The Man, The Myth, The Legend: Billy Bob Garrison
Published 6:00 am Monday, July 15, 2019
Photo Contributed Billy Bob Garrison being inducted into the Carter County Sports Hall of Fame 2013.
Most of us only have two names but there are some with only one name like Cher, Elvis and Jarfly.
People with three names always seem to become the most popular, well liked and still have a good story to tell you.
Billy Bob Garrison is as famous in our sports area as they come. He played four sports, was a referee in all of them, played some major league baseball and served in the military.
He became a Legend.
Bob started off somewhere near the head of Stoney Creek and attended Midway Elementary School. There he played with some great players like Louis Oliver and Glen Estep.
Garrison recalled going to Unaka High School to scrimmage against the B-team, and they won.
H.S. Taylor was a good player on the Midway team and the head coach at Unaka needed them to scrimmage the varsity.
It turned out to be a bad idea as Midway would beat them in the one quarter they played and the Rebels were sent back up the creek.
“John Large would never play us at Midway before tournament time,” Garrison said. “Large thought we might get drafted before then.”
Garrison worked for the Elizabethton Star as a boy selling the paper for five cents. He would come to the office each day and buy 25 papers and go out on the street selling them.
Bob said he would holler, “Read the Elizabethton Star – it’s the best to build a fire with.”
Garrison said everyone back then had wood stoves. Bob got to keep two cents from every paper he sold and he earned about 50 cents every day. He recalled when the war ended, he doubled up on papers and went to the plant.
As the three o’clock workers got off, he would yell, “Extra, Extra the War is Over.” Many of them bought papers and Garrison never gave change back, so that day he had pockets of money.
Garrison moved to town and began school at Elizabethton High School. In the early 50’s they only offered four sports and sixteen letters were all you could receive for four years of athletics.
When Garrison left, he had collected 15 of them missing out only in his freshman year in football due to a freak accident.
He played football and basketball for John Treadway. One game he recalled playing Kingsport and Garrison hit a shot from the far end foul line at the buzzer to end the first half.
He duplicated this feat at the end of the third quarter nailing a long shot from half court.
As they huddle to begin the final period, Garrison thought he might get a pat on the back but instead Coach Treadway told Garrison he was a ball hog.
Garrison got to ride a train with the Elizabethton team from Johnson City to Memphis to play ball.
He had saved his money up and bought a brand new pair of shoes that cost seven dollars.
On the ride back he had fallen asleep and he felt his feet getting hot. Teammate Bo Campbell had put a paper under his shoes and set them on fire.
Playing basketball for Elizabethton, Garrison scored 850 points only playing in ten games his junior and senior season.
Billy was a three-time All-Big Five Conference player and scored 44 points in football his junior year.
After high school, he was drafted to play professional baseball. The first year he was with the Welch Marion and Bluefield team in the Appy League.
In ’56 he played for Fitzgerald in the Georgia-Florida League playing in 58 games and collecting 29 hits, seven doubles, two triples and a home run.
In 1957 Garrison entered the United States Army and was sent to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for basic training.
He entered the engineer training and was sent to Fort Lewis in Washington.
Garrison was getting ready to be sent to Germany when Bob Wadsworth came to him and said, “I see you played some baseball.”
He informed Garrison he needed to play baseball instead of going to Germany. Billy Bob played baseball for the Army all summer.
Then it was time to go to Germany but Bob took a TWA airliner instead of the Army plane.
When he arrived, Sgt. Dixon was in charge and after looking at Billy Bob’s papers said I see you played some basketball, you go to the gym and shoot some ball for now.
At the gym, he ran into a man who had played with Joe Treadway in college and Billy Bob had played for Joe’s dad in high school.
So Garrison traveled Germany playing basketball for many months and when he came back, Sgt Dixon was still in command.
He told Garrison softball season started in three days he needed to warm up. Garrison said it took him 15 months to make PFC because they never knew where he was.
When Garrison returned to Carter County, he began referring sports- football, baseball, basketball and softball, Church League and Industrial leagues.
Garrison would go on to be one of the most recognized officials in high school and college sports.
“I played baseball when Billy Bob was the umpire. I remember Billy Bob as a solid umpire, respected by players and managers, and he was always a true gentleman,” said Wayne Jenkins.
Bill Bob was calling behind the plate. The runner was coming home and sliding head first.
Bob called him out and the third base coach said, “There is no way he was out.”
Bob said, “Coach if he had been five foot tall instead of 4 foot 9, he would have been safe by 5 inches,” relayed Umpire Don Lady.
Long-time friend Shelby Miller said, “Billy Bob was very instrumental in helping me get started and guided me throughout my career.”
Miller remembered when Billy Bob had a district tournament game at Morristown and he arrived around 3 pm.
A man was working on the field as Bob was putting on his shin guards and chest protector. When Bob got to the field, he realized there were no teams on the field.
He asked the trainer what time the game started. The trainer replied, “You get here early for games – it doesn’t start till tomorrow night.”
He would work six baseball state tournaments, countless football playoffs and became a supervisor over the referees for over 20-years.
He has a ballfield named after him near the Carter County Little League field and has been inducted into the TSSAA Hall of Fame, Elizabethton High School Hall of Fame and the Carter County Sports Hall of Fame.
When asked about a unique game in basketball he worked Garrison said, “I was at Kingsport and Buck Van Huss was their coach. They were playing Cloudland and Sam Rogers was as hot as a two dollar pistol – he couldn’t miss.
“He hit everything he shot. Every time I went down the floor, the Cloudland coach was saying Billy Bob there hanging all over Rogers, and when I got on the other end Buck told me where to go…Cloudland won the game and I never worked again for Buck.”
Former Tennessee Speaker of the House Kent Williams said “Billy Bob is without a doubt one of the finest gentlemen I’ve ever known. A wonderful person with a big heart and a great sense of humor. I love that man and his family.”
