A maestro, Jim Bohannon is not.
Still, the 77-year-old Louisville native’s voice attracts quite the audience in sections F and G inside Charles Hawkins Field, especially when he leads the crowd during the singing of the seventh-inning stretch and the eighth-inning rendition of “Sweet Caroline” at Vanderbilt baseball games.
Count Oak Ridge Boys bassist Richard Sterban, a Country Music Hall of Fame member and a former longtime Nashville Sounds minority owner, and Vandy whistler Jeff Pack among those Bohannon entertains.
“They kind of get a kick out of me,” Bohannon told The Tennessean. “I would never be able to tour with Richard, though, that’s for sure.
“I can’t carry a note, but they love me doing it.”
Bohannon, his vocal chops and his wife, Kitty, will be at the stadium again this weekend, when the Commodores play host to an NCAA regional after earning the No. 1 overall seed in this year’s tournament.
East Tennessee State plays Louisville at 1 p.m. (ESPN+) on Friday to open the three-day event. Vanderbilt follows, playing Wright State at 5 p.m. (SEC Network).
She will be stationed at her usual chair just inside the press box, greeting media and checking credentials. He will be in sections F and G trying his best not to butcher his F and G notes.
“The fans look for it,” Bohannon said. “If I don’t do it, they’re going to say something. … I’ll drag some of them over to stand with me, tell them, ‘You can help me sing this song.’ We just have a lot of fun.”
The Bohannons have been working Vanderbilt baseball games together for four or five years, and working various venues at the school and around town for longer than that.
How Jim and Kitty met
Kitty wanted nothing to do with Jim when he finally found the nerve to ask her out on a date in 1962 or 1963.
Their families’ Louisville backyards butted up against each other. They were neighbors. They were classmates. But the initial desire lived on a one-way street. Jim’s street.
“I didn’t really like him in the beginning,” Kitty said with a chuckle. “I thought he was a smart aleck.”
He was. Still is.
Five years after they went with another couple to a high school football game as 15-year-olds on their first date − “because somebody had to drive,” Jim said − they were married.
“Things change,” Kitty said. “The first time he asked me out, I was so nervous. I couldn’t go. I was just sick to my stomach.”
Undeterred, Jim asked again.
Like many a good love story, that first date that almost wasn’t but was, was almost their last.
Jim was supposed to have Kitty home by 11 p.m. A post-game trip to crowded Ranch House restaurant for a burger meant Kitty didn’t arrive back home until 1 a.m.
“Her mother was really happy,” Jim said.
Three children, eight grandchildren, one great-grandchild and more than 60 years later, here they are − she a retired stay-at-home mom and he a retired supply-chain worker. Both now are guest services workers at Vanderbilt.
Welcome to Nashville
The Bohannons ended up in the Nashville area in 1991, after Jim’s job relocated them here.
Something to do was how the two ended up at staples at Charles Hawkins Field.
He retired 14 years ago and couldn’t sit still. She was done raising their children and couldn’t sit still.
So they began working for Contemporary Services Corporation at venues such as Bridgestone Arena and FirstBank Stadium, home of Vanderbilt football.
One of Kitty’s jobs at those football games was to make sure fans didn’t leave the stadium premises with alcohol.
“You gotta watch out for her,” Jim said. “She’s going to catch you.”
“They’d say, ‘You get them, Kitty,’ ” she said. “And I’d say, ‘Oh, don’t you worry. Now go throw it away.’ “
Hello, Vanderbilt baseball
Tom Jansing graduated from Vanderbilt in 1955 with a degree in business administration.
He went to, and played baseball for, the same high school − DuPont Manual High School in Louisville − as the Bohannons.
Jansing is 14 years Jim’s senior.
They met during a Vanderbilt baseball game.
By chance.
Jansing follows Jim’s lead.
“He always stands up and leads all the people around him,” Jansing said. “We have a camaraderie.
“I’m an old guy, so I kind of walk slow. He helps me to my seat and keeps me from falling down the steps. He gives the ladies a hug and he knows a lot of peoples’ names.”
And their instincts.
Their relationship was built organically.
Jansing’s attention was caught “out of the blue.”
Their families attended the same church in Brentwood for a spell.
Jim once blessed Jansing, who’d never caught a foul ball or a home run ball at a game, with a ball.
He said, ‘This ball came from the outfield,’ ” Jansing said. ” ‘It’s a home run ball. It was found in the seats in the outfield.’
“I said, ‘Jim, that’s really nice.’ He said, ‘I’ve got some more. I just want you to have it.’ “
And what about Jim’s singing voice?
“It just makes your day a little bit better,” Jansing said.
Fans in Bohannon’s section can relate.
Paul Skrbina is a sports enterprise reporter covering the Predators, Titans, Nashville SC, local colleges and local sports for The Tennessean. Reach him at pskrbina@tennessean.com and on the X platform @paulskrbina.
Follow his work here.