A member of the College of Sports Information Directors Association’s Hall of Fame, a man who had one of the longest streaks working college football games and a writer who covered Tennessee’s upset of No. 1 LSU in 1959 are the 2015 inductees into the Tennessee Sports Writers Association’s Hall of Fame.
Ed Given, who started his career at the Nashville Banner and finished as sports information director at Middle Tennessee State University, the late Frank “Red” Bailes of the Knoxville News Sentinel, and the late John Cathey of East Tennessee State University have been voted into the TSWA’s Hall of Fame and will be inducted formally July 9 in a ceremony at Cumberland University in Lebanon.
Given, a native of Ripley, went to work for the Nashville Banner in 1957 and covered sports in the Ohio Valley Conference before going to work at Western Kentucky where he spent 16 years.
He took over as SID at Middle Tennessee in 1983 through 1998. Inducted inot the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 1998, Given wrote the OVC’s first official history in 1975.
Bailes started with the News Sentinel delivering papers as an 11-year-old in 1934 and became a copy boy in 1941. He took a break from the newspaper between 1943 and 1945 serving in the Army Air Corps. He joined the News Sentinel’s sports staff in 1948 covering high schools, colleges and area golf including two NCAA championships and the U.S. Open. Two of his most noted stories included the Vols’ upset of LSU and their surprise loss to Chattanooga that season. Health issues in 1961 forced him from covering Tennessee basketball to the copy desk and he spent 24 years as assistant sports editor. Bailes, who died in November 2003, also wrote a weekly golf column and was inducted into the Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.
Cathey joined ETSU in 1969 after working at the Greeneville News in Greeneville, S.C. He also served in the U.S. Air Force in the Korean War. Cathey, who died in 1994, wound up attending more than 700 basketball games and worked 271 consecutive football games _ one of the longest streaks among SIDs. Considered a legendary storyteller, Cathey was known nationally for his work. He received the College Football Centennial Award of Sports Information Directors.