Engel Foundation Chairwoman Janna Jahn.ENGEL STADIUM: LIVING HISTORY
1926 – In a Negro League game with the Chattanooga White Sox, 18-year-old pitcher Satchel Paige makes his professional debut at Andrews Field, the future site of Engel Stadium.1929 – Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith buys the Lookouts and replace Andrews Field with a 12,000-seat modern ballpark that costs $150,000.March 23, 1930 – In the first game at Engel Stadium, the Lookouts play the Washington Senators; 2,500 people attend.April 15, 1930 – The Lookouts open their first regular season in front of 16,000 fans; in the bottom of the ninth, they score three runs and beat the Atlanta Crackers, 6-5.January 1931 – Joe Engel sells Lookout shortstop Johnny Jones for a 25-pound turkey. “The turkey was having a better year,” Engel says.April 2, 1931 – Jackie Mitchell, a 17-year old girl pitching for the Lookouts, strikes out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition against the New York Yankees.1935 – Lights are installed at Engel Stadium.May 2, 1936 – In the largest crowd in stadium history, 26,639 fans come for a promotion in which a fully furnished house is given away.1947 – Only 16 years old, center fielder Willie Mays make his professional baseball debut for the Chattanooga Choo-Choos in the Negro Southern League.1953 – From March 15 to April 14, 283,000 people come to Engel Stadium to attend the Billy Graham Crusade.Sept. 12, 1959 – The Lookouts and Engel Stadium are put up for sale by the Washington Senators.1961 – The Lookouts, now owned by the Philadelphia Phillies, win the Southern Association pennant at Engel but only 233 fans are in the stands.1965 – The Lookouts, who are no longer a part of baseball’s minor-league system but still owned by the Philadelphia Phillies, host “Save the Lookouts Night” at Engel on the last night of the season. Only 355 fans show up. The Phillies drop the team and baseball leaves Chattanooga for 11 years.June 12, 1969 – Joe Engel, 76, dies at Campbell General Hospital. The flagpole in center field flies at half-staff for a week.April 20, 1976 – Now affiliated with the Oakland A’s, the Lookouts attract 8,305 fans to their first home opener in 11 years.Sept. 12, 1988 – The Lookouts win their only pennant of the modern era in a three-game sweep over the Greenville Braves, the last game before the stadium’s renovation.April 12, 1989 – Engel Stadium reopens after a $2 million dollar renovation.April 16, 1994 – A modern-era record crowd of 14,137 comes to see Birmingham Barons outfielder Michael Jordan, but he does not play.Sept. 10, 1999 – The Lookouts play their final game at Engel Stadium before moving across town to AT&T Field.2000 – Chattanooga and Hamilton County lease the stadium to the Tennessee Temple University baseball team and the school agrees to maintain the facility.2004 – The city and the county hand over ownership of the stadium to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.December 2009 – Engel Stadium is placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Janna Jahn wants to make one thing clear.
The effervescent chairwoman of the Engel Foundation isn’t spending the majority of her free time trying to save the venerable Chattanooga baseball stadium.
She’s swinging much harder than that. Jahn and her foundation brethren see a day in the very near future where Engel Stadium isn’t just seen as a landmark or museum, something to be revered only for its history.
Yes, it’s all that, but if Jahn has her way, Engel’s newly graded infield – thanks to the filming of the movie “42” – and soon-to-be resodded outfield will reverberate with the familiar sounds of bat striking ball and kids learning the game on the same field where 17-year-old Jackie Mitchell wowed the world when she struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in 1931 and where Chattanooga Lookouts owner Joe Engel once gave away a house.