‘Murfreesboro Storytellers’ features onetime White Sox scout and high school coach Jack Jolly

Baseball has long been America’s pastime and the Boys of Summer are back in action. In the May episode of “Murfreesboro Storytellers,” lifelong Murfreesboro resident and longtime high school coach Jack Jolly recalls memories of his days as a professional MLB talent scout for the Chicago White Sox.  Watch the May episode on YouTube athttps://youtu.be/AjO6ODUIF1Y.

Jolly coached high school baseball at Oakland.  The school’s baseball field is named after Jolly who coached successful baseball and football teams in the 1960s and 1970s. Jolly, 88, has also kept close ties to MTSU baseball over the years.

The “Storytellers” interview features the following topics and issues:

• Jack Jolly’s father played professional baseball and worked as a professional umpire. During WW II his dad was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, where Jolly grew up watching big-name baseball players like Pee Wee Reese, shortstop for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers from 1940 to 1958, and “Phil” Rizzuto, who played shortstop for the New York Yankees.
• Jolly played football for Murfreesboro Central in the 1940s under Homer Pittard. Classes were held at Middle Tennessee Normal School and the Tennessee College for Women after a fire destroyed Central High. Jolly went on to attend Middle Tennessee, earning three degrees.
• Jolly started his career coaching football in middle school at Crichlow before coaching high school football for three years in Smyrna, including a 1960 undefeated high school football team. Jolly’s baseball coaching years at Oakland, including a notable 1978 team.  He retired in 1988. The baseball field is named after Jolly.
• Jolly started as a professional scout with the Montreal Expos but spent 24 years as a professional scout with the Chicago White Sox, drafting several pitchers and catchers.
• Jolly also shares his greatest thrills in sports which include winning the district baseball championship four consecutive years at Oakland High School.

This month’s “Storytellers” was recorded in the Murfreesboro City Council Chambers at 111 West Vine Street in Murfreesboro.  “Murfreesboro Storytellers” is hosted by John Hood and produced by award-winning video producer Michael Nevills.