The first International Senior Softball Association tournament in the Chattanooga area is a tribute to the most high-profile slowpitch tournament in local history.
And when the Pic-O-Dixie Senior Classic begins Friday at The Summit of Softball on Apison Pike and two Cleveland complexes, Tinsley Park and Elrod Park, some guys who played in the heyday of "the Pic" will be on rosters.
One of those is Wayne Carmichael, now 75, who has a hurt knee but will be managing the Sports Lettering team from Knoxville in the 75-over division. He played 10 times in the old Pic-O-Dixie - with its monster home runs and nearly-three-hour games, in some cases - on Trailways and Rudder Construction teams.
"Some of the finest players in the game and a lot of the strongest teams in the nation traveled to Chattanooga to play in the tournament," Chattanooga's Jim Farmer said.
The 1970 Pic, for instance, included 84 teams from 32 states.
Carmichael was a right fielder for "three or four or five" Pic champions, he recalled Wednesday, including the 1969 tournament with Trailways.
"We had some great battles with Kobax down there. They later became Golden Gallon," Carmichael said, recalling the likes of Chattanooga sluggers Ron Patterson and Pinch Harvey.
"We won it young. Now we want to win it old," he added with a laugh.
Ken Everett is another veteran of a decade's worth of Pics - with DuPont and Ridge Home Furniture - who is set to play in the senior version. He's with the Georgia Nuggets.
Kobax co-owner and team sponsor Tommy Cox started the Pic-O-Dixie with Robert Wells in 1966, and Cox, now 80, said "it's great" to have the senior Pic in town. Games start at 10 a.m. Friday at all three parks with 49 men's teams in age groups from 50- to 80-over and 19 women's teams in 35- and 45-over "masters" teams plus the senior age groups.
The women's division will include a "celebration of life" ceremony in memory of Vivian Jones at 5:30 p.m. Friday at the Summit on Apison Pike.
"We've been trying for about five years to get in at the Summit," ISSA staffer Greg Thomas said. "Some managers down there talked to some people and helped us line up the dates."
His father, R.B. Thomas, is the executive director of the ISSA, which is based in Manassas, Va.
Ken Griffith, a Resaca, Ga., resident who put together the Scenic City Senior Softball Program, has organized two men's teams for the Pic-O-Dixie Senior Classic: the 80-over Chattanooga Razors and the 75-over Southeast Leftovers. He's just going to manage the Leftovers, who represent six states, but will play for the Razors.
He reminded that Chattanooga has been a big part of the history of senior softball - as the birthplace of the national Senior Players Association, for one thing.
"We have a guy that's 86 (Hugh Brotherton) who's flying in from Venice, Florida," said Griffith, adding that Jake Wood from Pensacola and Mike Pickett from Stockbridge, Ga., will be on the younger Leftovers team. Wood played for the Detroit Tigers from 1961 to 1967, and Pickett was a 1960s University of Georgia baseball star who became an All-World softball player.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.