Dan Morris and David Thomas are both members of the Jackson-Madison County Sports Hall of Fame Board, and when the Jackson-Madison County Bicentennial Commission asked the Hall of Fame to have someone make a First Friday Forum presentation of the history of athletics in the county, Morris and Thomas were the ones selected for the discussion.
As sports and leisure is the theme of the month of June in the year-long celebration of the 200th birthday for the Hub City and its surrounding county, Morris and Thomas – whom each have decades of experience in local sports media – had institutional knowledge as a foundation for the research they did.
Morris was a sports writer and sports editor for The Sun for more than 30 years, and Thomas has been involved in sports media with The Sun and in radio for nearly 40 years and is currently the news director at WNWS-FM 101.5.
Morris said the sports history of Madison County actually goes back to the county’s earliest days 200 years ago if not before then when the Chickasaw Indians would play stickball, which resembles lacrosse. Players would scoop up a rock wrapped in deer skin and try to move it down a field into a goal.
The game was used as a way to keep peace between different tribes, settle disputes and develop toughness in young boys before they became warriors for the tribe.
Morris also noted an early painting of West Tennessee College, which would later become Union University’s old campus in East Jackson. In the painting that’s dated in the mid-1800s, there are children playing in the front yard of the main building and they appear to be playing baseball. Baseball was invented in New England and was brought to the South during the Civil War as Union soldiers used it to have recreation during downtime between battles.
One piece of lesser-known baseball history Morris mentioned about Jackson is there once was a baseball field at what is now known as Conger Park when it was still known as its previous name – Highland Park – and it stretched all the way from its current location next to the hospital to Campbell Lake.
Morris also highlighted the national and international athletic achievements of individual and team athletes as well as listing the number of state championships each high school in Jackson has to its name.
As Morris was highlighting football history in Jackson, he mentioned whom Rothrock Stadium was named after before it was changed to Lane Field in 2010. Tom Rothrock was a judge who was an avid supporter of both football programs at Jackson High and Union University and helped get the stadium put in place that now is the home of the Lane College Dragons.
Thomas discussed the potential future of Jackson area sports and what sports could become popular in the coming years.
Even though lacrosse and wrestling are popular TSSAA sports in more populated areas of the state, the arrival of Blue Oval City to West Tennessee could bring either or both of those sports to this area as well.
Girls’ flag football started this year with a small league that played in Middle Tennessee, and he said TSSAA officials see that as a possibility as well since the Tennessee Titans organization are investing funds into that sport.
He also said soccer has already grown in the last couple decades in the area, and that will probably continue to grow.
“I’m sure just a few years ago, no one thought soccer would be a big sport around here, but it’s growing and only going to get bigger,” Thomas said.
Reach Brandon Shields at bjshields@jacksonsun.com. Follow him on Twitter @JSEditorBrandon or on Instagram at editorbrandon.
Travis Burnett
A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.
