The results are in! This project began in September when I asked fans to vote for their favorite players who wore a Nashville Vols uniform in the modern period between 1950 and 1961. However, the club was non-existent in 1962, and it returned for one more season in 1963 before professional baseball left Nashville until the Nashville Sounds began playing in 1978.
If you cast a ballot, thank you. Some of the voting was remarkably close, and even until the end of the voting period, December 31st, there were no clear choices until the final day.
The intent was to add players from a forgotten era. Nashville Banner sports editor Fred Russell published players from two periods as Nashville Vols Hall of Famers: 1901 to 1925 and 1926 to 1949. I could not leave out players who called Sulphur Dell their baseball home while wearing the colors of the Nashville Vols after 1949.
Qualifications included any fielder who played at least 100 games at his position and any pitcher with at least as many innings as his team’s games during the Vols season that year.
Without further ado, these are the players in the 2024 Hall of Fame class:
Catcher
Johnny Edwards – 1960
First Base
Chuck Coles – 1958, 1959, 1961
Second Base
Charlie Williams -1954, 1955, 1956
Shortstop
Phil Shartzer – 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961
Third Base
Tommy “Buckshot” Brown – 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958
Outfielders
Bob Lennon – 1953, 1954
Bama Ray – 1949, 1950, 1952
Buddy Gilbert – 1958, 1959, 1961
Utility
Buster Boguskie – 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955
Left-Handed Pitchers
Jim O’Toole -1958
Bob Schultz – 1950, 1956
Right-Handed Pitchers
Jim Maloney – 1960
Jack Harshman – 1951, 1953
Once again, thanks to all who cast a vote!
