Sometimes it is hard to differentiate what is fact and what is fiction related to Bob Swope. Stories abound about his athletics accomplishments. But one thing for sure…almost any sport Bob Swope attempted he was extremely successful. Much of that great athletic success came at Austin Peay.
A Nashville native who starred at East High School (the late Edgar Allen, a longtime Nashville Banner sports writer, called him the “best athlete to ever come out” of the school),Swope joined the Navy shortly after his high school graduation before attending Austin Peay via the GI Bill during the late 1940s. Initially, he played basketball, baseball and golf.
He was a 6-1 forward for the 1948-49 Governors’ Volunteer State Athletic Conference (VSAC) championship team in his first season, scoring 14 points in a key road win at East Tennessee that helped turn around the season. Later that campaign he had 10 points in the VSAC tourney-opening contest versus Lipscomb that helped propel the Govs to the title.
In the spring, he joined the golf team and helped lead them to an undefeated regular season and VSAC tourney title. He also found time to play baseball that spring.
His legend started to grow the following fall. His coach, Dave Aaron, recognizing Swope’s athletic prowess, urged him to go out for football. He acquiesced and joined the team as a running back. Although he failed to play in the season’s first three games, he debuted in the fourth against Tennessee Wesleyan. Swope rushed for scores the first three times he touched the football, the first one on a 54-yard run. He finished the season scoring 30 points (five TDs) and averaged 10 yards per carry.
On the basketball court that winter, Swope moved into the starting lineup at guard and helped lead the Govs to an 11-10 regular-season mark. For a second straight year, the Governors peaked during tourney time. They defeated Milligan in the tourney opener as Swope scored 19 points and he followed with 10 against Lincoln Memorial in the semifinal victory. The Govs then rolled 71-56 to win the VSAC tourney title for a second straight season. Swope earned all-tournament.
In Spring 1950, he led the Govs to another VSAC golf title. His basketball and former prep teammate, James “Boxhead” Stone was an outstanding golfer in his own right, but it was Swope who earned medalist honors by shooting a three-day 228 total.
In Fall 1950, Swope returned to the football team as a starting running back. He finished with 153 yards on just 14 carries, scoring three times. But his season was derailed by a knee injury. However, he recovered enough to return to the basketball court to serve as Governors captain, leading them to a 13-12 record. After falling into the losers’ bracket in the VSAC tourney, he scored 23 points against Milligan in his second to last Governors game. He was the only Gov to earn All-VSAC tourney—the second straight year he earned such distinction.
As good as Swope was in the respective sports, golf was considered his finest. In fact, he began caddying at Shelby Park when he was just nine-years-old. He won the historic SchoolDays 1942 Golf Tournament at age 15. In addition to leading Austin Peay to a pair of VSAC titles, he had a career individual 75.2 scoring average, with a 1950 single-season low 72.8 average. He had low rounds of 67 and 68 in 1950 and 69 in 1949. In 1950, Swope elected to play in the Nashville Open, the precursor to the Capitol City Open. Using borrowed clubs of Brandon Buhler, he won the title.
Later he moved to Winter Haven, Fla., working in car sales but also teaching and playing golf. In fact, golf resulted in him befriending Yankee great Mickey Mantle and convinced Mantle (after his retirement from the Yankees) to come to Nashville twice to participate in the Music City USA Pro-Celebrity Golf Tournament in 1974-75.
Swope died, August 31, 1994, at the age of 69, doing what he loved, giving a golf lesson.
