MARCH
1901
On March 16, 1901, State Representative Edward Bright Wilson, from Gallatin, introduced a bill to the Tennessee General Assembly for the incorporation of the Town of Hendersonville. The impetus for the move was a push by the Anti-Saloon League to abolish the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages statewide. Since, Saloons were illegal within four miles of incorporated towns, the Anti-Saloon League encouraged the legislature to impose incorporation on several small communities throughout the state. Eighteen days after the bill was introduced, Governor Benton McMillin signed it into law.
A Hendersonville government was never organized, however. No mayor or aldermen were elected. No election was ever held. Two years later, at its next legislative session, the Tennessee General Assembly repealed the corporate charter, allowing Hendersonville to remain without a city government until the residents voted to have one in 1968.
(Most of this information came from Tim Takacs’ Part I of the history of Hendersonville. Also, the image below shows the borders of the city when it was incorporated in 1968.)
1969
With its provisional status removed in March 1969, the Hendersonville League of Women Voters embarked on a series of unmatched contributions to the community. Early on the organization encouraged the state to provide free, public kindergarten and the city to annex several residential areas, a move that would prevent Gallatin and Goodlettsville from claiming homes in the 37075 zip code. Years later the League encouraged the county to fund new schools, and it studied the possibility of creating a city school district in 1978 and 1988. Both times, it found the idea to be cost prohibitive.
The Hendersonville League of Women Voters also
• Created “Know Your Hendersonville” booklet about the community in 1968;
• Supported city restrictions to outdoor signs along Main Street;
• Encouraged an effort to create a town center;
• Studied and opposed the 1986 effort to change the city’s form of government; and
• Provided data that explained the need for a hospital in Hendersonville.
As the League of Women Voters continued, it remained the most comprehensive source for information on local government and local issues even though it never took a partisan stand or endorsed an individual candidate. That objectivity gave the League a reputation in Hendersonville as a representative of rational endorsements following exhaustive studies of pertinent information. Those positions were regarded so much that governments, other organizations and residents, often followed its lead.
1977
Members of the Hendersonville Church of Christ walked from the church’s original location at 315 Gallatin Road to their new building on March 6, 1977.
The building in use since 1893 had been struggling to accommodate the growing membership. The new building on Rockland Road provided room for growth, including a new educational wing nine years later.
The size of their congregation had grown from 810 in 1968 to 1,225 in 1978.
Much of the old building between Shivel Drive and Dunn Street was razed, leaving space for offices. A handful of graves on the property were removed to the Gallatin City Cemetery.
The church’s minister at the time was James Vandiver, who had begun his ministry at the church in 1973. He continued through 1986.
The new property also enabled a nearby ministry to start, Christian Manor, housing for elderly and handicapped. It opened in 1984.
1976
In March 1976, Middle Tennessee Youth Soccer was incorporated. Within 10 years the league was the largest nonreligious volunteer organization in Sumner County, and it was the most popular team sport in the city in terms of participation. Hundreds of drivers proclaimed with bumper stickers, “Soccer is Super.”
Steve Edwards had gathered Hendersonville youngsters together in 1973. None of the fifteen elementary students were his or had ever played the game prior. “I just knew some friends of mine who had kids, so I talked them into playing,” Edwards said years later.
With the help of the Nashville YMCA’s Bill Portman, Edwards put together the first
youth soccer games in Middle Tennessee. For that first season, Hendersonville, Nashville and Franklin each had a team. “We played five or six games before the players realized we were playing the same teams,” Edwards said. The Hendersonville team played its home games at Walton Ferry Elementary School with non-regulation goals made of two-by-fours. The field had a drainage ditch through the middle of it. “It was the best we could do,” said Edwards.
For the next season he moved the team to Wessington Place Elementary School (now known as Whitten) with the permission of Principal Paul Decker. Later, Edwards received agreements to use Nannie Berry and Gene Brown schools and property that later would become the site of Indian Lake Elementary School. At Wessington Place Barry Jones’ son Ian played and Jones met Edwards for the first time. In March 1976, Edwards, Jones and a handful of other volunteers incorporated as Middle Tennessee Youth Soccer with the goal of creating a league for the entire area. Curtis Lincoln wrote the organization’s bylaws, which contained a rule that all players were to play at least half of each game.
Karen Kral, Bill Moulton, Gary Smith and Ron Blair were also on the board. That emphasis on development and enjoyment contrasted with other Hendersonville sports league. Many parents were unsatisfied with the coaches of other sports who concentrated on winning while leaving some players on the benches. “People were flocking to us saying that their kids were not treated fairly,” remembered Jones, speaking of parents whose children had played in baseball and football leagues. Initially, the soccer league’s board of directors had settled on a fall season but gave in to the popularity and offered spring seasons as well. Between the fall of 1977 and the spring of 1978, registrants increased 75 percent. In 1982 the league contained 835 players among 49 teams in divisions for adults and several age groups. By then the Nashville teams had split off into their own league.
A number of volunteers and city personnel were instrumental as well. “People just wanted to help,” Jones remembered. “They were saying, ‘I know nothing about the game, but I want to help.’” One who helped was Chris Moore, who coordinated the volunteer referees for years. The city’s parks board was also supportive, an especially gracious choice considering the city’s growth in other programs with longer tenure. Jones said, “[Parks Board Chairman] James Craighead was absolutely super. He basically told us that we were citizens too and we were going to be treated like football and baseball.” Living up to that word, the city provided fields in
Drakes Creek Park and helped buy land beyond the stream that runs through the park. The intention of that land was always soccer fields. As the league grew, it continued its emphasis on enjoyment and development of players. Jones followed Edwards as commissioner of the league, serving from 1979 through 1983 and then stepping aside for Ross Thomas. Thomas continued the priorities of the league, stating in 1984 that they were learning, enjoyment and then, “maybe” winning. To keep those first two, the league had instituted a policy that the talent among the teams be balanced. Another change was breaking away from combined boys and girls teams, allowing girls to choose between all-girls divisions or predominately boys divisions.
The exception to Thomas’s statement about winning was the select team program, the league’s all-star teams. Even though they were not considered to fit the objectives of the league, Jones found interest after the Tennessee State Soccer Association encouraged such development. The board then asked the parents of the league their feelings on such competitive play. The board found acceptance for under-19, under-16 and under-14 aged teams. That was in 1981.
The board expressly forbade the select teams from interfering with recreational play even though the select players would be composed of players from the recreational teams. Initially, the teams traveled throughout Middle Tennessee. Later, they played tournaments throughout the state and the Eastern United States. As that happened, the league allowed more select age groups and abandoned its rule of keeping select teams from interfering with recreational teams.
Other situations helped growth of soccer in Hendersonville, namely support from media. Even though area and national media gave little time or space to the game, they sufficiently covered the retirement of Brazilian star Pelé from the North American Soccer League in 1977. Nationally, ABC Sports showed some NASL games, but weekly media coverage was coming from local outlets such as the Star News and
Free Press, which both ran scores and highlights of the local youth games.
They also covered the select teams and high school games with similar respect as
the sports more traditional to the local sports pages. Stated Jones in 1984 in a Star News story: “The high school programs are suffering from lack of media support. I’m not talking about the local coverage because the Star News and the Free Press have both given excellent coverage.”
The impact of such success reached far outside Hendersonville. Jones, who had played the game in Wales, helped start the Greater Nashville Youth Soccer League, a recreational league for under-19 players. From there, the teams of Donelson’s YMCA sprung, as did Nashville Sting, Davidson County’s select program. Also, when Sumner Academy sought help creating a soccer program, the Hendersonville league assisted. The board agreed to allow the school to have two teams composed of school students playing for two seasons with the understanding that the school would start a league in Gallatin afterward. With those leagues organizing
independently, the board of directors for Hendersonville’s league changed the name from Middle Tennessee Youth Soccer to Hendersonville Soccer League in 1981. Later it became the Hendersonville Soccer Club. The select portion is now known as Tennessee United Soccer Club.