ERHS Alumni Meeting on Monday

A group of East Ridge High School alumni, and other interested parties, are meeting Monday, Sept. 28 in the school’s library to discuss the future of Raymond James Stadium.

The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m., organizers said.

The group, which first met last Monday, is expected to name a treasurer to begin raising funds to help in any way it can to rebuild the condemned stadium.

About three dozen people _ including Hamilton County Commissioner Tim Boyd (Dist. 8), Tim James, a former ERHS football coach and son of Raymond James, area banker Bobby Hudgens (Class of 1974), former State Representative Ken Meyer (Class of 1977), current football coach Tracy Malone, Municipal Judge Cris Helton _ attended the initial meeting last week. The group brainstormed about fundraising efforts, establishing a non-profit entity to handle the funds and the need for an official ERHS alumni association regardless of the current situation involving the stadium.

East Ridge city officials condemned the home stands of the aging facility in late August. Access to the home stands have been blocked for the Pioneers’ home games this year. Portable aluminum bleachers have been borrowed from the city’s Parks & Recreation Department to help offset the lack of seating in the home stands.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.