Written By Kayelyn McCaslin

Patterned ties knotted at the neck and bright dresses swished with each stride. Frilly hats, white gloves, and leather shoes stayed on despite the heat. A Sunday afternoon in 1950s Chattanooga, Tennessee, called for the best fashion. Only this crowd had already been to church, and they were headed for another kind of sanctuary: Engel Stadium. “I can picture my father with his tie on, sitting in the stands on a Sunday after church,” said Mickey McCamish, former President of The Engel Foundation. “Growing up, Engel Stadium and The Lookouts were a social fabric of Chattanooga. It was the center place.”

Now, those Sunday games are long gone. After decades of negligence and decay, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC)  has announced that Engel Stadium will be demolished in 2026 and replaced with a women’s sports center. This decision has stirred both nostalgia and frustration from the Chattanooga community, especially those like McCamish who knew the stadium as the hub of social life in town.

McCamish first saw Engel as a ten-year-old selling Coca-Cola in the stands. Now a Navy veteran and Executive Director of Friends of the Festival, he watches as the fabric of Engel Stadium fades.

It was Joe Engel, a former baseball player turned entrepreneur, who purchased The Lookouts in 1929 and launched Engel Stadium the following year. “That’s what Joe Engel is about. He went out and raised the money to build the stadium. He saw the future of baseball,” McCamish said. “I remember he would give away bicycles to youth. It brought youth in; they would bring their parents in. He was the showman of Chattanooga.”

To kids like McCamish, Joe Engel was a tall, charming man in wing-tipped shoes who welcomed fans and baseball legends alike. Over the decades, Babe Ruth, Lou Gerig, and Willie Mays stepped into the diamond just feet away from cheering Chattanoogans. “To go out there and see somebody like Harmon Killebrew play… the Michael Jordans of the world… they came through here,” McCamish said.

Many passed through Engel Stadium up until the last Lookouts game in 1999. After that, the stadium was handed over to UTC in 2002. Within a decade, it was unrecognizable.

“I think that, like anything, you have to have a strong group of people to get behind it and say, ‘Okay, what’s it going to take to keep it here?’ That’s why it was disappointing that while I was away, UTC gave up baseball.” McCamish said.

Seeing the stadium in ruin inspired him to act. McCamish took a page out of Joe Engel’s book and started raising money to bring life back to Engel Stadium. He became the president of The Engel Foundation, a non-profit that acted as a tenant under UTC, assuming responsibility to restore the stadium and tackle the disrepair head-on.

All new lighting, a laser-level field, and a handicap accessible elevator revitalized the stadium. By 2012, Engel Stadium was polished enough to serve as the movie set for the film “42”, host a series of concerts, and feature all-star games. It was a glimpse of former glory and a testament to the extent to which Chattanoogans were invested in Engel.

But a group of volunteers couldn’t hold up an entire stadium forever.

“After we had completely restored Engel Stadium—handicapped access, fire-coded—we couldn’t really continue to maintain the stadium,” McCamish said.

After 2015, when Engel Stadium was returned to UTC’s responsibility, it fell into abandonment. McCamish referred to it as “destruction by omission,” stating that it deteriorated to the point that “you couldn’t wear a hard hat and gain access to it.” Years of neglect managed to wipe away what the Chattanooga community had once restored.

Emails published by NewsChannel 9 later revealed how UTC officials anticipated public upset, including a remark from Vice Chancellor Brent Goldberg comparing the outcry to complaints over the demolition of Yankee Stadium.

 “I wonder if these people made the same comments when they tore down Yankee Stadium 20 years ago, when Engel should’ve been torn down,” Goldberg said.

UTC has acknowledged what Engel has become a decade later: a shell of a stadium that’s beyond repair. With the stadium past the point of saving, what can still be preserved? For McCamish, it’s always been about Engel’s legacy.

Having saved the stadium before, McCamish says that preserving Engel’s memory is about maintaining the outer stadium walls and entry gates, and including memorabilia within the new complex. 

“I would keep the walls the way they are, would keep the gate the way it is, and then I would build inside that… The stadium was butted right against the sidewalk. As you walked down, you could touch it,” McCamish said.

What remains unaddressed is how UTC will honor the history of Engel Stadium once the new sports complex is constructed. For many in Chattanooga, the debate isn’t about demolition, it’s about how those in power will choose to honor the historical places that built the city.

In a couple of years, blue-and-gold-clad athletes will brush past the brick corner of a new “UTC Engel Stadium” without knowing that once, a ticket booth stood there. Once, people lined O’Neal Street in the best clothes they owned, making a ritual of gathering. Fingers brushed the brick wall right next to the sidewalk on the opening day of The Lookouts. To truly remember what was there, “You need to be able to touch Engel Stadium. In that way, the life of Engel continues,” McCamish said. “When you can reach out and touch it.”

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More than a Game: Remembering the History of African American Baseball in Chattanooga

Written by Clara Paulson

Business Owner Larry “Bear” High studied the poster of a youth baseball team in his barbershop. Ten African American boys dressed in white, crimson-striped jerseys and red caps marked with a “B” stared back at him, mirroring his grin. Bold print bordering the frame read, “Remembering the past: Bear’s Barbershop Team 1974.”

“Red and white stripes,” High chuckled, inspecting their uniforms. “Just like an old fashioned barber pole.” 

Most locals associate Bear’s Barbershop as a quaint brick building run by 77-year-old High in the heart of downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, with quality hairstyling and cuts. What fewer know is the shop’s deep and unexpected connection to baseball. 

Just as the poster advocated, High makes a point to remember the past, particularly Chattanooga’s history of negro league baseball teams—a legacy closely tied to his own family and community.

“Baseball was one of the main sports for African Americans because it wasn’t nothing but a bat and a ball,” he recalled, “I played baseball, everybody in my family played baseball, and my daddy played semi-pro baseball. He played for the Chattanooga Choo-Choos.”

From the 1920’s to the 1950’s, Chattanooga buzzed with baseball fever and a number of local negro league teams emerged, among them the Choo-Choos, Tigers, White Sox, Black Lookouts, Black Cats, and Stars. 

Negro league teams formed in the early 20th century because segregation and Jim Crow laws kept African American players from joining Major League Baseball. Despite attempts to keep black ball players on the fringes of the sport, several names rose to the top of the charts and history books.

William Howard Mays, whom most simply know as Willie Mays, came to Chattanooga during the summers of 1945 and 1946 from Whitfield, Alabama. When he was only in 9th and 10th grade, Mays began a well-renowned baseball career with the Choo Choos at the city’s historic Engel Stadium.

Chattanooga’s Engel Stadium and Lincoln Park were home to other iconic people and stories, even if only in passing. 17-year-old Jackie Mitchell made history at Engel when she struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Leroy “Satchel” Paige, the first former Negro League player elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971, played with the White Sox when they won the Negro Southern League in 1927 as well.

High’s father often told him stories of the greats and legends who came through Chattanooga. He told him stories of how the Negro League Teams like the Choo Choos faced segregation when playing America’s iconic sport as well. While white teams rode comfortable buses and stopped at hotels, High remembered his father talking about long rides from city to city with teams cramped in the same van—how they would ride all night and play the next morning. 

High remembered watching baseball games himself at Lincoln Park and Engel Stadium. During the Jim Crow Era, Lincoln Park acted as a baseball field, playground, and social hub for the African American community. The park was one of the places black residents could gather safely and play baseball without experiencing segregation.

Engel Stadium, on the other hand, was more divided. High recounted his own childhood experience watching games from the stands: “Now I remember in Engel Stadium, they would let us sit and watch the game, but we would have to go into a certain area.” That certain area lacked a roof, leaving fans exposed to rain or harsh sun. Still, High found some of his fondest memories and love for the sport there.

Years later, in 2025, Engel Stadium and Lincoln Park no longer serve as the iconic baseball fields they once were. However, Lincoln Park, increasingly absorbed by hospital expansion, still serves as a social hub for the Chattanooga community, and Engel Stadium is slated for demolition. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga bought it with plans to transform it into a women’s sports complex. 

To High, this means the loss of a place not only overflowing with childhood memories but also the city’s significant baseball history. “I hope they don’t tear the stadium down,” he said, “There are certain things that should never be torn down. You’re losing history.”

Still, even now, a deteriorating Engel Stadium—with sunlight showering through holes in the roof, faded bases, and silent stands dripping with ivy—echoes with the sound of a Hammond Organ. Cheers and dust erupt as wood strikes leather. The memories of Jackie Mitchel, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, and the other greats who passed through whose names have not dimmed. Like stars, their legacies shine long after they are gone. 

Though these iconic stadiums did not stand the test of time, the memories of those who played there and the nostalgia surrounding the sport survived in people like High. His father’s enthusiasm shaped his own love for the game, which he later poured into numerous others, including Bear’s Barbershop Team. As long as locals continue sharing their stories about Engel, Lincoln Park, and those who played there, Chattanooga’s baseball legacy and legends will remain rooted in the community.

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