Smoke billows from what's left of the old Bedford County Training School/Harris High School after a large fire early Monday. The blaze flared up again for awhile late Tuesday but was quickly extinguished. (T-G Photo by David Melson) [Click to enlarge]

The flames that destroyed the old portion of the former Bedford County Training School/Harris High School building on Elm Street early Monday took more than a building.

Carried with them were rooms which held many memories for former students.

But those memories -- and the lessons learned and friendships formed within those fallen walls -- survive.

"The school had great teachers, real nice common sense teachers," BCTS graduate Henry Cooley said. "They did a real good job of teaching us."

Cooley, who attended the school from 1941-56, remembers assemblies and basketball games which took place in the building.

"The cedar bucket hung in the hall, you always saw that hanging bucket," Cooley said.

That bucket was exchanged -- that is, would have been exchanged -- between Holloway High of Murfreesboro and BCTS following the annual Thanksgiving Classic football games.

But BCTS, whose football team is commemorated by a sign on the tailgate of Cooley's pickup truck, won practically every year. The school, which played its home games two blocks away at Shelbyville Central's field, won 72 straight games between 1943-50.

"What really stood out is that teachers were equal and fair no matter what background you came from," Cooley said,

The school's longtime principal, and eventual namesake, impressed Cooley.

"We were blessed with Mr. Sidney Harris," Cooley said. "He ran a good program.

"He got us educated right, then got us jobs in Shelbyville and elsewhere and into colleges," said Cooley, who attended Tennessee A&I (now Tennessee State.)

Clara Nelson, the 1952 class salutatorian, also has fond memories of BCTS and Harris.

Nelson points out the building was the black community's first brick school.

"Professor Harris was very proud of it," Nelson said. "When I went we only had the original part. Classes were crowded but we managed."

A classroom building and gym were added in the mid-1950s. The newer classroom building suffered only minor fire damage on one end and the gym was unscathed.

Nelson said life lessons, as well as academics, were learned in the school.

"I served as a class officer. We started every morning with a devotion."

Homerooms were set up like mini-households or mini-businesses, Nelson said.

"Each class was set up with officers and we learned budgeting."

Sidney Harris' work to build up the school is fondly remembered by Nelson.

"The county didn't supply a lot of things," Nelson said. "Professor Harris was determined that the school would have typewriting like Central. He'd take PTA money and buy old war surplus manual typewriters."

It took more than success on the field to keep the school's football team afloat, Nelson said.

"I remember the winning football teams," Nelson said. "They didn't have equipment and had to hold things such as bake sales to raise money."

Those life lessons took the students a long way, according to Nelson.

"People graduated from that school who achieved a lot.

"The students were dedicated and didn't have as many distractions," Nelson said. "Kids today don't appreciate how much easier it is."

Former Harris football coach Lendell Massengale, who was there nine years in the 1950s and 1960s, said he hasn't really dwelled on the school's demise.

"It's just a loss, but it wasn't being used," Massengale said. "I haven't thought too much about it.

"It's just a landmark gone, that's all I can say."

The fire's cause is still undetermined, but some officials feel it may have been accidentally set by homeless persons spending the night in the structure. Empty whiskey bottles, many broken with jagged edges, surrounding the school's remains hampered firefighters.