As soon as the school was built, teams were formed and Shades Cahaba entered into competition with other Birmingham area high schools, which had already been competing for a number of years. This was no small feat, you only need to listen to the episode with Michael Gross about the beginnings of Homewood High School to understand that. That Homewood High School won a state football championship in its third year was remarkable.
Shades Cahaba has had a distinguished record in athletics during its 29 years of existence. Football and Baseball teams existed the entire time. Basketball was started in the 1920s and seemed to have disappeared within a couple of years.
Shades Cahaba also had the first lighted field in the state of Alabama. 48,000-watts of floodlights were dedicated on October 27, 1939, during a game with Jones Valley and electronic speakers and a scoreboard soon followed.
Football Coaches (and most were the baseball coaches) at Shades Cahaba:
Arthur Acton – 1921, 3-3 record
W.A. Reeves – 1922, 0-4-1 record
Sumpter “Sump” Clarke – 1923, 6-2-1 record
Aubrey Miller – 1924-26, 10-7-5 record
Sidney Malloy – 1927-1928, 1-15-1 record
Robert R. (R.R.) Hardy – 1929-1933, 21-16-6 record
Oren “Piggy” Mitchell – 1934-1949, 100-47-6 record (1950 Shades Valley in 1950 and then Hewitt-Trussville 1951-1964).
For game scores and records, visit the Alabama High School Football Historical Society website at http://www.ahsfhs.org/. All the Shades Cahaba Records are listed under Shades Valley. Look for the team then games by year.
