Sports and Recreation

On the land where Atlanta's tallest buildings now stand, Cherokee tribes once fished, hunted, and played a kind of lacrosse with a flattened wooden bat and a ball made of stuffed deerskin. The first white men's sports on record were introduced early in the 1830's by the militia on muster day at Whitehall Tavern. After the brief drills had been finished, the air crackled with rifle fire as the men carried on their keen trials of marksmanship, contests that sometimes ended with fist fights and bloody noses. More often, however, the occasion ended in a hilarious feast. The winner's prize, a yearling heifer, was roasted and eaten on the spot, washed down with mighty drams from the tavern's whisky barrel.

During these pioneer days, the railroad men and sawmill workers brought not only gambling and card games but some lusty athletic sports. Among the most popular were wrestling, cock-fighting, and turkey or gander pulling in which the prize, a live fowl, was hung by its feet while the mounted contestants galloped very fast beneath it and tried to snatch off the head.

The wives who soon came to the settlement could not immediately abolish these elementary and often brutal games, but they gradually broke down their popularity by substituting more genteel forms of entertainment. An amusing account of a dance in 1844 is given by "Cousin John" Thrasher, contractor for the Monroe Railroad. According to the story, Mrs. Mulligan, the wife of Thrasher's Irish foreman, refused to move into her cabin until a puncheon floor had been installed. When she moved in, this dynamic lady was so delighted by the elegance of her new abode that she immediately invited the workmen and their wives to a ball and insisted that Thrasher lead the first dance with her. Although he stumbled and had the heel of his boot wrenched off by the rough boards, he contrived to hop through the figure, and the ball was a great success—the forerunner of the innumerable brilliant social affairs for which Atlanta has since become famous.

During the early 1860's, Confederate soldiers were put into barracks in the city, and these men, many of them from the farms, often worked off their energy in wrestling and fist fights. They were not left very much to their own devices, however, for the ladies of Atlanta kept them busy with bazaars, tableaux vivants, balls, picnics, and barbecues. Despite the bitterness of the Reconstruction Era that lasted into the following decade, Atlanta continued to regale itself with the theater and with many evening parties graced by music and amateur theatricals. The church, from the first an important social factor, now strengthened its hold on the impoverished but undaunted people, and on Sunday afternoons the dusty thoroughfares were gay with young couples carrying on their courtships on the way from Sunday school. Although this period had so many dark aspects, there are records of many gayeties—of the entertainments of the volunteer fire companies, of people visiting the summer resort at Stone Mountain and climbing the great granite mass, of roller skating on an upper floor on Forsyth Street, and of merry parties pedalling their way around the hall of the velocipede rink at Marietta and Forsyth Streets.

The rapid growth of the city brought many newcomers merchants, insurance salesmen, real estate promoters, soldiers in the Federal army of occupation—who introduced new forms of entertainment. A German society, the Turn Verein, organized an Atlanta unit in 1873. Its members were required to participate in gymnastic exercises twice a week; and on Sundays, with music and beer, they entertained their families with exhibitions of skill at their hall on Broad Street.

By a trade with the Macon & Western Railroad, the city acquired a land plat bounded by Whitehall, Pryor, and Alabama Streets and the Western & Atlantic Railroad, and for about 15 years these grounds were rented out to circuses, medicine shows, auctioneers, and fortune tellers. These fakirs, shouting up their evening trade in the flare of kerosene torches, caused the block to be locally christened Humbug Square. Here in 1868 there was erected the bush arbor at which crowds were stirred by the oratory of Robert Toombs, Howell Cobb, Benjamin H. Hill, and Raphael J. Moses.

During the 1870's when baseball became popular, the young men of Atlanta made up their own nines with the exception of pitchers and catchers, who usually were engaged from professional ranks. Matches were arranged not according to a regular schedule but simply by challenging the teams of neighboring towns, and no admission charge was made until July 25, 1884, when Atlanta defeated Augusta in the year's first professional game. This was played in what is now Peters Park, where a new diamond had recently been laid out with grandstand and bleachers and enclosed by a high wire fence. It is worthy of note that only about half the spectators were men, for women were beginning to interest themselves more fully in public sports, though still as onlookers rather than participants. In the following year Atlanta won the pennant for the first year of the Southern League, which was composed of cities of Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. It was not until some years later that the Atlanta team took its present name of the Atlanta Crackers.

With recovery definitely assured, Atlanta soon developed a graciously worldly society that learned to enjoy more varied recreations. Croquet was a favorite game with the young ladies and gentlemen, and lawn tennis also came in—soon to be developed for clay rather than grass courts because of the abundance of red clay soil in this region. More dancing academies opened and flourished. A few of the city's older citizens remember one of the earlier ones held in Jones Hall on Whitehall Street, where Professor Nichols of Marietta, a tall, gaunt man wearing cloth gaiters with patent leather tips that gleamed as he danced, instructed Atlanta children in the waltz, schottische, mazurka, polka, and Virginia reel. Young people of slightly more advanced years enjoyed the dancing and roller skating at Ponce de Leon Springs. A great pleasure of summer evenings was to board the electric car for a ride past the dark woods and fragrant meadows of the nine-mile belt.

Atlanta society was still of a size to gather comfortably in its own homes, where the entertaining often was sumptuous. The city's most prominent men and women would assemble to honor some debutante who stood to receive them with an armful of red roses held against her white silk and lace. The guests would waltz for a time and then be seated on gilt chairs to eat a buffet supper of cold turkey, chicken salad, beaten biscuit, oysters in molds of ice, and ice cream with cake. A young belle and her escort could drive to a dance unchaperoned in a hired landau if another couple accompanied them. They attended the balls at the Kimball House, the Girls' German Club monthly dances at Concordia Hall, or the Germans of the newly organized Nine O'Clock Club, where they received favors of papier-mache figures, feather fans, and little barrels of candy. New Year's visiting was popular; groups of young men would start walking at opposite ends of the city, stopping for visits as they went and finally meeting at some central home to enjoy eggnog and fruit cake.

The first football game in the State was played at Piedmont Park, February 10, 1892, between the state university and Auburn (Alabama Polytechnic), which won 11-0. Georgia Tech's first football team was organized in the following year by Leonard Wood, who at that tune was assigned to duty at Fort McPherson as a lieutenant. Wishing to play the game but having no players, Wood enrolled for two courses at Tech and organized a team there. Tactics consisted principally of line bucking and the famous flying wedge. One of Tech's first football games was in 1893 with St. Albans of Virginia. On this occasion the student body met on the campus and followed the team to Piedmont Park, where the game was to be played. It was on this march that the well-known "wreck Tech" yell was composed.

Beginning about 1895, Atlanta people flocked to Lakewood Park for the harness races, in which horses pulling sulkies were driven very fast around the one-mile track. More than one record was established here during the Grand Circuit races. The horse Single G paced the three fastest beats on record in a regular race. Scott Hudson, a prominent sportsman of Atlanta, is said to hold a world's record, that of being the only man to drive all six winners on the same card in one afternoon.

Golf in Atlanta first appeared very inconspicuously in 1896, when the city's first course, with seven holes, was laid out by the Piedmont Driving Club. No lessons were given by .the first professional, Jamie Litsner, whose principal duties were the supervision of caddies and the repairing of golf sticks. The game soon attracted more attention, however, and by 1906 the Atlanta Athletic Club had provided a better course. The first professional was Alec Smith, the second was Jimmy Maiden, and the third was his brother Stewart Maiden, who became internationally famous as Bobby Jones' first coach. Soon other clubs were providing facilities, but the game had not attained even a small part of its present popularity. In 1911, when Bobby Jones at the age of nine won the city Junior Championship Cup, only a comparatively small proportion of the population was interested.

Atlanta citizens of the early twentieth century found their recreation in tennis and baseball, in hunting and fishing in the nearby woods, in swimming at the indoor natatorium on Capitol Square, and in watching the dazzling feats of Bobby Walthour, Atlanta's famous bicycle racer. Widespread public interest in automobiles was first aroused by a show in 1909, and soon large crowds were watching races on the old Hapeville oval, a two-mile dirt track. The gayer social set gave more sophisticated entertainments—dances, whist and bridge parties, Saturday night poker games, and opulent Sunday morning breakfasts with champagne cocktails and Potomac herring roe.

A system of integrated parks and playgrounds was inaugurated in 1905. Little supervision of recreation was given at first, but in 1907 four supervised playgrounds for children were set up by the Associated Charities of Atlanta under the direction of Joseph Logan. Funds for this service were included in the budget of the charities for several years until this function was absorbed in the general jurisdiction of the city park authorities. With the growth of the park system, recreation facilities also expanded to include more attractions for both children and adults. For a number of years golf links, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, and swimming pools have been provided under municipal auspices.

During the war period of 1917-18, Atlanta streets once again were thronged with soldiers, this time the men in khaki who were in training at Camp Gordon and Fort McPherson. Like the Confederates in the 1860's these men were given the best hospitality the citizens could afford, and during their hours of leave they went to many dances and theatrical entertainments. Motion pictures were shown at the municipal auditorium on Sunday afternoons; after the show the soldiers uproariously sang such favorites as "Over There" and "K-k-k-katy." At the cantonment the YMCA took charge of sports, which included boxing, wrestling, football, baseball, and various relay contests and races. Often the young soldiers were brought to town to swim in the indoor YMCA pool.

The war over, Atlanta people flung themselves wholeheartedly into recreations of every sort, particularly the lavish and showy spectator sports. Football games became great events, especially after Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia had resumed their severed athletic relations in 1925. Atlanta became the scene of the regularly scheduled automobile races approved by the American Automobile Association. These contests were held on the Pace's Ferry Track, laid out in 1929, which was regarded as the fastest half-mile oval in the country.

The post-war years brought prominence to many Atlanta golfers. Alexa Stirling won the women's national championship in 1916, 1919 and 1920. Bobby Jones, after years of taking lesser awards, in 1930 made his "grand slam" capture of the four highest golf trophies— the American Amateur, American Open, British Amateur, and British Open regarded as one of the greatest feats in sports history. Charlie Yates was a member of the Walker Cup Team in 1936 and again in 1938, the year in which he won the British Amateur Tournament. Also in 1938 Howard Wheeler was winner of the Negro national golf championship. Frequently Atlanta golfers have held the State championship and been contenders in national meets.

Atlanta athletes have also won honors in the swimming pool, on the tennis court, and in the boxing ring. In 1932 Louisa Robert was national junior backstroke swimming champion. Bryan ("Bitsy") Grant, whose small stature caused him to be known as "the mighty atom of tennis," has carried off the championship in an imposing list of tournaments, including the United States Clay Court Championship in 1930, 1934, and 1935. Third place was accorded him in the national ratings in 1936, and the following year he was a member of the Davis Cup Team. Among the Negroes famous in sports are Tiger Flowers, who won the world's middle-weight championship in 1926, and Ralph Harold Metcalf, who established new track, records in the Olympic Games of 1932, 1933i ^and 1936.

The depression of the 1930's did not permanently curtail attendance at large athletic tournaments; indeed, in many instances, greater crowds than ever were attracted. By putting on more spectacular shows with bands in gay uniforms and high-stepping drum majors, the high schools have greatly increased attendance at their football games; The popularity of baseball also has increased enormously since floodlights have been installed on the field of Ponce de Leon Park so that the Atlanta Crackers and their opponents are now enabled to play night games. Leisure for greatly increased numbers of people has created a new spectator public which is interested in a much broader variety of sports than were the crowds of the post-war boom era.

But a still more significant trend has been shown in the greater numbers who take part in recreation not as onlookers but as participants. Various industrial organizations support baseball and basketball teams for their workers. A more widespread general interest in such activities has been furthered by the co-operation of municipal agencies and the Work Projects Administration. For supervised recreation and playground equipment, the city contributes an average of $330 a month and the Work Projects Administration an average of $6,000 a month, of which approximately half covers Fulton County activity. In 1939 the city created a distinct branch of the Parks Department known as the Recreation Division, with funds allotted under the annual municipal budget to administer Atlanta's supervised playgrounds for children and a system of athletic leagues with regularly scheduled games. Of these 33 playgrounds, 8 are exclusively for the use of Negroes. During 1939 public basketball facilities were used by about 700 players, while 1,200 men and women team members played softball on public diamonds in leagues supervised by the Greater Atlanta Softball Association.

More than 1,000 boys under 16 years old played baseball on the supervised sandlot diamonds of the city. The Recreation Division, during this year, presented numerous dramatic and musical performances including an amateur production of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Pinafore with a cast of 40 children and 20 adult singers.

Large crowds watch football at Grant Field of Georgia Tech and at Hermance Stadium of Oglethorpe University; boxing, wrestling, and basketball at Ponce de Leon Park; and Sunday afternoon polo matches at Fort McPherson. The Golden Gloves Boxing Tournament, conducted by the Atlanta Journal, also draws a large attendance. The city has 88 municipal tennis courts and many private ones, 10 private golf courses and 5 municipal links (4 nine-hole and 1 eighteen-hole), six municipal swimming pools (5 for white and 1 for Negroes), 12 or more private or club pools, and many gymnasiums and basketball courts. There are 83 parks comprising almost 1,600 acres. Of these Lakewood (leased to the Southeastern Fair Association) is the largest with 370.9 acres, Piedmont Park second with 185 acres, and Grant Park third with 144 acres. There is good provision for bowling, ping-pong, roller skating, badminton, riding, and numerous other sports.

Atlanta, a busy and crowded commercial city, is only beginning to utilize its many natural advantages for recreation. These advantages include well-wooded rolling lands, abundant water resources, and a mild yet invigorating climate that permits outdoor sports the year around. With such natural facilities combined with many prosperous and energetic citizens, the community is well able not only to maintain but to enlarge the scope of such activities. Atlanta has no pretensions to being a resort town, but in the natural course of its development it is learning to concentrate on the recreational phases that both attract tourists and add to the well-being of permanent residents.

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