District Governor International President
Larry Boyd Dong Kurn Lee
Brentwood, Tennessee Seoul, Korea
Rotary 2007-08
Make Dreams Real
January 9, 2009
Today, Coach Bob Carroll Part II.
Randy Barnes was lucky enough to talk Coach Carroll into a re-visit, to Rotary as he did three weeks ago with some extended history of the UTM, Campus. Coach Carroll will back up slightly from the history he shared with us previously and move into 1954 with more knowledge of the campus and related stories of interest.
As we noted before, Coach Bob Carroll has an illustrious 41 year history with this area and the campus over at Martin, dating back to when it was a Junior College, with a very successful two year stint as a College Athlete in the Football Program, afterwards transferring to the University of Wyoming where he also had an outstanding record. He graduated from there achieving Academic All American and Honors Graduate in 1956. He received his Masters from Ole Miss in 1962, and returned to the Martin Program in 1957, began his coaching career and by 1974, he had become the winningest coach in the history of UTM, a record which still stands.
He served as Ass’t. AD from 1974-1980 and served as Ass’t. Vice Chancellor of Alumni for 1980 until retirement in 1997.
Welcome Back Coach Carroll!
Next week, should be a very interesting program, as First Baptist Church’s Senior pastor, and Rotarian Dr. Matthew Wohlfarth, presents a power point presentation on his recent trip to Israel and Jordan. Dr. Matt plans to address historical sites, safety concerns, relations between Jews and Muslims in the region. He was in Israel in November of 2008.
He came to First Baptist Church, Union City in 2006, from First Baptist of Jonesboro Louisiana where he was pastor for four years. Prior to that he was Pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond Louisiana form 1998-2002, and has served churches in Albany Louisiana, Hammond Louisiana again, and Houma Louisiana. He also served as Ministry Director of Southeastern Louisiana University from 1992-1994.
He has also served on the Faculty of several Universities in the South, including Southeastern Louisiana University of Hammond Louisiana, Northwest Vista College, San Antonio, Texas, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary - Extension Center, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana and at the present is a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the University of Tennessee at Martin.
Three weeks ago,
Rotarians received a very colorful history lesson, as Coach Bob Carroll reviewed some of the happenings which took place on the campus of UT Martin, since it’s founding, as "Hall Moody Institute" 1900 - 1927, then from 1927 - 1951 it was know as UT Junior College, 1951-1967, UT Martin Branch, then to present University of Tennessee at Martin.
"Hall-Moody was named after two prominent Baptist Ministers", he said and the main group that formed Hall-Moody was the First Baptist Church in Martin and the Beulah Baptist Association of N.W. Tennessee.
He said at the time Hall Moody was founded there was a Methodist School on the other side of town, with a railroad between them. There were continuous battles between the schools, mostly rock fights and such.
He mentioned the old Administration building and it’s history as being the first building on the campus, and the mysterious fire that destroyed it in 1970. Coach said he could tell us more about that fire, but that’s as far as he went. There was also a former player under Coach Carroll at my table that day who said he could tell some stories of that fire, but he shut-up too.
Coach Carroll said that one of the first teachers to arrive on campus was a single lady by the name of Francis Coker. "She was a very attractive Lady" he said and caused quit a stir with the trustees by having too many dates and her job and firing ended up in the TN Supreme Court.
About 1922 Athletics were introduced on campus he said and the teams were known as "The Sky Pilots" and were successful. Then the school got into financial trouble, not being able to raise the required moneys, Hall Moody ceased to exist.
Coach Carroll stressed the point that the folks in Union City and Obion County were very instrumental in the history of the University from the very beginning, because after the closing of Hall Moody, people in Union City and OC, saw the need for the school in this area. They wanted to take over the campus and put it under the control of the University of TN. This did happen and space does not permit the un-folding of that story but "The Rest is History", as they say.
