The hospital was built in memory of Ty’s parents, Herschel and Amanda Cobb. The dedication plague featured the slogan “That kind and knowing hands may minister to human suffering and pain.”
Fast-forward 50 years later and the hospital would have witnessed three expansions, several additional hospitals, two healthcare units, a convalescence center, a retirement community, a personal care unit, a kidney care center and many more contributions to the health and welfare of the citizens of northeast Georgia.
The Cobb Memorial Hospital Association decided on a name change in Aug. 1991. The TY COBB Healthcare System, Inc. was their way of saying thanks to the famous citizen who had made the hospital possible over four decades earlier.
A few years later, Ron Shelton and Warner Bros. released the movie “COBB.” The movie was of Cobb’s last years, as he battled cancer, diabetes and a chronicle heart ailment. The movie was filled with a completely misunderstood portrait of the famed Georgia Peach.
The final version of the movie was so inaccurate that it only made a few select theaters and is now almost forgotten. But not before the message of Shelton had left a negative and less desirable impression of Cobb in the present-day media.
Nevertheless, the TY COBB Healthcare System, Inc. decided to respond. Over the next several years, the TY COBB Healthcare System’s board mulled over plans to establish a permanent memorial to Cobb to show their hometown hero’s “true side.”
Early in 1998, rumors were abound in Royston that the project would finally be a reality. This author was invited to serve as the Museum Historian and served a slot on the TY COBB Museum Advisory Board. This is a position with the Museum that this author still enjoys today.
A meeting with architect was planned for that spring in Atlanta. A date was set for July 17, for the first-pitch and opening ceremonies.
When the day came upon the city of Royston, she seemed ready to embrace her next enterprise. This wasn’t Royston’s first attempt to commemorate Cobb. Shortly before Cobb died in July 1961, he agreed to allow Dr. Stewart Brown, Jr. to establish a memorial in his honor.
After years and years of hard work gathering information and soliciting money and activists, the TY COBB Memorial was established.
The first museum began to flounder after several years. Some believe it was the lack of memorabilia and others cited the lack of traffic flow because Interstate 85 had taken a great deal of traffic away from the area. Either way, the museum eventually closed and the building was sold to the city to be used as a municipal building.
Nearly a quarter of a century later, Phil Neikro stood before a crowd of 600 people who was on hand for the opening of the new TY COBB Museum, and said, “There’s not an hour goes by that somebody, somewhere, isn’t talking about what a great ball player Ty Cobb was.”
“I can speak for every player, owner and manager when I say thank you for putting this museum together,” continued the former Braves pitcher. Neikro was the guest speaker and tossed one of his knuckle balls during the first-pitch ceremony.
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