Swain High School football team

Swain High School football team

Football teams

Mountains

Portraits, Group

Likely the Swain High School football team in the late 1930s. Note that just half the players have numbered jerseys. Jack Williams (1922-1999) is wearing the #9 jersey, and it is likely that #5 is Denning Woodard. It is also likely that the man in the suit is Tommy Woodard who later became the Swain County Superintendent of Schools. The photograph was taken on Hospital Hill and in the background is Worley Knob, beyond is the Thomas Divide. The photographer, “Doc” Kelly Bennett (1890-1974), was a prominent pharmacist in Swain County, NC. Owner of the Bryson City Drug Company, Bennett served as alderman and mayor of Bryson City, on the Swain County Board of Education, as well as several terms as NC State Senator and NC State Representative. He participated in numerous other initiatives and organizations. Known as the “Apostle of the Smokies,” Bennett was an instrumental figure in the movement to create the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He was also an avid photographer, skillfully documenting a wide variety of people, places, and events in Swain County and the surrounding area.

Bennett, Kelly, 1890-1974

Kelly Bennett Collection

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

negatives (photographs)

eng

StillImage

73195

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/73195

Swain County (N.C.)

3.5" x 5.75"(dimension)

Picturing Appalachia