The Nashville Vols

The Nashville Vols. Baseball. , The origin of the Nashville Vols dates to 1901 when the city's inaugural Southern Asociation team, Nashville Baseball Club, joined the league. The Club won the first two Southern Association championships (1901, 1902). In 1908, however, the name was changed to the Volunteers, or Vols, after Grantland Rice challenged locals to come up with a new moniker that better suited the Tennessee-based team. In their first year in the league as the "Vols” they won the Southern Asociation championship before an estimated 10,000 fans at Sulphur Dell. The team went on to capture six more league titles and four class titles. Manager and co-owner Larry Gilbert led the Vols to three league championships in the 1940s alone.

After World War Two, baseball at Sulphur Dell suffered from both the failure of the Southern Association to integrate the league and the advent of televised Major League games. By the mid-1950s, the average attendance at Nashlle Vols games fell to less than 300 spectators.

In 1959, businessman Herschel Greer and 13 civic leaders including country muic legend Eddy Arnold, formed "Vols, Inc”, a publicly held corporation. The new owners operated the team for two year before finally selling the Nashville Vol due to lingering debts. The Southern Association ceased operation in 1961. The Vols finally folded in 1963.

Over the teams 62 year run, the Nashville Vols competed in four different minor league class levels: Class B (1901), Class A (1902-1935), Class A1 (1936-1945) and Double-A (1946-1961, 1963). They also served aa farm club for Major League team Los Angles Angels (1963), Minnesota Twins (1961),Cincinnati Reds (1936 1937, 1955-1960), New York Giants (1934, 1935, 1952-1954), Chicage Cubs (1943-1951) and the Brooklyn Dodgers (1958-1963).