50th salute: 1974 Webb ballers
Rob Morris asked ‘why not?’ in early ’70s; dad’s $ paved way to Spartans baseball start
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First season in green ...
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Fifteen members of Webb School of Knoxville’s first baseball team in 1974 were on hand to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Webb Baseball prior to the Spartans varsity baseball home game versus Maryville Friday, April 26 — also the program’s Senior Night. Team members on hand, front row from left (with their year in school during that first season), were sophomores Ross Baker, Hal Ernest and Kevin Kile, Jimmy Alexander (senior), Fred Ernest (sophomore), Dee Harrison (senior), Wade Sample (sophomore) and Tim Schriver (freshman). Standing, from left, were David Dickson (senior, co-captain), Bo Townsend (representing the late Al Vesser), Steve Arnett (freshman), Mike Ayers (junior), Dennis Ragsdale (senior, co-captain), juniors Eric Grigsby, Bill Arbo and Rob Morris, and his son, Brent Morris (Webb Class of ’02 who caught the ceremonial first pitch from his father. See photo on page 8B). Not able to attend were senior Paul Sharp, junior Russ Breeding and sophomore Chris McMurry. Head coach was the late Don Tarvin.
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Rob Morris, a junior pitcher/middle infielder on that first 1974 Webb School of Knoxville baseball team, fires the official First Pitch during the program’s 50th Anniversary celebration Friday, April 26, while opening the Spartans’ Senior Night home game versus Maryville. Receiving the first pitch was Morris’ son, Brent Morris, a Webb Class of 2002 baseball player.
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Arnett is shown wearing his cerebration No. 13 jersey at the ceremony.
KNOXVILLE — Among all the jogged memories rekindled at the Webb School baseball field Friday evening, April 26 — as members from the Spartans’ first diamond team in 1974 celebrated the program’s 50th anniversary — a father-son combo was most prominently recognized.
After all, it was a Webb School teenager named Rob Morris asking, in the early 1970s, “why can’t we have a baseball team?” as recalled not by Morris himself, but by teammate Steve Arnett.
“So Rob, after he talked to the athletic director, said, ‘You know why we don’t have a team is we don’t have a field,’” said Arnett, a freshman pitcher/third baseman on the 1974 team who was a two-All KIL honoree as a junior and senior.
Arnett and Morris were two of 15 members of that team on hand for the anniversary.
“So Rob went home to his father (Bob Morris) that night, and Rob said, ‘Oh, by the way, you know why we don’t have a baseball team?’ And his father said, ‘Why?’ And he said, ‘Well, because we don’t have a field.’
“(The father) said, ‘You do now.’ ... He donated the money to put up fences and everything,” Arnett added.
School officials accepted the gift and created a baseball program while choosing the first baseball field location (where Lee Athletic Center now sits).
“And if he hadn’t been persistent, we wouldn’t have had a team for another five years,” Arnett said of Rob Morris.
About that first field, “You’d have to see our old ballpark because there was no fence. There was a big, huge uphill climb out in our outfield,” said Kevin Kyle, a sophomore outfielder, infielder and pitcher in 1974 who’s a commercial office furniture businessman in Atlanta. He also was at the ceremony.
As for the gathering, “I haven’t seen hardly any of them in the last 45 years or so,” said Rob Morris, a junior middle infielder/pitcher in 1974.
“I had not seen most of those guys in literally 45, 50 years,” said Kyle, who has three children and five grandchildren.
A retired co-founder of Trust Company of Tennessee, Arnett recalled the first Webb baseball victory was 5-1 against Young High School (now South-Doyle).
“Bill Arbo homered and struck out 10 batters, pitching six innings,” he said. Those Spartans ended the 1974 season with seven wins.
Named KIL Player of the Year in 1974 as a junior, Arbo’s talent translated most distinctly to the next level among this bunch, going on to play wide receiver for the Tennessee Vols Football team. He also is a member of the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame.
While each player was introduced or recognized — along with three players who couldn’t attend, and including the late Al Vesser (senior outfielder) and the program’s first head coach, the late Don Tarvin — Rob Morris threw out the first pitch as Spartans Senior Night also was celebrated prior to a game versus Maryville.
Catching Rob’s toss was none other than his son, Brent Morris, also a former Spartans baseball player, Class of 2002.
Other team members on hand (with their year in school noted during that first season) were David Dickson (senior, co-captain), Dennis Ragsdale (senior, co-captain), sophomores Ross Baker and Hal Ernest, Jimmy Alexander (senior), Fred Ernest (sophomore), Dee Harrison (senior), Wade Sample (sophomore), Tim Schriver (freshman), Bo Townsend (representing the late Al Vesser) and juniors Mike Ayers and Eric Grigsby.
Unable to attend were senior Paul Sharp, junior Russ Breeding and sophomore Chris McMurry.
Also on hand carrying a 1974 Webb annual — and drawing a lot of 50-year baseball Spartans his way — was the Rev. Richard Paddon, school chaplain from 1970 to 1984.
