In 1942, with the country fighting wars in Europe and the pacific, Homewood could no longer ignore the fact that Shades Cahaba was getting a little old in the tooth and it would have to be replaced in the next decade. Not to mention that it was very crowded. It was time for a new Shades Cahaba.

This will be the last regularly scheduled episode in this series. My goal was to continue at least through the end of the school year but with coronavirus and with the social isolation, it is making it harder to interview people. This seems like a good place to stop.

The school opened it’s doors 100 years ago this September so I plan to post stories on the blog leading up to that day. If an opportunity comes up for a good interview I will certainly do them and you will see them in your social media feeds.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to and supported this podcast. I have a more extensive thank you at the end of this episode.

ShadesCahabaHistory.com

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As soon as the school was built, teams were formed and Shades Cahaba entered competition with other Birmingham area high schools, which had already been competing for a number of years. This was no small feat. You only have to listen to the episode with Michael Gross about the beginnings of Homewood High School to understand that. That Homewood High School won a state football championship in its third year was remarkable.

Shades Cahaba has had a distinguished record in athletics during its 29 years of existence. Football and Baseball teams existed the entire time. Basketball was started in the 1920s and seemed to have disappeared within a couple of years.

Shades Cahaba also had the first lighted field in the state of Alabama. 48,000-watts of floodlights were dedicated on October 27, 1939, during a game with Jones Valley. Electronic speakers and a scoreboard soon followed.

Football Coaches (and most were the baseball coaches) at Shades Cahaba

Arthur Acton - 1921, 3-3 record
W.A. Reeves - 1922, 0-4-1 record
Sump Clarke - 1923, 6-2-1 record
Aubrey Alfred Miller - 1924-26, 10-7-5 record (he left for Greenville)
Sidney Malloy - 1927-1928, 1-15-1 record
Robert R. (R.R.) Hardy - 1929-1933, 21-16-6 record (was called HammerHead Hardy in the yearbook)
Piggy Mitchell 1934-1949, 100-47-6 record (1950 Shades Valley in 1950 and then Hewitt-Trussville 1951-1964).

For game scores and records, visit the Alabama High School Football Historical Society website at http://www.ahsfhs.org/. All the Shades Cahaba Records are listed under Shades Valley. Look for the team then games by year.

Make sure you follow the blog at https://shadescahabahistory.com/blog/ to see photos of teams and read other stories not covered on the pod.

SPONSOR

The Shades Cahaba Oral History Project is sponsored by ShawWright Art.com. When you go there, look for the link to Shades Cahaba and you will find shirts and accessories featuring the exclusive Shades Cahaba Centennial logo. This logo is based on an image on the cover of “The Owl” yearbook back in the 1920s. It has been updated to celebrate the 100 years of the school and it helps us to offset the cost of producing and publishing this podcast. Visit the store at https://www.shawnwrightart.com/product-category/shadescahaba/

When I recorded this episode, it was the second day that Shades Cahaba and other schools around the state had been shut down due to the state of emergency declared by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey. Coronavirus COVID-19 has been quickly spreading around the world and is now in our community. To help slow the spread of the coronavirus we have been asked to actively participate in social distancing. Staying at home, not visiting with other people or being in large crowds. The idea being that if we avoid public spaces and generally limit our movement, the virus will be slowed and our healthcare system will be able to better handle the situation.

I was working on another episode when I remembered a conversation that Sheryl Summe and I had when I interviewed her in episode 12. This is not the first time that Homewood, and the rest of the nation, has participated in social distancing. During the hot summer months of the 1930s and 40s, infantile paralysis struck thousands of children each year nationwide. Three different highly contagious polioviruses began with cold or flu-like symptoms and could permanently paralyze or kill infected children.

The disease hit its peak in the U.S. in 1952. It was at its worst in Jefferson county during the 1930s and hit epidemic proportions in 1936. As a parent, I can only imagine how terrified parents were that their children would be crippled by the disease or worse, die from it.

Parents would do their own version of social distancing. Not letting their children play with others or the lucky ones would be left at rural camps such as Camp Winnataska for the summer. But children are ingenious and have their own priorities. Here is my conversation with Sheryl where we talk about it.

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