Boxwell Greats: Lallie Richter
Camp Boxwell at Linton had its fair share of fascinating characters, including Coach William Anderson and Walter Whittaker. But no conversation about the first Boxwell would be complete without looking at the staff’s local basketball star, Lallie Richter.
Richter was on on the Linton staff most summers from 1922 to 1930 as one of the few paid staff. He served as Waterfront Director, Assistant Waterfront Director, and even Athletic Director. He was visible presence at camp. He refereed boxing matches between the boys. He pitched horseshoes with Coach Anderson. He organized tournaments between baseball teams of Scouts and often local boys. He taught non-swimmers how to swim. Indeed, as the _Banner_ reported on Juy 18, 1927, “Every member of the swimming class last week under the direction of Lallie Richter has learned to swim. This is the second week that every member of the class was able to swim at the end of the week.”
Born in 1904, Lallie and his younger brother Boos (yes, that was his actual name: Winston Boos Richter) left a German community in Illinois for Nashville during World War I. The boys found the tutelage of C. W. Abele (first Camp Director at Linton in 1921) at YMCA and it was here they seemed to have been introduced to basketball. Lallie attended Hume-Fogg high school and played on championship teams in 1921, 1922, and 1923. He would continue to referee high school basketball from 1924 through to the mid-1940s. He also managed the Burk & Co. baseball team. Burk & Co was a department store and Richter worked in the sporting goods department from 1925 to the mid-1940s, when he switched over to Genesco and worked with the company’s Gallatin office until his death in 1964.
Richter was probably best known as a player-coach for the Burk Terrors. After attending Vanderbilt briefly after high school (where he undoubtedly made the acquaintance of one William J. Anderson), Richter began playing for the newly formed Terrors in 1926. By 1931, he was coaching the team. He continued to do so until about 1946. This was a private company team and was the form “professional” basketball took in the days before the NBA was formed. Thus, coaching a team like the Terrors made Richter something of a local celebrity!
As for Boxwell, Richter was clearly a force to be reckoned with. In addition to the details above, Richter brought the buddy system to the Boxwell waterfront in 1928. He and his brother Boos also utilized a “spanking machine” for scouts exiting the waterfront: a gauntlet of sorts for scouts to “spank” late swimmers exiting the water. (Boos, as a sidenote, would go on to become the superintendent of the Tennessee Orphan Home in Spring Hill.)
Lallie Richter married Martha Elizabeth Smith in 1930 at the age of 24. This marriage and the move to the Narrows explained why Richter did not continue as Boxwell’s waterfront director beyond the 1930 season. The couple had two sons and a daughter. Richter died in 1964 at age 60 of cancer. But Richter’s time at Boxwell makes him one of the great staff members of the past 100 years. Richter is shown here in 1931, just after he finished his run at Camp Boxwell.
Photo from _Nashville Banner_, January 1, 1931, pg. 21.
Lallie Richter from the _Nashville Banner_, January 1, 1931 pg 21.
