Building once a beloved athletic club is new home to fan-favorite team.

Recent news that the Savannah Bananas baseball franchise had purchased the building at 2934 Bee Road across from Grayson Stadium has conjured up plenty of memories for longtime Savannahians who recall the building as home to the Tiger Athletic Club.

The Savannah Bananas’ parent company, Fans First Entertainment, founded by Jesse and Emily Cole, purchased the building in October from Donna Ball, whose family had owned the building since 1973.

Although the building had been the home of Georgia Furniture & Interiors for decades and later was a vintage antique market, it was built in the mid-1950s for the Tiger Athletic Club.

The Tiger Athletic Club was organized in 1933 by R.M. Demere, who recruited Fred Garis to become director. Through the years, Garis coached football, basketball, boxing and riflery, among other activities. He planned and accompanied the boys (and one group of girls) on memorable trips to New York, Washington, D.C., and other places, and he served as Tiger Club director until the early 1970s. He died in 1979 at age 80.

Many a young boy who played after-school sports in Savannah from the ’30s to the ’70s say Garis, Panther Club Director Tom Moore and coach Luke Sims were three guiding lights who were positive influences on their lives.

Garis’ granddaughter, Pam Mccarthy, is pleased that the building her grandfather tirelessly saw through construction will not be razed and will return to its athletic roots.

“Pops (Garis) would be so happy with the Savannah Bananas’ decision to purchase the building,” Mccarthy said. “He dedicated his life to athletics and would be thrilled to know that the gym is part of the Savannah Bananas franchise, which has rejuvenated baseball at Grayson Stadium.”

Garis was inducted to the Greater Savannah Athletic Hall of Fame in 1969. Previously, in 1954, Garis spearheaded the fundraising effort to build the gym on the lot at the corner of Bee Road and Chatham Street (now Kerry Street).

In the book I put together called “Savannah’s Daffin Park and Parkside Place,” by Arcadia Publishing, a 1954 photograph shows the gym’s concrete slab that was used as a makeshift basketball court (with wooden goals) prior to the gym’s construction. After the gym was built the Tigers had a permanent home for basketball games.

Nearby resident Rick Belford said Garis paid him 50 cents a week to clean the gym floors with sawdust and linseed oil.

“Every week Mr. Garis would ask me, ‘Double or nothing?’ and I’d always say, ‘No, I want my 50 cents,’” Belford recalled. “But even before the gym was built, I remember playing basketball (with the wooden goals on the lot) with the boys whose dads worked at Johnny Harris’.”

Once the gym was built, Belford and other boys rode their bikes to the Bee Road facility to participate in indoor and outdoor activities. In addition to offering basketball and boxing inside the gym, Garis rigged up several outdoor courses for broad jumping and high jumping competitions, Belford said.

“Inside the gym was a front room that had a pool table or two and Mr. Garis’ office,” he added. Young people also could roller skate inside the gym. “Most of us guys couldn’t skate, but we’d go to meet girls who could roller skate,” Belford said.

In those days, for the Tiger Club to have an inside gym was perfect for neighborhood boys, Belford said. Previously, basketball games were held at the downtown gym operated by the Union Bag Athletic Association and the Tiger gym was much more convenient for kids and parents, Belford said.

The Savannah Bananas parent company, Fans First Entertainment, founded by Jesse and Emily Cole, purchased the building in October from Donna Ball, whose family had owned the building since 1973. Georgia Furniture closed in March 2020 and the space reopened in October 2020 as Merchants on Bee.

The Bananas are using the property’s warehouse space for the merchandising and fulfillment end of the business. Plans call for renovating the two-floor showroom area of the building into offices.

SAVANNAH MORNING NEWS Fred Garis’ granddaughter said Garis would be thrilled the Savannah Bananas have purchased the former Tiger Athletic Club, a place he dedicated his life to. The baseball team will use it as an operations headquarters.

COURTESY OF THE GARIS FAMILY In the 1950s, the Tiger Athletic Club eventually having an indoor gym was a boon for neighborhood families and their kids. The boys previously would have to go downtown to play in basketball games.