LEAGUE HISTORY

Beginnings of the Southwest Nashville Football League

In the late summer of 1991, the Green Hills YMCA announced that it would no longer sponsor the football league it had provided for some three decades. Known as “Gra-y” – which stood for grade school YMCA – the league had dwindled from over 20 teams during its heyday in the mid- 1970s to less than a handful of teams. The three remaining teams, one coached by Harold Huggins and two coached by Paul Clements, would form the nucleus for the new league.  

    Coach Clements called a longtime official of the Parochial League and asked to be permitted to place his and Huggins’ teams there. The Parochial League was composed of Nashville ’s Catholic elementary schools, as well as of a few local private schools, and held its games at the Knights of Columbus field behind Saint Thomas Hospital on Harding Road . But Clements had strong ties to Montgomery Bell Academy, and the Parochial League official had close ties to MBA’s arch rival, Father Ryan, and permission to join the Parochial League was quickly denied.  

    Clements, who had recruited Harold Huggins into coaching in 1971, called Coach Huggins, who agreed to place his team, composed of boys from Stokes School, in a new league. Clements then contacted Hal Farnsworth, a leader of Christ Presbyterian Church, and Farnsworth was receptive to the advantages to be gained if the church’s new school, Christ Presbyterian Academy, had a football program available to its students. Joe Chilberg became the first coach of CPA, and also became the founder of what became a noted football program.  

    The 1991 season commenced with four teams of fifth and sixth graders – Huggins’ predominantly Stokes team, Clements’ two predominantly Ensworth School teams, and CPA. Clements asked Tom Steele, Bert Dale, and Bill Norton to serve as board members of the new league, and suggested that it be named the Southwest Nashville Football League (the SWNFL). The next year the league grew to six teams, and when the Parochial League moved its games out of the area several years later, Oak Hill, Franklin Road Academy, and Saint Paul joined the league, which still included its charter members, as well as long-time participants such as David Lipscomb. More recent members are BGA, Brentwood Academy , and Ezell Harding, and for the 2008 season there will be 19 teams in the league.  

    The league continues to encourage a low-key, but competitive, approach to football, and hopes that its players will gain self confidence,  develop friendships, and leave with fond memories of their years as players, and the league hopes its coaches will demonstrate good sportsmanship and display a high level of positive leadership to the children under their care.