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Tom Makres (left) and Dave Rutherford, shown in 1997, played a huge role for Tennessee High when the Vikings won the 1967 TSSAA state baseball championship.
Dave Rutherford scores the winning run for Tennessee High.
Members of Tennessee High’s baseball team gathered around head coach Russ Basham on that May afternoon in 1967 at J. Fred Johnson Stadium with feelings ranging from frustration to anger to self-doubt.
The Vikings had just dropped a hard-fought 4-3 decision to the Dobyns-Bennett Indians, assuring the Bristolians a second-place finish behind the club from Kingsport in the Big Seven Conference standings and tumbling to the fourth seed in the upcoming District Four Tournament.
A betting man probably wouldn’t even have wagered a large sum on the Vikings to emerge as the state’s top team in the coming weeks, but Basham knew a winner when he saw one and let those teenagers know as much in that postgame huddle.
“He told us, ‘Even though we may have lost the conference, I really believe this team can start a winning streak in the district tournament that can land us in the state tournament,’ ” recalled Jim Butcher, a senior outfielder on the squad. “He was prophetic.”
Tennessee High did not lose another game that season during an improbable run to the TSSAA state championship as lights-out pitching, timely hitting and sound defense produced a perfect march through the postseason.
Tennessee High took care of its longtime nemesis in the district tournament, topping a team featuring the future coach of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels.
The Sullivan Pirates and their ace pitcher, who became a second-round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates, were marooned by the team wearing maroon-and-white.
An eventual World Series champion with the nickname “Scrap Iron” saw his high school career sent to the scrap heap by the Vikings.
Schools from Knoxville, Memphis, Chattanooga and Nashville were no match for the red-hot Vikings in the playoffs.
This year marks the 55th anniversary of that remarkable season that was capped with a 1-0 victory over Chattanooga Central at J. Fred Johnson Stadium in Kingsport.
“We weren’t conscious of the significance of what we had done [at the time],” outfielder and cleanup hitter Tommy Makres told the Bristol Herald Courier’s George Stone in a 1997 interview. “We were taking it all one game at a time. We were just the right players with the right coaches at the right time.”
Basham died last month at the age of 90.
He was 259-103 during his 16 seasons coaching baseball at THS.
“Russ Basham was a player’s coach,” Butcher said. “He realized he had a good baseball team that could be special. He allowed us to be confident and play loose and free.”
In a sport where pressure can hang on every pitch, Basham didn’t make things tenser by ranting and raving.
“When I was 12-years-old and going to Central Elementary School, Coach Basham was my first coach in football of all things as all the elementary schools had a football team,” said Wayne McReynolds, a starter on the 1967 club. “In all the years I knew Coach Basham I can say without a doubt that I never heard the man raise his voice. I never saw him dress anybody down in public, I just can’t remember him losing his cool. He might have a couple of times with an umpire, but not at us.”
The coach expected punctuality of course.
“There was a discipline matter with two of my teammates about midway into my senior year,” Butcher said. “We arrived late at an away game, having missed the bus because of our severe lack of time management. We had missed pregame batting practice also. We coaxed one of our grandparents to drive us to the game and arrived ready to play.
“Coach very calmly said, ‘You men can sit in the bleachers and cheer on your teammates today. That should be punishment enough for you and us. You don’t want to let down your team again.’ Life lesson there.”
There would certainly be no letdowns or lack of focus for the Vikings in the season’s biggest games.
The postseason path began with a 6-2 victory over Holston in the district tournament as sophomore Tommy Paluzzi tossed a two-hitter with 14 strikeouts and senior catcher Nick Graybeal connected for a home run.
Powell Moore pitched a one-hitter in outdueling Sullivan’s Alvin Sells for a 1-0 victory in the semifinals in a game that took just 75 minutes to play. Sells was taken by the Pittsburgh Pirates with the 36th overall selection in the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft a few weeks later and reached the Double-A level in the minor leagues.
That set up a rematch with D-B, which featured two bonafide stars in Larry Kiser and Mike Roberts. Kiser threw four no-hitters in ‘67 and would later reach the Triple-A level with the Philadelphia Phillies, while Roberts would gain great acclaim as the head coach at UNC from 1978-1998.
Tennessee High managed just two hits against Kiser, but one was a two-run double in the third inning and the other was a RBI single in the fifth inning – both off the bat of Graybeal in a 3-0 triumph. Former Bristol Herald Courier sports writer Dave Sparks didn’t call him Nick The Stick for nothing.
The Vikings beat the Indians again a couple of days later by a 5-3 margin to win the district title.
In 28 innings in the district tourney, THS did not yield an earned run and Paluzzi was named the event’s most valuable player.
“After we won the district,” Graybeal said. “We knew we just needed to win five more games.”
The regional tournament at Knoxville’s Bill Meyer Stadium would be more of the same with a 4-0 win over Rutledge as Paluzzi crafted a one-hitter and a 2-1 triumph over the Bearden Bulldogs with Powell Moore and Ray Rogers teaming on a four-hitter. Bearden’s lone run came in the sixth inning and was scored by Phil Garner, the man who went by “Scrap Iron” and later won a World Series playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1979 and managed the Houston Astros to the National League pennant in 2005.
His last high school game turned out to be that loss to Tennessee High.
Tennessee High didn’t have far to travel for the state tournament as he would be held in Kingsport.
“Rumor was at the time that the state tournament was going to be in Kingsport because Dobyns-Benntt was expected to be there,” Makres said in that 1997 interview.
The Vikings made the most of the opportunity.
“It was an advantage for sure,” Butcher said. “Getting to sleep in your own bed, eat mom’s cooking and stay in your normal routine. The fans from Bristol, Kingsport and Sullivan County packed J. Fred Johnson every night. We felt their support and approached each game as if we were not only representing Bristol, but also playing to show our pride for the entire district.”
Tennessee High dispatched Carver of Memphis (6-1), Madison of Nashville (16-3) and Chattanooga Central to win it all.
The top song on the charts at the time was Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” and the Vikings certainly earned some R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
“The players on that team were truly state champions as the tournament was unclassified, with no divisions,” Butcher said. “Every team we beat on the way to the title was considerably larger than we. Our team didn’t know enough to be intimidated. Every team we played in the state tournament had a better record; we just chalked that up to our playing much better competition. I do believe at least three teams we beat to win the district tournament could have had a deep run in the state that year.”
The title game was everything a championship contest should be as Paluzzi – who else? – was once again on the winning side of a pitching duel.
Tennessee High got its run in the sixth inning as Dave Rutherford raced home on a RBI double by Makres. Makres wound up leading the entire Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia region that season with 32 RBIs and he saved his most important run-scoring knock for last.
Chattanooga Central got runners on second and third base with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning to increase the drama.
Central’s Danny Painter laid down a bunt, but Paluzzi fielded it perfectly in front of the plate, checked the runner at third base and threw to first base to nip Painter.
Danny Matlock hammered the first pitch he saw from Paluzzi to center field, but Makres made the catch as the state championship-clinching out settled in his glove.
“It was a routine flyball and then I remember it was total bedlam,” Makres recalled in that 1997 interview. “People were jumping all over the place and coming out of the stands and lying all over the ground. As a matter of fact, I still have that ball.”
Memories galore to go along with that memento after a season that ended with a 27-5 record.
There were the two losses to D-B and the Vikings split games with Gate City, Boones Creek and Science Hill. The Vikings collectively slugged 21 home runs and four of them belonged to Graybeal to go along with his .356 batting average.
The Philadelphia Phillies picked him in the fourth round of the MLB Amateur Draft.
There was also the pitching staff of Paluzzi (11-2), Powell Moore (9-0) and Gary Rogers (4-1). Paluzzi was the winning pitcher in five of the nine postseason games in one of the most dominant stretches of clutch moundsmanship the area has ever seen.
“We had such good pitching,” McReynolds said. “We felt like, ‘Hey that can probably carry us if we need it to.’ Just one win followed the next and the next and the next thing you know we were state champs. I was glad I didn’t have to face our pitchers.”
Basham got a little teary-eyed as he stood on the field following the game offering congratulations and getting the same in return from assistant coach Bill Bingham, team manager David Winship and a roster featuring Paluzzi, Butcher, McReynolds, Makres, Moore, Graybeal, Rutherford, Rogers, Mickey Blevins, Jimmy Smith, Tim Hawk, Bobby Mutter, Greg Johnson and Wayne Bowman.
The exact field he had stood on a few weeks earlier delivering a prophetic pep talk to his team.
It was the biggest win of his coaching career and remains the program’s most important victory to date.
“This is a team that has had perfect harmony,” he told Gene “Pappy” Thompson of the Bristol Herald Courier not long after the triumph. “There has never been a hint of dissension. They were all bent on winning – and there hasn’t been an individual in the bunch who wanted to star. Each and every one of them wanted to give everything he had for the team.”
Now, for a look at high school baseball moments which occurred this week in history:
March 30, 1971
Mike Kelly struck out six in firing a no-hitter as Saltville edged Holston, 1-0. … Eddie Hunnicutt’s home run was among the highlights in St. Paul’s 5-3 victory over J.I. Burton. … Bobby Caudill tossed a five-hit shutout in Abingdon’s 7-0 vanquishing of Virginia High.
March 25, 1983
Barry Powers pounded two home runs as Castlewood cruised to a 17-3 win over Holston. … Mike McReynolds and Greg Johnson each went 3-for-4 with three RBIs in John Battle’s 18-1 victory over Lebanon. … Rusty Herndon hammered out the game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning as Honaker edged Garden, 7-6.
March 30, 1992
Shawn Fouch fired a five-hitter with 11 strikeouts as Virginia High stopped Sullivan Central, 7-3. … Brannon Breeding blasted a home run for Richlands in the Blue Tornado’s 6-0 victory over Carroll County. … Eric Sheets, Jeff Robinson, Greg Joines and Alex Boyd each had two hits in Chilhowie’s 12-1 hammering of Holston.
thayes@bristolnews.com | Twitter:@Hayes_BHCSports | (276) 645-2570
District Four Tournament
May 16 – Tennessee High 6, Holston 2 (W—Paluzzi)
May 20 – Tennessee High 1, Sullivan 0 (W—Moore)
May 23 – Tennessee High 3, Dobyns-Bennett 0 (W—Paluzzi)
May 25 – Tennessee High 5, Dobyns-Bennett 3 (W—Rogers)
Region One Tournament
May 30 – Tennessee High 4, Rutledge 0 (W – Paluzzi)
May 31 – Tennessee High 2, Bearden 1 (W – Rogers)
TSSAA State Tournament
June 5 – Tennessee High 6, Memphis Carver 1 (W – Paluzzi)
June 6 – Tennessee High, Nashville Madison 3 (W – Moore)
June 8 – Tennessee High 1, Chattanooga Central 0 (W – Paluzzi)
June 8, 1967
TSSAA State Baseball Finals
At J. Fred Johnson Stadium (Kingsport)
Tennessee High 1, Chattanooga Central 0
Tennessee High 000 001 0—1 6 1
Chattanooga Central 000 000 0—0 2 0
Paluzzi and Graybeal. Painter, Choate (6) and Matlock. W – Paluzzi (11-2). L – Painter (5-2). HR – none.
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Tom Makres (left) and Dave Rutherford, shown in 1997, played a huge role for Tennessee High when the Vikings won the 1967 TSSAA state baseball championship.
Dave Rutherford scores the winning run for Tennessee High.
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