When it comes to local sports, perhaps the most popular catchphrase is, “Believe in yourself.”
Slim Ingalls said he began hollering those three words in 1992, getting his inspiration from none other than Walmart.
“I was looking through posters at Walmart back when it used to be where Lowe’s is now,” said Slim. “And that’s when I saw it, a poster that said ‘Believe in yourself.’ So I started to yell that at the baseball team back in 1992 and I just stuck with it. I’ve looked for that poster since then and I’ve never been able to find it. I don’t know if it’s still in circulation.”
From sports fan to avid walker, Slim has developed quite a reputation in Warren County. He’s well known for his boisterous cheers at ball games – even if he has to walk there since he doesn’t drive.
Slim, now 65, has lived in Warren County since he was 7. The son of Allene and Clarence Ingalls, he moved here in 1954 and grew up in a home off Sparta Street before moving to a home in Smartt Station in high school.
“I hated it at first because I thought I was going to lose my friends,” said Slim of his new school. “But I made new friends.”
Slim graduated from Morrison in 1964 and went to Trevecca for college. He said his dream was to become a bookkeeper or CPA but his plans got derailed. He lost his fiancée to a car accident that killed three and injured one in 1970.
That accident changed his life as he returned to McMinnville and began work at Rockford Textile Mills. He worked there for 15 years until the plant shut down around 1985.
“That’s the first real job I had,” said Slim. “I’d work on the machines and carry socks around to each machine. You know we had to make production.”
Slim says he’s also raised chickens and done landscaping work in his career.
When it comes to his local fame, he’s best known as a sports fan. As a Morrison graduate, he says his favorite team is Morrison.
Contrary to rumor, Slim says he’s never walked to a game in Murfreesboro. He says that likely got started because he once took a bus to a game in Murfreesboro back when the bus station was downtown and no one could figure out who had given him a ride.
He will walk to a game if it’s in Warren County, even if it does take awhile.
“I can walk four miles in about a hour,” said Slim. “If I walk to Morrison, it will take me two-and-a-half to three hours.”
Slim says he has no idea how many miles he walks in a week.
“I’ve been told there’s something you can put on your belt that counts your steps and tells you how far you’ve walked, but I’ve never used one,” said Slim.
In somewhat of a surprise, Slim said bowling is his favorite sport because he always liked the math involved with keeping score. He says he doesn’t enjoy bowling as much now that computers do all the scoring work. When it comes to sports in general, he prefers amateur athletics to professional.
“I like any sport they play with a ball, but I like it better when they don’t play for the almighty dollar,” he said.
Slim says he’s not an early bird or a night owl. He says he might enjoy biscuit and gravy and orange juice for breakfast before switching to Dr Pepper later in the day. If given his choice, he’ll eat pork chops for dinner and says Sonic is his favorite restaurant. A fan of animation, he says “Chipwrecked” with Alvin and the Chipmunks is one of the best movies he has seen recently.
Among his pastimes, Slim says he always looks forward to reading the Southern Standard and he’s an avid church-goer. He says he usually attends Smartt Assembly of God for night services and has several churches he attends for Sunday morning services. He considers the Nazarene church his home church, although he’s attended services at every local denomination.
“There’s very little difference in any of the churches so I don’t know what any fighting is about,” said Slim.
As for his outlook on McMinnville, Slim says he is hopeful Park Theatre restoration will finally get under way in 2012 because he believes it would help the entire downtown area.