Historic Photos

Legendary Lookouts manager Kid Elberfield instructing a player at Andrews Field, on the current site of Engel Stadium, where home plate is facing the opposite direction.
Opening day in 1936 was not only the first night game at Engel Stadium, but it was also the day Joe Engel gave away a house. Over 26 thousand people crammed in to the stadium that night, still the largest crowd at any sporting event ever in Chattanooga. (Courtesy Chattanooga History Center)
View of the entrance to Engel Stadium in its early years, when Chattanooga saw the largest Opening Day crowd 28 out of its first 30 seasons in the Southern Association. (National Baseball Hall of Fame)
No doubt, Joe Engel is most famous for hiring a teenage girl in Jackie Mitchell to pitch to (and strike out) both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in 1931. Pictured left to right are Gehrig, Mitchell, Engel, and Ruth. (Courtesy Chattanooga Bicentennial Library)
Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith, left, is responsible for giving Chattanooga minor league baseball, Engel Stadium, and Joe Engel, pictured right. (Courtesy Chattanooga Bicentennial Library)
Pictured again is Jackie Mitchell showing off her skills to the two best hitters on the New York Yankees, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, only moments before she struck them both out. (Courtesy Chattanooga History Center)
Joe Engel after receiving Minor League Baseball’s award for “King of Baseball.” It was one of many honors he received over his years running the Lookouts. (Courtesy Chattanooga Bicentennial Library)
The Chattanooga Choo-Choo’s only existed for a few years in the ‘40s, but they produced one of the greatest players in history, Willie Mays, pictured 4th from the left in the front row. Mays was only 16 at the time. (Courtesy Chattanooga Bicentennial Library)
In his later years Joe Engel would take friends up on the roof and tell them, “See those cars? I’ve counted about 50 now in 10 minutes. And at least three out of every five is pulling a boat headed for the lake. That is the funeral procession for baseball here – everywhere – in the minors. Too much free time, too many free attractions that are new and fresh. Baseball can’t keep the pace; too costly.” (Courtesy Chattanooga History Center)
A postcard from the 1950’s shows Engel Stadium from the Joe Engel days in full color, a rarity.