State championship team reunites for supper after 50 years

During their 50th reunion dinner on Saturday night in Dyersburg, members of the 1974 Junior Babe Ruth State Championship team got together for a group photograph. Members of the team shown are (front, from left) Robin Jacobs, Les Smith, Jeff Agee, Tracy Eison, William Pilkenton; (back, from left) Coach Kerry Bizzle, Terry Dial, Tony LaRue, Kim Peckenpaugh, David Guthrie, Lee Hastings, Jeff Heathcott and Manager Roy Bizzle. Not pictured: Mike Evans, Mark Piggott, and David Denning. Deceased members of the team are Barrett Deal and Coach Frank Agee.

Photo/Jason Peevyhouse

By JASON PEEVYHOUSE

Sports Editor

A lot of things have changed in the world over the past 50 years since the Dyersburg Junior Babe Ruth team won the state championship in 1974.

Memorabilia from the team's state championship journey was on display which included the state championship trophy, a framed jacket, the team's scorebook as well as other items.

Photo/Jason Peevyhouse

One thing which has not changed in the now five decades since their doubleheader win over the Nashville Shoetiques (named after a shoe store) on Aug. 2 of that year to become the first team – at that time – in many years to accomplish this feat is the brotherhood which remains amongst the living members of that title team.

The surviving members of the state championship team met for their 50th reunion on Saturday night in Dyersburg to see each other again and share stories and memories.

“This group has been close for all these years and we still communicate,” Lee Hastings said. “We put this on our calendar many months ago. Short of a death in the family, I wouldn't have missed this for anything.”

Hastings is a prime example of how close this group of players remain after so many years. Hastings explained his work does bring him to Dyersburg once a month. Originally from Dyersburg, Hastings had the longest trip to Saturday night's reunion meal at Timber's as he and his wife journeyed from Tampa, Fla. to spend time and share memories and a meal with his former teammates.

Another member of the team, Robin Jacobs, said one thing which sticks out to him years later is something which is no longer done for tournaments like the 1974 State Tournament.

“When we got there, they told us we weren't going to stay with our parents but with other families,” Jacobs recalled.

Dyersburg's Kim Peckenpaugh elaborated on this as it's a practice which has gone away with time.

“That day won't happen anymore,” Peckenpaugh added. “You're not going to want your kids to stay with somebody and the parents aren't probably going to want the kids either.”

Peckenpaugh recalled the process of how this would go.

“You'd pull up, usually at a school, and the parents would pick you up,” he pointed out. “You just wouldn't be able to do that today. But, that's what we did.

“But, that's how some of us – like Jeff Heathcott and myself – we stayed together, that's how we got to know each other. And that's how Lee and I got to know each other because we stayed together in Huntsville. Just good memories and good people. We've all turned good. Pretty close knit bunch.”

Multiple members of the team did add over the course of the two-hour-long reunion that many of them grew closer because they stayed with sponsor families.

Peckenpaugh was heavily involved in the organizing of this event and the two previous reunions (1999 and 2014).

“This is the third time we've gotten together,” Peckenpaugh explained. “About a year ago, I started shooting them some emails and texts to block this date – because people do make vacation plans.

“During the last couple of months, start flagging it out. Over the last month, I told them we're going to be at Timber's (the old Neils'). Line up what to eat. Every time we've eaten either Chicken Monterey or a barbecue plate. And, we've had this same room the whole room.”

Peckenpaugh added only three of the living members of the team were not present on Saturday night.

“A lot of us still live here,” Peckenpaugh added. “That's an easy thing.”

Peckenpaugh also shared some of his favorite memories from himself and his teammates.

“We played from Kitty League and everything was Dixie,” he recalled. “We played on Lake Road and then we went over the Babe Ruth and Connie Mack.

“We played together all our life. Riding up and down the roads – especially that 1974 year – it was something else. Going to all the games and being 13, you didn't know what was going on. You were just playing ball.”

Peckenpaugh added back in 1974, the field was larger to get to the state championship.

“If I read that stat book right, we played 15 games to play for that state championship,” Peckenpaugh explained. “Then we played three in Huntsville, Ala. (Junior Babe Ruth World Series).

“A lot of different towns.”