For years Jim (JC) Baskett marched and twirled a baton in the Tennessee Tech homecoming parade. This year, he will be leading it.
The 79-year-old Baskett is the grand marshal of the 2016 homecoming parade that will be held on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. on Dixie Avenue.
I marched in it for three years when I was in high school in Thompkinsville, Ky., said Baskett. I marched in it five years when I was a student and three years when I taught in the band program at Tech. I ve had many years of experience marching in it, but I ve never not marched in it. This will be wonderful.
Baskett came to Tech in the fall of 1957 when band director W.J. Julian lured the heavily recruited champion baton twirler to be Tech s first-ever feature twirler and supervise the Tech baton twirling program.
At Tech, Baskett flourished as a solo performer and a coach. He twirled his way to several district, state and open national championships while helping the Tech Golden Girls become the top college or university majorette corps in America.
Tennessee Tech is one of my favorite places on earth, Basket said. If I had the challenge to better the life of any young person, I would insist they enroll at Tennessee Tech as I did in 1957.
Baskett s career skyrocketed like the flaming batons he would toss high in the air during one of his routines. In 1962, he founded the Tennessee Twirling Institute (TTI) that grew to become the largest and most progressive baton twirling education program in America. When he wasn t spending his spare weekends as a paid performer, Baskett was presenting his top TTI students in performances around the country and even the world. Baskett and his students performed for Queen Elizabeth in London. His illustrious career was even the subject of a documentary on the Wide World of Sports television show.
Baskett later moved to Georgia where he accepted the challenge of starting a program similar to the TTI. He became the chief coach and director of Georgia s Youth on Parade and helped the GYOP grow from the smallest program in existence to the largest in the United States.
For all of his fame and notoriety, Baskett credits the place where it all started.
Tennessee Tech played a major role in the development of my talents, opportunities and character, said Baskett. Tech was more like a home than an institution of higher learning. Yet, Tech offered boundless career developments.
Baskett currently lives in a suburb of Atlanta, Ga., and has a ranch in Florida. He says he is looking forward to being back in Cookeville this weekend and being the grand marshal of the homecoming parade.
It is going to be so exciting to be back home on the Tech campus, where it all began, Baskett said. I have seen the caliber of people who have been the grand marshal in the past and never, ever would I have thought I would have that opportunity. I am truly honored.
The homecoming parade will be broadcast live on WCTE on Saturday as well as streamed live at wcte.org/LiveStream that day.