham, 1975-2001

In his middle and high school years our son Amos played youth hockey in the Birmingham area. Three different organizations have supported this activity: the Birmingham Youth Hockey Association [1975-1989], the Birmingham Youth Hockey League [1993-2001] and the Pelham Youth Hockey League [2001-current]. Amos played primarily in the BYHL and then the Pelham league. Teams of all ages were involved, playing at the Oxmoor Ice Lodge [later the Alpine Ice Arena] in Homewood and the ice rink at the Pelham Civic Complex. Amos' teams practiced and played at both places until the Homewood location closed in 2000. The teams often traveled to play other youth hockey programs. 

During his BYHL years I created a WWW site to document and promote the league. The Internet Archive's Wayback database captured that site. Pages included "BYHL in the News" and such. 

Some of the adults involved in the BYHL were also associated with the original Birmingham youth league. One of them, Steve Cagle, wrote a nice account of the BYHA for the web site in May 2000.

"The BYHA was formed in 1975 by Mr. Morehouse of Harbert Construction. The first president was Buddy Emerkie. In 1978 the BYHA had a home and home series with a team from Toronto. The Birmingham teams did quite well. There is a book called "The Road To Toronto" which contains articles and pictures from this series. I will look for my copy and let you take a look at it. I hope I still have it.

At the BYHA's heyday there were 16 house teams and 4 travel teams. The travel team players also played in the house league. The house teams played games during the week and practiced on the weekends while the travel teams played. There was a separate practice for the travel teams. The travel team players turned in their jerseys after the season. If I am not mistaken, the squirt travel team went to the Silver Stick finals in 1978. My brother was the goalie for that team. I will have to ask him to make sure.

Lance Harless and I are the only former BYHA players still involved with the youth league. Bobby Garove, who has a son in the mites, Lance and I played on the same team one season. There have been three former BYHA players play college hockey. The board back then served 2 year terms and had to wait at least one season to be nominated again. The membership voted for the board members unlike how it is done today.

The BYHA had a concession stand at the BJCC. Each parent that worked got money off their child's dues. The Birmingham Bulls, WHA team, held a summer hockey camp at Alpine called "The Heart of Dixie Hockey School" I went to it twice. The BYHA had a trophy in honor of my late father. He was a board member and team manager for several years. This trophy went to the parent who did the most for the BYHA in a season. The trophy was called the Don McCullar Memorial Trophy. When the league folded in 1989, it was given to my mom.

I remember that we didn't have many kids. We had to play scrimmages and play teams from other cities when we could. I took 11 players that consisted of peewees and bantams to Lexington, Kentucky. We practiced four times and bought our own jerseys. I still have one, and I have the team picture. When we got there, the Kentucky people decided we were only going to play one game. I was furious that we had driven that far just for one game! WE won the game 9-2.
It was hard to keep the league going without a pro team in town, so the league folded.

I got this info from my memories and from my mom who served as a board member."

The Birmingham Bulls have played in the area through several incarnations since 1976. Since 2017 they have been based in Pelham in the Southern Professional Hockey League. 

I don't remember ever seeing "The Road to Toronto" book Mr. Cagle mentions. 

Below are some images and a few more comments. If you have more information about this topic, let us know in the comment section! 

 

These photos show Amos on the right with one of his coaches and his son. Oh, and that's Amos' sister Becca in the top one.

This image and the two below appeared on BYHL t-shirts. 

The Birmingham High School Hockey League existed  for a brief period, and Amos played in the first season. I don't remember anything else about this organization. 

Three Alabama Library Bookplates

Many books that have come through my collection over the years are ex-library and thus have library markings of various kinds, including bookplates. Below are examples from Birmingham and Vestavia public libraries and a specialized medical library at UAB.

I've written a number of posts about libraries in the state and hope to do more. A list of some is here. A chronology of early Alabama library history is here. I've also done a post on state library bookmarks. 

Bookplates and other marks of book ownership have a long and fascinating history. 

Some more comments are below. 

This bookplate depicts the 1969 library building. The current facility opened in December 2010; a photo is at the Bham Wiki site. 

The facility was briefly named after Richard M. Scrushy, CEO when HealthSouth donated a building occupied by the library in 1995. 

Source: BhamWiki

In 1925 most of the collection of Birmingham's twelve year-old public library was destroyed in a devastating City Hall fire. A new library opened in 1927 and is depicted on this bookplate. The current Birmingham Central Public Library opened in 1984 and after renovation this building reopened as the Lynn-Henley Research Library. 

This bookplate features an electrocardiogram, which for decades was used as the logo of the UAB School of Medicine's Department of Anesthesiology. The department's library opened in 1980; I served as the Clinical Librarian from 1983 until 2015. I began when the library was located in the Kracke building, which UAB demolished in 2021. After a few years the library moved to the ninth floor of Jefferson Towers; the photo below shows the main room there. 

 The structure opened in 1929 as the dormitory for nursing students at the Hillman Hospital next door and operated as such until 1963. In July 1965 the building reopened as the Roy R. Kracke Clinical Services Building, named in honor of Dr. Roy Kracke, the first Dean of the Medical College of Alabama. Various clinics and offices were located there over the years. I think Kracke was the third oldest building on campus, behind only Old and New Hillman.