One of the great athletes to come out of Nashville, Jeff Peeples began developing his skills on both the baseball diamond and the gridiron at Montgomery Bell Academy. During his years at MBA, Peeples earned just about every honor awarded. In both baseball and football he was named All-City four years, All-Metro four years and also earned All-State honors. To cap off his prep career at MBA, Jeff earned All-Southern and All-American honors four years in a row and was selected Nashville Interscholastic League (NIL) Most Valuable Player in both baseball and football. He was also named the Most Athletic in his senior MBA class. After accepting an athletic scholarship at Vanderbilt University, where he played both baseball and football, Peeples went on to earn All-Southeastern Conference honors in 1971, 1972 and 1973 in baseball. He was an All-South Region selection in ‘73 and was named to the second team All-American team that year by collegiate coaches. In addition, he led all SEC pitchers in victories (12) and strikeouts (113) that same year. One distinct honor is that Peeples is one of only two pitchers in the history of the SEC to lead the league in earned run average for two consecutive years with a 1.56 ERA in ‘71 and 1.30 ERA in ‘72. He holds the Vanderbilt career pitching record for wins (29) and earned run average (1.68). Vanderbilt won the SEC Eastern Division in 1971-73 with the Commodores winning the SEC Championship in 1973. Following his graduation from Vanderbilt, Peeples was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals organization.
