Fred Ganues

Fred Ganues entered Copperhill High School as a freshman in 1943. He tried out for and made the high school basketball team that year. Little did he know that he was beginning an odyssey that would see him become a consistent and important part of the tapestry of sports in Fannin County and the Copper Basin for over 70 years. In recognition of his many and varied contributions to sports in this part of the country, the Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame is honored to welcome Fred Ganues, Sr. to its induction class of 2015. As a basketball player, Fred was not too shabby. Slightly built, he was a quick and deadly shooting guard. He was the captain of the Copperhill High team in 1945-46 and was named to the all Bi-State Tournament team that same season. Copperhill’s boys basketball teams would finish with 16-6 and 17-6 records during his junior and senior seasons. After graduation, Fred went to work for the L&N Railroad. Initially, he was a telegraph operator and worked his way up to Depot Manager. His assignments took him all over North Georgia and Southeastern Tennessee — Copperhill, Etowah, Mineral Bluff, Blue Ridge, Canton, Ellijay, Chatsworth, you name it and Fred worked there. It was early in his career with the railroad that Fred, working at the Mineral Bluff depot, sold a ten cent ticket from Mineral Bluff to Copperhill to a young girl named Blanche Smith. Blanche was in her senior year at Fannin County High School in Morganton. Among the many things that Fred and Blanche had in common was a love of sports. Blanche was an outstanding guard on the Fannin County High teams of 1945-46 through 1947-48, and was named to the Class B all-state team in 1946-47. Fred and Blanche were married in April, 1948. Fred began coaching and organizing independent sports teams before the ink was dry on his diploma. For his first coaching gig, he organized and coached a ladies basketball team at Friendship Church. He coached and pitched for a local fast-pitch softball team, sponsored for a few years by the C (Crumley) and M (Mason) Dairy. When the sponsorship ran out, Fred kept the team going on his own and scheduled games with teams from East Tennessee, North Georgia and Western North Carolina. He even persuaded the Chattanooga Combustion team from Chattanooga to make the 69 mile trip up the River Road to take on the locals. Combustion was a world class team with a world class pitcher named Wes Ivy. To say that the Copperhill lads had trouble hitting Ivy would be an understatement, but the game was fairly close. Fred became a hard-to-hit pitcher himself, learning everything himself. He said that he ‘fooled around’ with different grips and types of release until he had built up a number of pitches that would make the ball curve to the left (a regular curve ball), drop, curve to the right (a screwball in the lexicon of soft-ballists), rise, flutter and do numerous unimaginable tricks. In his down time from softball, Fred found lots of other sports activities to keep him busy. He organized many independent basketball teams over a 35-40 year period. His Black Knights and Lady Black Knights teams of the 50s and early 60s enjoyed a great deal of success. Led by such local notables as Earl Satterfield, Buster Fowler, Earl and Jackie Townsend, Blanche Ganues, Peggy Thompson, Mary Lou Fowler, Jackie Hartness and many others, these teams were forces to be reckoned with. Fred took personal pride, however, in talking about his favorite independent basketball team. His 1973 Morganton team competed in the Ellijay Jaycee League and put up a lusty record of 47 victories against only one defeat. One of the stars of the team was Fred’s son, Fred Ganues, Jr. who had grown to a height of 6 feet, 8 inches. Other notables on the team included 6’ 7” Danny Aaron from Blairsville and former East Fannin aces Tim Smith, Ricky Ballew, Tommy Jones and Ricky Beavers. When East Fannin High School fielded its first football team in 1956, the school needed a PA announcer. Who volunteered for the job? If you answered Fred Ganues, you are correct. The school did not have a band so Fred played a tape of the National Anthem played by the University of Tennessee band before each game and then went about the business of concisely reporting the action on the field to the fans in the stands. He did this on a volunteer basis until the school closed in 1976. Who was called upon to coach young men in Babe Ruth, Connie Mack and Dixie Youth Leagues in the eastern part of the county every year? If you answered Fred Ganues, you are correct. Who officiated local basketball teams, first at the old Fannin County High in Morganton, then at Copper Basin and numerous elementary schools in the area for 40 years? If you answered Fred Ganues, you are correct. When he was not busy in sports as a participant or coach, Fred, usually with his son and other youngsters in tow, made the trek to various venues to watch sporting events. Football, basketball and, more recently, women’s softball games at the University of Tennessee often found Fred Ganues in the stands. He remembered Lady Vols pitcher Monica Abbott with admiration. He remembered heading for Knoxville early one Saturday morning and seeing a young Benny Griffith of Copperhill hitchhiking. He stopped and asked Benny where he was headed. Benny replied that he thought he would try to make it up to Knoxville to see if he could hustle a ticket for the game that day. So Benny piled in Fred’s car and off they went. And everybody was able to find a ticket. In those days, it was commonplace to see young men who could not afford the luxury of owning a car, making their way from place to place on the strength of a strong thumb. Fred Ganues could regale an audience for hours with stories about sports in Fannin County and the Copper Basin. He was an endless source of information about the games and the people who played them in this area over 70 years. Well into his later years he stayed active by walking and shooting a few hoops at the Fannin County Recreation Center, and he never missed a Fannin County basketball game. He was one of Fannin County’s most valuable treasures. By the way, Fred remained with L&N for 42 years. Fred and Blanche remained together until her passing in 2008. They were married for 60 years. Fred Ganues was a loyal man who stuck with good things when they came his way. Fred Ganues passed away on March 12, 2015, at the age of 86, only weeks before the banquet at which he was to be inducted. The Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame remembers him with gratitude for a lifetime given to the games and the people of Fannin County and the Copper Basin.