About Inductee

Carl is a Madison County native and graduated in 1937 from Riverton High School. He has established himself as one of the best ever basketball players in the history of Madison County. Carl recalls, My coach at Riverton High School was an Ohio State University graduate by the name of Glenn Orth. The first day of practice he called us all together and told us that he was a wrestling coach but he thought if we could beat the other team up and down the court, he didnt see why we couldnt win. I adopted Coach Orth's hustle philosophy for the remainder of my basketball career. His senior year at Riverton he was All County, All District, and voted the Most Valuable Player in Madison County by the Huntsville Times. Florence State awarded him with a full athletic scholarship in 1937 but before he could get to Florence, his father had a heart attack and he was forced to stay home and go to work to help take care of the family. When World War II started, Carl joined the U.S. Army Air Corps. He had the opportunity while in service to play on a U.S. Army All-Stars team from 1942-45. He once scored 19 points versus the Boston Celtics while on a U.S.O. Goodwill Tour. The Boston Celtics team only won by 8 points over Carls team. Carl said that he thought that he played the best basketball of his career while in service. While serving in the Air Force, Carl did other things than just play basketball. He flew 51 missions as a tailgunner in a B-24 Liberator in the Italian Campaign. For his gallantry, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Certificate of Valor in 1944. When Carl returned home to Madison County in 1945, he went to work with Pure Oil Company and worked with them until 1982. He won the Top Distributor award in 1960, 1961 and 1962 for the Alabama Region. Carl continued to play organized basketball after he returned home and played in the Huntsville Independent League from 1945 to 1955 and was the leading scorer each year. Carl said, I had the honor of having my younger brother, Homer Tate, as my teammate in the Huntsville Independent League during my last five years as an active player. Homer always urged me to try harder and inspired me to be a better player. In a Huntsville Times poll in 1992, Carl was voted the third best basketball player in the history of Madison County. Carl was inducted into the Madison County Military Hall of Heroes in 1984. After Carl retired from Pure Oil Company, he worked with the US Postal Service and retired in 1998. Carl and his wife, Evelyn, have two children - son, Ray Tate, and daughter, Jan Tate Harvill.