IN 2016, Tony and Cassy Grow lost their son, Eli, in a tragic car accident on U.S. Highway 41A – one of the hardest things a parent can go through. The Eli Grow Legacy Foundation grew from that pain and loss as a way to honor their son’s legacy and dream, and it has been working hard to bless Tullahoma athletes like Eli.
Eli was a senior at Tullahoma High School when he died coming home from football conditioning at a facility in Franklin. Not long before that, his mother, Cassy, said he had shared with her a particular goal he had: to help other athletes in Tullahoma.
“One day, when Eli was older and made money, he wanted to come back to Tullahoma and build a training facility so that people wouldn’t need to drive to get better equipment, or they would have an opportunity in their own hometown, versus having to go somewhere outside of Tullahoma to get the same kind of training and have the same kind of opportunities that he was having,” Cassy said. “That’s our purpose now — is to help fulfill that dream.”
The idea for an athletic training facility is the main focus of the legacy foundation, and the Grow family has been working hard to make Eli’s dream come to fruition on the grounds of Tullahoma High School.
While attending the school, Eli participated in football and baseball, although he eventually gave up baseball to focus fully on training for his quarterback position. What made Eli stand out was not his pure talent at the sport but how hard he worked. He was known for coming early to practice and staying late afterward, often spending time working with younger teammates.
“I don’t think Eli felt — or Coach Olive felt — like Eli was super athletic in the beginning,” Cassy said. “He went above and beyond to work hard on his own. Nobody ever had to motivate Eli. He was self-motivating. He wanted to be more physically fit and worked on his nutrition in addition to his athletic skills. He spent a lot of time with his dad, Tony, to improve his speed and agility skills.”
Before he died, Eli had been accepted to play football at Mississippi College with a scholarship. Over the summer, he often trained with his brothers, who played baseball in Louisville, Kentucky, and Chattanooga. During the school year, he would go to train in Franklin twice a week. That opportunity was something he wanted to bring closer to Tullahoma for other athletes to enjoy.
Unfortunately, building a training facility like that is not an easy task. Even eight years after Eli’s death, the foundation has yet to break ground — something Cassy said was predicted by the high school’s coach.
“I remember Coach Olive saying, when Eli passed away, ‘It would probably take 10 years to make something like that happen,’” Cassy said. “I would have hoped it would have been four years ago.”
The community has been very supportive of the project, with many offering gifts such as donations of concrete, electrical work, or engineering work. At this point, Cassy said, it is mostly a matter of coordinating together with the school system and in-kind donors.
“It’s going to take 100% coordination to get that together,” Cassy said. “It can’t be done without it all coming together at the same time.”
The foundation is funded primarily through proceeds from its annual 8K, golf tournament, and profits from Legacy Creamery, the gelateria where Cassy works. Formerly known as Southern Sundaes, it was a restaurant, gelateria, coffee shop, and bakery. The creamery closed for about a year following Eli’s death before reopening primarily as a gelateria. Legacy Creamery is one of only a handful of ice cream or gelato hand-crafters in Middle Tennessee, with Cassy as the gelato chef. The creamery’s name was changed to connect the business with the Eli Grow Legacy Foundation, as 100% of the creamery’s profits go to the foundation.
“It’s something I enjoy doing, it’s something that people enjoy having, and it’s an amazing, authentic Italian product,” Cassy said. “It’s just a hobby for me, I guess, and it’s a hobby in a way that I feel like I’m contributing towards Eli’s dream.”
The proceeds go toward more than plans for the training center. In addition to working toward making that dream a reality, the foundation offers scholarships to one senior football player each year. That player is honored with No. 8 — Eli’s number — and is chosen by coaches and players as someone who goes beyond what is expected or required of the team. The scholarship can go toward college or any postsecondary education.
“He was a leader and [a] very kind person, [an] academic student, and I guess he just left an inspiring legacy,” Cassy said.
Once the training facility is built, Cassy said they would love to expand the foundation and offer scholarships and internships for students interested in the sciences — especially biology or geology, both areas the Grow family works in. Those scholarships and field experience opportunities would also be in memory of Eli. In this way, Cassy said this is a way their family can share him with people who ask about his legacy.
“He grew to be a really great athlete and a very inspiring and determined young man,” Cassy said. “It brings me a lot of joy to be able to share his story.” GN
