Kid Willson

Frank Hoxie “Kid” Willson was born on November 3, 1895, in Bloomington, Nebraska, to Frank Warren and Isabella A. (Hoxie) Willson. He grew up working on his family’s truck farm along with his two younger sisters, Ida Mae and Veda A., and his younger brother, Edward. The elder Frank also worked as a hotel clerk, stenographer, and bookkeeper.1

The Willson family moved to Siloam Springs, Arkansas, in 1911 and to Sumner, Washington, in 1912. Frank played on the Sumner High School football team that won the 1912 state football championship.2

At Sumner High School Frank also met his future wife, Adeline Mertice Huff, the granddaughter of William Moore Kincaid, a founding father of Sumner. Frank and Adeline were married on October 27, 1914, in Sumner after she finished high school and the couple was blessed with eight children; Frank, Robert, Richard, William, Joseph, Marta, Margaret, and Stephen.3

The Willsons were the parents of two children by the time Frank embarked on his professional baseball career in 1918 at the age of 22. Their first child, Frank Hartley Willson, was born on March 29, 1916, and Robert was born on August 1, 1917.4

The 1918 Pacific Coast International League (PCIL) season kicked off on April 30 as the Tacoma Tigers took on the Spokane Indians at Athletic Field in Tacoma with Kid Willson making his minor-league debut in right field for the Tigers. In the first inning with the Tigers ahead by one run with the bases loaded, Willson singled to left, left fielder Art Bourg let the ball get past him, and by the time the play was over, all three baserunners as well as Willson scored on the play to make the score 5-0.5 Nice start for the young man’s career.

With World War I taking many of the resources — human, product, and monetary — baseball was one of the industries that suffered. For lack of fans and revenue, the Tacoma club folded on May 26, 1918, and Willson was sold to the Vancouver (British Columbia) Beavers of the PCIL.6 On June 22, it was reported in a Vancouver newspaper that Willson had been sold to the Chicago White Sox. The article said: “There is no man in the league, or probably on the Pacific Coast, that can cover the ground and run bases with the speed that Willson can.”7 The plan was for Willson to remain with Vancouver until the end of the season, but when the team folded on June 26, Willson left for Chicago.

With Tacoma and Vancouver, Willson collected 68 hits in 47 games. He was leading the league in triples and was batting .347 with 20 stolen bases when he left for Chicago.8

The 1917 World Series champion White Sox had a tough go of repeating early in the 1918 season. They had lost some players to the war effort and their star center fielder, Happy Felsch, missed some spring training because of illness. Due to foul weather in Chicago, the White Sox were only able to play two homestands in Chicago during the months of April and May. The team finished the month of May with a 17-16 record, in fifth place, five games out of first.

May was especially hard on the White Sox outfielders. Felsch left the team for 12 days after the May 8 game to tend to his brother, who had been trampled by a horse at a Texas Army camp.9 On May 12 Joe Jackson, who was granted a deferment by his draft board in Greenville, South Carolina, because he was married, was told that the decision had been reversed and that he was draft-eligible. He left the team.10

The White Sox progressed through June hovering around the .500 mark. Felsch was hitting above .300 into the second week of the month, but was involved in a contract dispute with team owner Charles Comiskey and by July 1, Felsch was hitting .252 and had left the team.11

After Secretary of War Newton D. Baker issued a “Work or Fight” order on July 1,12 the White Sox were at risk of losing even more players. The White Sox needed an outfielder and Willson was given a chance with the team. The military tried to avoid taking married men with families. Since Willson had a wife and two children, his baseball career looked safe from war or related activities.

Willson arrived in Chicago and made his major-league debut on July 2 against the Detroit Tigers in the second game of a doubleheader at Comiskey Park. Pinch-hitting for Chick Gandil in the ninth inning, he drew a walk from Tigers pitcher Rudy Kallio. He went to third on a hit by Shano Collins and scored on a fly ball by Swede Risberg. The Tigers won the game, 11-8.13

Willson pinch-hit the next day, too. In the eighth inning, with the White Sox leading 6-5 and bases loaded with nobody out, Willson batted for relief pitcher Joe Benz. It was the perfect opportunity for Willson to blow the game wide open and chalk up his first major-league hit, but he struck out. The White Sox eventually won 9-5.14

On July 4 the White Sox and Tigers played their second doubleheader in three days. The first game was a wild affair in which Ty Cobb went 5-for-6 as the White Sox won in 12 innings, 7-6. The Tigers scored two runs in the top of the ninth to take a 6-5 lead. In the bottom of the ninth, Ray Schalk was hit by a pitch and Willson ran for him. Risberg sacrificed Willson to second, and singles by Murphy and Nemo Leibold scored Willson to tie the score at 6-6. The White Sox won it with a run in the bottom of the 12th.15

Willson’s only other appearance with the White Sox in 1918 was on July 11, against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Down 4-0 entering the ninth, the White Sox rallied. Murphy started the inning by grounding to second baseman Dave Shean. Murphy hustled down to first and appeared to beat the throw to first baseman Babe Ruth, but umpire George Hildebrand called him out. Liebold and Eddie Collins both singled and Chick Gandil was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Willson came in to run for Gandil as Shano Collins stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and one out. He sent a low line drive toward first and Willson, who had a bit of a lead, stopped to see if right fielder Babe Ruth was going to catch the ball. It looked catchable to Willson, so he tried to get back to first. Ruth saw this and knocked the ball down, then grabbed it with Willson right in front of him. Ruth tagged Willson and stepped on the bag for the game-ending double play.16

Willson was released by the White Sox three days later. Since he had played only 47 minor- league games before joining the White Sox, it was determined that he needed more time in the minor leagues. He boarded the train in Boston for the long train ride to Tacoma.17

Willson hit .233 with the Regina Senators of the Class-C Western Canada League in 1919.

Willson was back with the Vancouver Beavers for the 1920 and 1921 seasons. He batted .305 with seven home runs in 1920 and an astonishing .360 in 1921 with 162 hits for the season.

In 1922 Willson split time between the Beavers and the Greenville Spinners of the Class-B South Atlantic League. He was hitting .307 with the Beavers of the Western International League (formerly the Pacific Coast International League) before going to Greenville, where his batting average dipped to .237. The Western International League folded in June 1922 and Willson was sold to Greenville. Willson was with Greenville in 1923 where he hit .430 in 79 at-bats.

In 1924 Willson played with the Hutchinson Wheat Shockers of the Class-C Western Association, where the 28-year-old kept up his torrid hitting with a .391 batting average in 100 games.

The Waco Cubs of the Texas League were Willson’s team for 1925, 1926, and most of the 1927 season. His batting averages for the three seasons were .351, .400, and .440.

In late May, White Sox center fielder Johnny Mostil was placed on the voluntarily retired list, paving Willson’s way back to the majors. Willson had been out of the majors for nine years. He finally got his first major-league hit on May 20, a single to left field off Sam Gray of the Philadelphia Athletics in the bottom of the ninth inning. The White Sox lost the game, 12-5.

Edward Burns of the Chicago Tribune wrote: “The fans got their first look at Willson, the new slugging outfielder from the Texas League, when he batted for (Sarge) Connally in the third inning and then relieved (Bibb) Falk in left field. He was up four times, made a run and a hit, and each time took a healthy cut at the ball.”18 While joining the White Sox, Willson was reunited with player-manager Ray Schalk. The two had been teammates when Willson played with the White Sox in 1918.

Willson pinch-hit in the ninth inning of a 7-1 loss to the Tigers on May 28. On June 3 he replaced leadoff hitter Alex Metzler in center field in the fourth inning and recorded four putouts against the Red Sox in Boston. The following day, Willson popped out to short, pinch-hitting for pitcher Ted Blankenship.

On June 7, playing the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, Willson pinch-hit for pitcher Tommy Thomas. The left-handed hitter stepped into the batter’s box to face future Hall of Famer Waite Hoyt. One can imagine him digging in, preparing to take his swing. If the magnitude of the moment didn’t strike him at the time, for years afterward he could recall the time he had Hoyt on the mound, Lou Gehrig playing first base and, behind Gehrig, Babe Ruth in right field. They were all ready to make a play on the ball that Willson was planning to hit. Willson became one of Hoyt’s 1,206 strikeout victims.

He appeared as a pinch-hitter and a pinch-runner in two more games before being sent back to Waco.

In 1928 Willson split time between the Shreveport Sports and the Dallas Steers, both of the Texas League.

Willson did not play in 1929, but in 1930 he returned to the Dallas Steers and also made a stop with the Toledo Mud Hens of the Double-A American Association. He hit .344 for Toledo under manager Casey Stengel.

Willson played his final professional baseball season in 1931 at age 35 with the Seattle Indians of the Double-A Pacific Coast League.

After retiring from baseball, Willson spent the rest of his life in the State of Washington. He lived in Vancouver in the late ’30s and worked at the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River during World War II. He also served as town marshal of Bonneville, a company town of the dam owners. He was later a weighmaster with the State of Washington and worked for Boeing, the airplane builder, before retiring.19

The generations of family members that followed Willson have been heavily involved in sports. Willson’s son Joe was a boxer. Another son, Bill, played high-school football. Bill’s son Larry was a pole vaulter, while Bill’s two daughters could both run well. Suzanne threw the javelin very well for her high-school track and field team. The track coach had the boys race Suzanne and if they could beat her, they made the team. Suzanne’s sister Molly was also a track star. Molly went to the Junior Olympic Trials in Portland and ran 73 yards of the 75-yard dash before falling just before reaching the finish line. She anchored her junior high’s district champion 440-yard relay and broke the record for the 50-yard dash. She also excelled in the shot put.20

Another daughter, Marta Willson Mayes, was the mother of some fine athletes. Her son Bob Mayes led Hudson’s Bay High School of Vancouver, Washington, in track and in football, and broke the national high school hurdles record at the Olympic Indoor Track Invitational. At Oregon State University, Bob was a member of the school’s 440-relay team that broke the world record in the first heat of the 1967 Fresno Relays. Bob was also a member of the 1967 Oregon State University “Giant Killers” football team that beat number-2 Purdue on the road, 22-14, tied number-2 UCLA, 16-16, also on the road, and beat number-1 Southern Cal, 3-0.21

Bob’s older brother, Gary, was voted “Best Athlete” at Hudson’s Bay High School in 1961. He earned the maximum number of varsity letters in football, basketball, baseball, and track. At Humboldt State University he played four years of football and two years of baseball. He played rugby, baseball, and soccer in adult leagues in the Bay Area into his mid-50s when knee injuries forced him to quit.22

Gary and his wife, Lynn, had three sons that Gary coached as youngsters. Their youngest son, Ryan, had aspirations to play college soccer, but serious knee injuries kept him from doing that. He did however, rehab his knees and went on to become one of the outstanding high-school track athletes in the Bay Area. He went on to compete for the University of Oregon track team.23

Beginning with Kid Willson, there have been five generations of superb athletes in the Willson family. Lynn Mayes said, “I think the greatest legacy passed down by Grandpa Willson was the drive, determination, and positive work ethic instilled in each succeeding generation. The power of a never-give-up attitude.”24

Frank Hoxie “Kid” Willson died on April 17, 1964 in Union Gap, Washington, and is buried at Sumner Cemetery in Sumner, Washington. The inscription on his gravestone reads, “He marks not that if you won or lost, but how you played the game. Grantland Rice.”

Sources

In preparing this biography, the author used Retrosheet.org and Baseball-Reference.com for stats and game information, as well as a telephone interviews and multiple emails with Molly Willson-Perry, Lynn Mayes, Larry Willson, and Bob Mayes, all family members of Kid Willson. 

Notes

1 Lynn Mayes and Bob Mayes, email correspondence, April/May 2020.

2 Lynn Mayes (family historian), email correspondence, April/May 2020.

3 Lynn Mayes.

4 Bob Mayes.

5 “Bengals Snow Indians Under,” Tacoma Times, May 1, 1918: 6.

6 “Interest Is in War Work, Tigers and Indians Quit,” Tacoma Times, May 27, 1918: 6.

7 “Chicago White Sox Secure Ike Wolter and Frank Wilson,” Vancouver (British Columbia) Daily World, June 22, 1918: 14.

8 “Chicago White Sox Secure Ike Wolter and Frank Wilson.”

9 “Eddie Collins Ready for Sox Infield Again,” Chicago Tribune, May 10, 1918: 13.

10 I.E. Sanborn, “Jackson Notified He’s Due for Early Call in the Draft,” Chicago Tribune, May 13, 1918: 13.

11 Jim Nitz, “Happy Felsch,” SABR BioProject, sabr.org/bioproj/person/cd61b579.

12 Matt Kelly, “On Account of War,”baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/short-stops/1918-world-war-i-baseball, Retrieved May 10, 2020.

13 James Crusinberry, “White Sox Win While Sun Shines, but Lose Twilight Go,” Chicago Tribune, July 3, 1918: 13.

14 James Crusinberry, “Tigers Ring Up Fifteen Hits but Lose Battle to Sox, 9-5,” Chicago Tribune, July 4, 1918: 13.

15 James Crusinberry, “Ardor of 1776 Fills Sox; Repulse Savage Tigers Twice,” Chicago Tribune, July 5, 1918: 9.

16 James Crusinberry, “Helpless Sox Make 4 to 0 Victory Easy for Boston,” Chicago Tribune, July 12, 1918: 8.

17 James Crusinberry, “Sox Drop Willson, Rookie Who Cost Wads in Rail Fares,” Chicago Tribune, July 15, 1918: 11.

18 Edward Burns, “Sox Hurlers Fall Beneath Macks’ Attack,” Chicago Tribune, May 21, 1927: 15.

19 Larry Willson, telephone interview, April 2020.

20 Molly-Willson-Perry, email correspondence, May 9, 2020.

21 Lynn Mayes and Bob Mayes, email correspondence, April/May 2020.

22 Lynn Mayes.

23 Lynn Mayes.

24 Lynn Mayes.