Before there was the basketball frenzy that occurs every March in NCAA tournaments, there was a lesser known but historic event called the Southern Textile Basketball Tournament.
It ran from 1921-1997 and was strongly contested by the teams created by the textile factories in the South before the factories declined because of foreign competition, labor unrest and other factors.
Several teams from the Chattanooga and Northwest Georgia areas entered the tournaments at various times. Former college players from Tennessee, Vanderbilt, from the University of Chattanooga and Tennessee Tech University were on the rosters of teams participating in the annual tournaments.
Initially, the game was based on the 1892 set of rules by Dr. James A. Naismith in his publication “Original Rules of the Game”, which created basketball as an indoor sport to bridge the cold winter months between football and baseball.
The competition between the Greenville factory teams ended up creating enough interest to organize a tournament to declare a true basketball champion in 1921 at the Textile Hall in Greenville.
The first tournament was widely covered in Greenville News, including a message of congratulations from the President of the United States, Warren G. Harding.
With the increase in interest, participation also increased and, in 1925, there were 56 teams enrolled in the tournament with Divisions A, B and C for the male and female teams that made their first appearance that year.
As the Southern Textile Basketball Tournament continued to gain prestige, its comparison with college basketball followed naturally.
Conflicts arose over the issue of paying players for their participation in the games, but the issue of professionalism versus amateurism was never completely resolved during the tournament period.
As the country entered the Depression, it was predicted that the tournament would end, but that was not the case. It would advance, sometimes by leaps and bounds, but it would mature in the dynamic years of the 1930s.
As interest in the tournament grew, teams from Alabama and North Carolina entered the competition. Large crowds and radio broadcasts from the games filled the radio waves.
From 1936, teams from the Chattanooga area began to participate in the tournament. Local stars Tyrus Coppinger, Bill Evans, Melvin Seals, Carl Phillips, Lester Smith, Emmitt Harris, TL Pierce and Dave Telford were part of the Dixie Merchandizing cast.
Dixie Merchandizing, Lupton City and Peerless Woolen Mills from the Chattanooga area participated in 1940. The Dixie team was the champion of Division B of the year. In 1941, Dixie Merchandizing won the Division A men’s title.
Peerless Woolen Mills from Rossville, Georgia, made his first appearance in 1937 under the leadership of trainer Walt Lauder, who for many years would be a member of the tournament’s board of directors.
The future All-American Pete Maravich of Louisiana State University played in the league at age 12. Billy Cunningham of North Carolina and the Philadelphia 76ers participated in the tournament. Several All-American college students, such as Doug Moe of North Carolina and Grady Wallace of South Carolina also participated.
One of the most interesting players in the tournaments was Earl “Junior” Wooten from Pelzer, South Carolina. He was the greatest scorer of all time in the annual games and in the selection of all 12 tournaments, and a member of the tournament Hall of Fame. He also played professional baseball for Chattanooga Lookouts, Washington Senators and Boston Braves.
During the 1930s through the 1960s, Peerless Woolen Mills sent a team to play in the tournament that included players Bob McCoy, Lamar North, Howard Sompayrac, Fred Carter and Clint Norman. Peerless, with strong financial support from industrialist John L. Hutcheson, would maintain active sports programs for its employees in softball and baseball. The facility would also be a major sponsor for Rossville High School Bulldogs.
Speed Queen of Chattanooga formed a formidable team in 1960, led by Terry Penny and Larry Card from Soddy Daisy and Ronnie Campbell from Meigs County.
In 1961-1964, Chattanooga VFW sponsored a team that included college players Herschel Smith, Ron Peoples, Eddie Test, Wayne Standefer, Joe Gardener, Orb Bowlin and several former high school stars.
The last team in the Chattanooga area was Upstate Juniors and Upstate Seniors who played in the men’s Division C in 1997.
With the closure of many factories, rising costs, labor disputes and the advent of television, the tournament was finally forced to stop the game. This ended a colorful 76-year history of basketball in the south.
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Jerry Summers
(If you have additional information on one of Mr. Summers’ articles or have suggestions or ideas about a future historical piece from the Chattanooga area, contact Mr. Summers at [email protected])