News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Upperman Bees will pay tribute to their history with new, alternate throwback uniforms featuring tributes to Baxter Seminary and a beloved 50 year old logo.
Assistant coach Tyler McWilliams said throwback uniforms have been talked about for some time, but felt the time was right to take a blast to the past.
“I’ve just kind of always been intrigued about the school’s history,” McWilliams said. “I just felt nostalgic and we kind of just wanted to get something to honor those who have kind of built our sports programs and school into what it is today.”
The jersey has a white base with yellow, varsity letters that spell “Upperman”, McWilliams said he based the shorts’ yellow stripe off of the shorts in which his mom and head coach Dana McWilliams wore during her time as a Lady Bee. The yellow stripe features a cartoon bee that dates back to the 1972 roster’s mural at Cornerstone Elementary.
“What’s interesting is we’ve gone through a lot of different bees and what our bee looks like throughout the history of our school,” McWilliams said. “But, it’s kind of cool to go back to a classic one and just kind of show it off a little bit.”
The waistband features the four pillars of the program: truth, honor, loyalty and service, shown in actual black pillars with the words running vertically in white lettering. These pillars are not something new to the program or Baxter, they date back to 1923 and the opening of the boarding school, Baxter Seminary.
And on the back of the jersey, above the number, there are three honeycombs containing the years of the Lady Bees’ state title wins, ’17, ’18, ’22. McWilliams said they plan to wear the jerseys four or five times at home this year, but said the players are already urging for more throwback dates.
