A star end in MT football and an attention-getting left-handed first baseman for the Blue Raiders, James "Jaybird" Hamblen is widely credited with attracting Charles "Bubber" Murphy, the school's winningest coach, to MT. Murphy was working in Nashville when Hamblen, a fellow athlete/graduate from Central High School, persuaded him to join classmates at MT where he played football, baseball and basketball.
After graduation, Hamblen and Murphy both signed pro-baseball contracts with the New York Giants. Hamblen went on to play four seasons as a first baseman in the pros. With World War II looming large, Hamblen joined the Navy and served in the Pacific. He returned to coach for two-and-half years at Nashville's Isaac Litton High School.
