This made the two schools fit opponents on July 1, 1859, for the first intercollegiate baseball game. The Williams–Amherst game was played by Massachusetts Rules, a wide-open form of the sport commonly known as roundball, in which all ground was fair, runners could be put out by being hit by a thrown ball, and a single out ended each inning. A game consisted of an indeterminate number of frames, since the winning side would be the first to reach a pre-established score.

This would explain the lopsided 73-32 trouncing Amherst gave Williams, exceeding the agreed-upon 65-run limit during a 10-run 26th inning. But since the innings were all one-out long, the game, which took 3½ hours to play, in one respect pretty much equaled a modern game. There were only two fewer outs recorded than in a modern nine-inning contest.

The challenge match required considerable negotiation, including a June meeting on neutral ground at a small railside town between the two colleges at which representatives worked out arrangements.[fn]Amherst Express “extra edition,” July 1-2, 1859.[/fn]

A neutral site in Pittsfield, 20 miles from Williamstown, was selected. This was not just a game, but a two-day social event that included a banquet and a chess match between the schools. The Williams student body insisted on the chess match on July 2 to provide “a trial of mind as well as muscle.”[fn]Ibid.[/fn]

In a nice touch, the game site was next to the Maplewood Young Ladies Institute, a finishing school. The Maplewood girls turned out in great numbers, the first clue to their interest being “a silken flag suspended from the balcony of the Institute … intimating that bright eyes would look on the contest.”[fn]Berkshire County Eagle, July 8, 1859.[/fn]

The Amherst student body had been playing ball for at least a year.[fn]George Rugger Cutting, Student Life at Amherst College, Its Organizations, Their Membership and History. (Amherst: Hatch & Williams,) p. 113.[/fn] Although Williams men had also been playing, Amherst was clearly the better prepared. Williams baserunners enthusiastically ran themselves into avoidable outs (half of their 26 outs occurred on the basepaths, as against only seven for Amherst), and “in passing in, they threw too wildly, each where he pleased.”[fn]Amherst Express, July 1-2, 1859.[/fn] In other words, the Williams outfielders missed the cutoff man many times.

The performance of the leadoff batter, Amherst senior James Claflin, was a tipoff to that team’s edge in experience. He hit a first-inning home run on a “back hit,” a tricky variation in which a batter would swing backwards with the flight of the pitched ball, put it into play to the rear, where there were few fielders, and run the bases, since there was no foul territory under Massachusetts rules.

Williams actually scored nine runs in the second inning, but Amherst came back with eight in the third and never then trailed, putting the game away with 12-run bursts in the fourth and 16th innings.

The “science” of batting order formation undoubtedly hadn’t been developed yet, but Amherst, possibly by sheer chance, had its lineup stacked for maximum production. Its first four hitters, Claflin, Edward Pierce, Sam Storrs, and Frank Tower, scored 26 “tallies” and accounted for only four outs, while Williams’ first four made 15 outs and produced only five runs.

Amherst’s “thrower,” Henry Hyde, a sophomore, pitched a complete game with such gusto that a rumor began circulating among the spectators that he was actually a “ringer” of sorts, the college’s blacksmith, since “nobody but a blacksmith could throw in such a fashion for three-and-a-half-hours.”[fn]Ibid.[/fn]

Amherst’s account of the game provided exact specifications for its ball (2.5 ounces in weight and 6.5 inches in circumference) and estimated the Williams ball at about the same.[fn]Ibid.[/fn] A modern-day baseball weighs at least twice that and is about 50 percent larger around. Mathematics and physics dictate that a present-day ball is harder than the balls used in Pittsfield that day. While that was good for the baserunners who were put out by being hit by throws, it would have cut down on the long ball and strong throws from fielders.

Both teams were feted that evening by their Pittsfield hosts, where the Williams players presented their game ball as a trophy to the Amherst team. Both balls are still displayed, side by side, in a glass case at Amherst. The next day Amherst, with Claflin one of its three players, also won the chess match, Williams resigning on the 48th move.

Almost all of the 26 collegians playing in the first game went on to graduate from Amherst, Williams, or some other school. Claflin, the only man to participate in both the baseball and chess competitions, went into education and wound up a high-school principal and state representative in Chicago. Pierce, the first of the three productive hitters behind him, eventually became city administrator and police chief in New Orleans.[fn]Chicago Daily Tribune, October 2, 1891 (Claflin); Obituary Record of Graduates and Non-Graduates of Amherst College for Academic Year Ending June 20, 1917. Amherst: Published by the College, 1917, p. 340 (Pierce).[/fn]

The Civil War was just over history’s horizon as the young men played that day, and at least 11 of them served the Union cause as officers or doctors before war’s end. The Williams starting thrower, Robert Edes Beecher, a nephew of the famous abolitionist preacher Henry Ward Beecher, became a lieutenant colonel in the Union Army.[fn]New York Times, March 29, 1920.[/fn]

One player from each side died in the war. Henry Gridley of Amherst, a lieutenant with a New York infantry regiment, was shot dead on a Georgia battlefield in 1864.[fn]Charles E. Benton, As Seen from the Ranks, A Boy in the Civil War. (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1902,) p. 102.[/fn] George Alanson Parker of Williams became a naval doctor and died on shipboard that same year of a fever contracted from sailors he was treating.[fn]Catalogue of the Sigma Phi. Printed for the Society, 1891, p. 255.[/fn]

Amherst and Williams students continued playing ball, and today they are rivals in the New England Small College Athletic Conference. Along with a third prestigious private college, Wesleyan in Connecticut, they form the Little Three within NESCAC. As the Williams Athletic Department puts it, “There are at least two athletic seasons for each Williams varsity team, the regular season and the Little Three.”[fn]www.athletics.williams.edu/The_Little_Three (accessed April 1, 2011).[/fn]

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

This major milestone was reached on May 29, 1875, by 18-year-old Joe Mann, the pitcher for the visiting Princeton team at Hamilton Park in New Haven, Connecticut. The final score was Princeton 3, Yale 0.

Joseph McElroy Mann was born in New York City on July 13, 1856, to the Rev. Joseph Rich Mann and the former Ellen Thomson. The Rev. Mann graduated from Princeton Seminary in 1848 and for seven years during the 1860s he was pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Princeton. One of the Manns’ four other sons was George Williamson Mann, who played on Princeton’s baseball team before young Joe, mostly at shortstop.

Joe Mann appeared in a few Princeton box scores in 1873, though as an infielder. He became the school’s regular pitcher in 1874, and it was actually his work before the no-hitter that garnered much of the fame he experienced later in life. That’s because, later in the century, many sources gave Mann considerable credit for popularizing the curveball, with some even suggesting that he developed the pitch of his own accord.[fn]For example, three letters to the editor on the subject, including one from Mann himself, appeared in the New York Times on June 10, 1900, with a late rebuttal appearing on September 29.[/fn] By late May of 1875, Mann’s teammates had already been exposed to his ability to dominate an opposing nine.

According to the New York Times, a Mr. Rogers of Staten Island was supposed to serve as umpire for the game in New Haven but failed to appear, so Frank Dunning of Princeton was selected. The paper characterized the crowd as “large” and said the defensive highlights “were two flying balls (caught) by Duffield, of the Princetons, in the fourth inning, and corresponding foul catches by Woods.”[fn]“Base-Ball,” New York Times, May 30, 1875.[/fn] A 1901 book, Athletics at Princeton, echoed praise for Duffield’s running catches in left, adding that Moffat did likewise at second base. Denny, as Mann’s catcher, was among those players mentioned as having played faultlessly. However, errors in the first and second innings kept Mann from a perfect game.[fn]Presbrey, Frank and Moffatt, James Hugh. Athletics at Princeton: A History (New York: Frank Presbrey Company, 1901), p. 103.[/fn] According to a much later New York Times account, Yale’s runners both reached base “through a battery error,”[fn]“Distinguished Pitchers,” New York Times, July 29, 1915.[/fn] so if Denny played flawless defense, the errors were Mann’s.

As historic as it was, few other remarkable details of the game were provided. This wasn’t even a case of a pitcher whose dominance manifested itself in a gaudy number of strikeouts, though one of the few sources, besides box scores, for a full picture of how Yale’s batters were retired, was a letter to the New York Times in 1900 by a classmate of Mann’s. Though the writer heaped praise on Princeton’s pitcher, he wrote that “Mann struck out only one Yale man, five Yale men went out on foul flies, two on foul bounds (then allowed), and eight on fair flies, four of which were hit to left field, as the result of the out-curve. The other men went out on in-field plays. …”[fn]W.J. Henderson, an 1876 Princeton graduate, wrote one of the letters to the New York Times that appeared on June 10, 1900.[/fn]

Yale apparently didn’t grouse about the umpiring, but one rationalization surfaced quickly: that Yale’s batters “were caught napping by the use of a Reach ball, which is a little smaller than the regulation size.”[fn]New Haven Palladium, May 31, 1875.[/fn] Did Yale choose that ball, or did the home team not provide one? Regardless, later research suggested that Reach was one of two models of ball accepted as regulation in 1875, the other being Peck and Snyder’s Dead Red. Those two balls were required to have the same weight and dimensions. [fn]Grayson, Harry. “Curve Developed 73 Years Ago.” Portsmouth Herald(NH), May 19, 1948, p. 10.[/fn]

Neither Princeton nor Yale had a campus newspaper until 1876 and 1878, respectively, but fans of baseball in New York were able to read about Yale’s defeat in the Times and the New York Herald a day or two after it happened. However, neither paper noted that Yale had been held hitless. The detailed box score in the Herald included a column for base hits, but its brief article on the game made no mention of Yale’s total hits.[fn]“The National Game,” New York Herald, May 30, 1875, p. 12.[/fn]

It took quite a while for the significance of a nohitter to sink in, much less that Mann’s was a historic first. Still, in the wake of Mann’s dominant performance, some big-time ballplayers, namely John Radcliffe, Bill Boyd, Chick Fulmer, Billy Barnie and Bob Ferguson, reportedly made a point to observe and study Mann at work, if not insist on batting against him.[fn]In fact, on August 8, 1898, the New York Times said that Mann struck out the first four of these. It was Henderson (see note 6) who listed Ferguson, along with the other four, in his letter to the Times in mid-1900.[/fn] Sadly, by the time Mann graduated in 1876 he had pretty much blown out his arm. In fact, according to one of Mann’s two sons, he overextended himself demonstrating his pitching for those professionals.[fn]Grayson, Portsmouth Herald, May 19, 1948.[/fn]

After graduating, Mann worked for the New York World until 1883, then spent three years with the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions before working more than three decades for the publisher Charles Scribner’s Sons in New York. In 1883 he married Fannie Benedict Carter, and they had two sons, both of whom went on to graduate from Princeton and practice law.

Mann died on November 17, 1919, about two years after his wife. In the two decades before his death he was able to enjoy some overdue fame. He loomed large throughout Athletics at Princeton in 1901 (the primary source of the box score)[fn]Presbrey and Moffatt. Athletics at Princeton: A History, especially p. 29-32, 83-84, and 94-108.[/fn] and in 1908 he was one of the two featured speakers at an alumni association event honoring that spring’s baseball team.[fn]“Smoker for Baseball Men,” The Daily Princetonian, October 15, 1908, p. 1.[/fn]Recognition beyond Princeton included being the tenth person featured in a series that ran in the Pittsburgh Press in 1911 under the banner, “Notable Figures in Baseball”[fn]Aulick, W.W. “Notable Figures in Baseball,” Pittsburgh Press, January 13, 1911, p. 26.[/fn] and being featured in a quarter-page article in Sporting Life in 1916. The latter concluded with the author expressing pleasure to note that Mann still played baseball with his two boys, and at some point had regained the ability to pitch fastballs and curves.[fn]Davis, Parke H. “Mann First Curve Pitcher,” Sporting Life, April 22, 1916, p. 6.[/fn]

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

Baseball folklore has it that Abner Doubleday “chased the cows out of Elihu Phinney’s cow pasture on an afternoon in 1839”1 and thus was inspired to invent the game of baseball. While home on leave from the United States Military Academy, as the story goes, Cadet Doubleday (Class of 1842) drew up the rules and designed a playing field, the baseball diamond, “which blazed the trail to the exciting game which has become America’s national pastime.”2

Organized baseball at West Point took shape in 1863, when a group of Cadets “applied for permission to procure the necessary equipment and play a game of baseball.”3 Their request was approved and by 1867, the regulations were published for members of the Corps of Cadets to play baseball. The sport provided exercise for the Cadets and “much amusement for the good citizens of Highland Falls.”4

The game quickly gained many followers and by the 1890s several Cadets were fielding a team to compete against other colleges and universities. The sport gained popularity, opening “a new field for the expenditure of cadet energy.”5

Ten years later, during the winter of 1900-1901, leaders at West Point and Annapolis arranged to play a series of baseball games between the two academies. Navy had fielded its first intercollegiate team in 1894.6 The first Army-Navy baseball game was scheduled for the spring of 1901, with the Army Cadets traveling to Annapolis, Maryland, to play the Navy Midshipmen.7

The Cadets honed their baseball skills with professional assistance. In his annual briefing to the president of the Army Athletic Association, First Lieutenant Leon B. Kromer, the Army’s officer representative for baseball in 1901, recounted the connection.8 He wrote, “Mr. George Davis, Manager and Captain of the New York National League Team, was engaged to come up on Saturdays during February and March to coach the candidates in batting. He came and his work was most successful; upon his advice Mr. Charles Irvine was secured to stay with the team for the month preceding the Navy game.”9

Davis, a future Hall of Fame inductee, had agreed with Lieutenant Kromer to “coach our baseball nine for a consideration of $25.00 and expenses.”10 In 1901 Davis was a star on the National League’s New York Giants and a teammate of Sammy Strang, a future Army baseball coach.11 The motion to hire Davis was moved, seconded, and carried by the Army Athletic Council. Irvine, who handled full-time coaching duties while Davis was with the Giants, proved himself to be a “most capable coach and to him is due in great measure the success of the team.”12 He had played professional baseball in Kansas City (of the Western League) and Providence (of the Eastern League) and had also gained much experience as a coach “of various college teams throughout the states.”13

The game took place on Saturday, May 18, 1901. According to US Military Academy records, “the baseball squad of 21 cadets, the coach, and an attendant left West Point, under the charge of Lieut. Leon B. Kromer, 10th Cavalry, at 1:18 P.M., Friday.”14 Traveling by train, the group spent the night in Baltimore, arriving in Annapolis Saturday morning. At the train station, the Cadets were met by both the coach and captain (Edward Hamner) of the Midshipmen team. Each team had 15 minutes on the field for warm-ups. The game started promptly at 2:30 P.M. and lasted for 90 minutes.

As was tradition in those days, the home team batted first. The Navy squad also scored first, plating a run in the top of the third inning off pitcher Ephraim Graham. Midshipman Adolphus Staton reached on a walk, stole second, and continued to third on Army catcher Horatio Hackett’s wild throw. One out later, Staton scored when David Weaver singled to left field.

Army came right back in the bottom of the third. Sherburne Whipple led off the inning and was hit by a pitch from the Navy hurler, Webb Raudenbush. Graham sacrificed Whipple to second. Edward Zell was hit in the face by Raudenbush, the second hit batsman of the inning. Frank Phipps, a plebe,15 ran for Zell.16

Douglas MacArthur, a second-year Cadet who had attended a military academy in Texas before his West Point appointment, drew a base on balls, which loaded the bases with one out. James Hobson flied out to deep right field, and Whipple tagged up and scored.17 Phipps and MacArthur also moved up on the fly ball; when Staton’s throw from right sailed over catcher Weaver’s head, Phipps scored on the error, with MacArthur moving to third.18

John Herr then singled over second base, driving in MacArthur. Army had scored three runs on one hit, one walk, two hit batters, and a Navy error.

In the bottom of the sixth, Army struck again. With one out, Stephen Abbot and Hackett had back-to-back singles. Vaughn Cooper hit a grounder to short, but Harold Childs fumbled the play and Abbot scored.

The West Pointers led 4-1 going into the ninth inning, with Graham still on the mound. Navy rallied and “amidst great excitement they scored two runs.”19 Staton again started the rally with a base on balls. James Reed forced Staton at second, but Weaver followed with an RBI double.

After Childs flied out, Byron Long singled over second, bringing Weaver around to score with the second run of the inning. “But that was all they could make; and their corps put a fitting climax to the occasion by singing ‘The Army and Navy forever, Three cheers for the Red, White, and Blue.’”20 The Army Nine triumphed by a close score of 4 to 3.

The umpire for the contest came from the National League, Charles “Pop” Snyder. Abbot and Hackett paced the Cadets’ attack, each having a 2-for-4 performance. Two double plays were turned in the game, one by each team. The Army players had five stolen bases, although three of the steals appear to have been credited to the runners who advanced on Hobson’s fly in the third inning.

The “Annual Report of Army Officers Athletic Association” reported that “Graham, the Army pitcher, is especially to be commended for his nerve and coolness under the trying disadvantages of a strange diamond and an adverse audience.”21 Graham yielded 11 hits, walked five Midshipmen, hit another two batters, and threw a wild pitch, but stranded 11 runners on base.22 The Cadets, by contrast, made the most of their seven hits, two walks, and two hit batsmen against Raudenbush.

Once back in New York, Lieutenant Kromer recommended that “silver baseballs appropriately inscribed be given to those Cadets who have represented the Academy in a game of baseball with the Cadets from the Naval Academy.”23

A new rivalry had been begun. Army and Navy agreed to play baseball every spring, alternating as hosts. In his annual report, Lieutenant Kromer wrote, “The Naval officers and cadets were ideal hosts. The cordial and sportsmanlike spirit which was manifested by all during the entire visit could but impress any witness of it that such meetings between the two services are of great mutual benefit.”24 According to the Lucky Bag, a Naval Academy publication, “The defeat by West Point was no criterion of the merits of the two teams, the score itself showing the fierceness of the contest.”25

The 1901 season ended with Army winning six, losing two, and having one tie in its nine-game schedule. Navy ended the season with a record of four wins and three losses. (There were two rainouts.)

Two future national heroes played in this game. Douglas MacArthur (USMA Class of 1903), who later earned the Medal of Honor and reached the rank of general of the Army in World War II, started in left field for Army. For the home team, right fielder Adolphus Staton (USNA Class of 1902) was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Vera Cruz in April 1914 and later rose to the rank of rear admiral.26

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kevin Larkin and copy-edited by Len Levin. Thanks to Games Project Committee Chair John Fredland for information on courtesy runners and the sacrifice fly rule. (See endnotes 15 and 16.)

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author obtained play-by-play and an official box score from “Annual Report of Army Officers Athletic Association for the Year 1901,” a document from a file labeled “Army Baseball,” located in the Archives of the United States Military Academy Library.

Photo credit

Army-Navy scorecard courtesy of M. Shawn Hennessy / Chevrons and Diamonds Collection.

Notes

1 The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum 1997 Yearbook (Cooperstown, New York: National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc., 1997).

2 A Century of Baseball (Cooperstown, New York: The Freeman’s Journal Company, 1940).

3 Lieutenant E.E. Farnsworth Jr., “Fifty Years of West Point Baseball,” from Army Navy Baseball and Track, a publication of The Pointer of the United States Military Academy, May 27, 1939.

4 Farnsworth. Highland Falls is located just outside the gates of West Point.

5 Farnsworth.

6 Navy Baseball 2022 Media Guide, found online at https://navysports.com/documents/2022/2/18/2022_Baseball_Guide_FULL.pdf. Accessed February 2022.

7 Intercollegiate competition between the two service academies dated to 1890 and the first Army-Navy football game.

8 In 1901 Kromer was also the coach of Army’s football team. He later rose to the rank of major general in the Army.

9 “Annual Report of Army Officers Athletic Association for the Year 1901.”

10 “Proceedings of the Army Athletic Council,” January 22, 1901.

11 Davis and Strang were the two switch-hitters on the 1901 New York Giants team.

12 “Annual Report of Army Officers Athletic Association for the Year 1901.”

13 “Baseball,” The News of the Highlands, May 11, 1901: 2.

14 “Annual Report of Army Officers Athletic Association for the Year 1901.”

15 A plebe is a first-year student at the academy.

16 The official box score gives credit to Zell for stealing a base and scoring a run in the third inning, even though the play-by-play account lists Phipps as a pinch-runner for Zell after he was hit in the face. Zell reentered the game in the top of the fourth inning and stayed in for the remainder of the game, making a beautiful catch of a Childs line drive in the fifth and singling to lead off the Army half of the seventh. In fact, Phipps is not even listed in the official box score. For more information on this, see Vince Johnson, “A Courtesy Runner for Lou Boudreau,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 23, 1949: 15, for a background on courtesy runners.

17 See John Schwartz, “The Sacrifice Fly,” 1981 SABR Baseball Research Journal, https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-sacrifice-fly/. Accessed February 2022.

18 The official scorer awarded all three runners stolen bases on the play.

19 “Annual Report of Army Officers Athletic Association for the Year 1901.”

20 “Proceedings of the Army Athletic Council.”

21 “Annual Report of Army Officers Athletic Association for the Year 1901.”

22 The Baltimore Sun dedicated three lines to this game. See “Maryland Contests,” Baltimore Sun, May 20, 1901: 6. Their line score was Army: 4 runs, 6 hits, 4 errors; Navy: 3 runs, 7 hits, 5 errors.

23 “Annual Report of Army Officers Athletic Association for the Year 1901.”

24 “Annual Report of Army Officers Athletic Association for the Year 1901.”

25 From a file in “U.S. Naval Academy Special Collections & Archives.” The quotation was provided to the author in an email by Gary A. LaValley, archivist at USNA, 2003.

26 “U.S. Naval Academy Special Collections & Archives.” Although he did not play in the game, Frederick Vallette McNair Jr. was on the Navy team as a substitute. According to Gary A. LaValley, McNair also won the Medal of Honor at Vera Cruz in April 1914 and later rose to the rank of captain.

At practice the day before, Army coach Sammy Strang discovered something wrong with the diamond at Worden Field, the site of the game. Using a tape measure, he determined that the distance from the pitcher’s rubber to home plate was only 56 feet 8 inches, instead of the regulation 60 feet 6 inches.

When alerted to the problem, the Navy coaches said, “We must have been 3 feet 10 inches short all season, through error.” They asked Strang if they could “split the distance” and claimed, “If we move it back 3 feet 10 inches, the Navy pitchers will not have a chance because their control will be away off.” “I am doing this by the book,” replied Strang, “and I insist that the distance be [fully] corrected.”2

Strang was not fooling around. He was a former major leaguer who had played for the New York Giants under John McGraw. His playing days behind him, Strang was a successful coach in his sixth season at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York. His Army teams had defeated Navy five years in a row. In 1914 he was looking to make it six straight.

The Navy team came into the game with a season record of 11 wins and 7 losses. The Army squad, having played fewer games due to inclement weather, held an 8-5 mark.3 (One of the Army losses, at West Point on May 8, was to a group of second-string New York Giants that included Jim Thorpe.4 McGraw had sent them as a favor to Strang.)

Now, in the biggest game of the season, the Navy batters would face a formidable ace, Army pitcher Robert Reese Neyland III, a 6-foot, 175-pound sophomore from Greenville, Texas.5 Neyland (pronounced “KNEE-lund”) had won his last 10 games, including a 2-1 victory over Navy as a freshman in 1913 and a no-hitter against Colgate on April 11, 1914.6 His batterymate was Frank “Shrimp” Milburn, the sole senior in the Army lineup.

Navy countered with its ace, Thomas “Swede” Vinson. He was the only senior in the Navy lineup and considered “the star of the Navy aggregation.”7 Walter “Spuds” Hicks was the Navy catcher and team captain. Lieutenant Robert A. Theobald was the Navy head coach, and Jim Reilly, a former Yale star, served as an assistant coach.8

The assembled crowd of 12,000 was “the largest that ever attended an athletic event in Annapolis.”9 The lively atmosphere was enhanced by the Navy bugle and drum corps. The Navy goat, “official mascot, bedecked in [a] blanket of gold and blue cloth … trotted around the diamond prior to the game.”10

At West Point, hundreds of cadets gathered in the gym, “where a direct wire with Annapolis and an automatic scoreboard” would report the play-by-play.11 It is likely that one of those cadets was Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower, a junior from Abilene, Kansas. With National League umpires Harry “Steamboat” Johnson behind home plate and Fred Lincoln on the bases, the game commenced at 2:30 P.M.

Charles Gerhardt, the sole freshman in the Army lineup, led off and drew a base on balls from Vinson. Leland Hobbs followed with a single, a Texas Leaguer that fell into short left field. Neyland advanced the runners with a sacrifice. Vinson walked Louis Merillat, loading the bases for Bill Coffin, a sophomore from Greensboro, North Carolina. Coffin sent a liner into center field that bounded over the head of center fielder Hilbert “Bud” Fisher. Three men scored and Coffin was credited with a triple, giving the Cadets a 3-0 lead. Vinson struck out the next two batters.

Navy scored a run against Neyland in the first inning and another in the second, and both runs were obtained without getting a hit. Two walks, a stolen base, and a fly ball brought in the first run, and a hit batsman and two errors accounted for the second run.

In between, however, Hobbs hit a two-run homer in the Army half of the second. Army added a run without a hit in the fifth: Coffin drew a walk and came around to score after a wild pitch and error. The Cadets led, 6-2.

Rain came down in the sixth inning but the game continued. With two outs, Gerhardt singled and stole second base. Hobbs drove him in with a single. The next inning, Merillat singled and was brought home by Milburn’s single.

Meanwhile, Neyland stymied the Navy offense. Navy’s Ranney Adams singled in the third inning but did not score. When Bud Fisher singled in the eighth inning, it was only the second hit allowed by Neyland. Fisher advanced to second base on an infield out and was thrown out by Milburn while attempting to steal third. Hicks’s ninth-inning single was Navy’s third and final hit of the game.

It was a decisive rout. The final score was Army 8, Navy 2. Army had defeated Navy for the sixth year in a row, and Neyland earned his 11th consecutive victory. Army collected 12 hits, with every player getting at least one; Hobbs had three hits and Omar Bradley had two. The fielding was ragged on both sides: Army was charged with six errors and Navy committed five.

It is unknown whether the relocation of the pitching rubber affected Vinson’s pitching.  He walked three batters and threw two wild pitches in nine innings pitched.12

Epilogue

Robert Neyland continued his winning streak, extending it to 20 games before losing to Fordham on May 15, 1915. He defeated Navy twice more, on May 29, 1915, and May 27, 1916. In four seasons of pitching for Army, his career record was 35 wins and 5 losses. After graduation, he chose not to become a professional baseball player and reportedly turned down a lucrative offer from John McGraw and the Giants.

Instead, Neyland pursued dual careers, serving in the Army Corps of Engineers and coaching the football team at the University of Tennessee. In 21 seasons as the Tennessee head coach, his teams won 173 games, lost 31, and tied 12. His 1951 team won the Associated Press national championship. In 1956 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Neyland Stadium in Knoxville is named for him.

During World War II, Neyland rose to the rank of brigadier general (one-star general). Working in China and India, he led efforts to supply food, medicine, fuel, and ammunition to American, British, and Chinese troops.

Charles Gerhardt (Army third baseman) and Leland Hobbs (Army right fielder) were major generals (two-star) in the war and each commanded an infantry division that landed at Omaha Beach. Gerhardt’s division landed there on D-Day. Frank Milburn (Army catcher) also was a major general during the war; he was promoted to lieutenant general (three-star) in the Korean War.

General Omar Bradley (Army left fielder) led more than 1.2 million troops into combat in World War II. In 1950 he was promoted to the highest rank, five-star General of the Army. Vice Admiral Bertram Rodgers (Navy right fielder) was a commanding officer of naval operations at the Aleutian Islands (1943), Southern France (1944), and Iwo Jima (1945).

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Adam Minakowski, assistant archivist, Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy.

This game was fact-checked by Kevin Larkin and copy edited by Len Levin.

Sources

Army’s Howitzer and Navy’s Lucky Bag yearbooks, 1914-1917. The 1915 Howitzer contains an account of the 1914 Army-Navy baseball game.

Gilbert, Bob. Neyland: The Gridiron General (Savannah, Georgia: Golden Coast Publishing Co., 1990).

Hall of Valor: The Military Medals Database, at valor.militarytimes.com, accessed April 2023.

Haskew, Michael E. West Point 1915: Eisenhower, Bradley, and the Class the Stars Fell On (Minneapolis: Zenith Press, 2014).

Photo credit: Minneapolis Journal, June 8, 1915: 14.

Notes

1 “Army Meets Navy Today,” Baltimore Sun, May 30, 1914: 7. Army had defeated Navy in nine of the 12 previous games. The series began in 1901. There was no game in 1903.

2 Bob Wilson, “Sport Talk,” Knoxville (Tennessee) News-Sentinel, April 2, 1952: 17.

3 “Army Meets Navy Today”; “Army Defeats Penn State,” Pittsburgh Gazette Times, May 7, 1914: 11.

4 “Giants’ Subs Win,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 10, 1914: Sports, 3. The Giants won, 7-2. Jim Thorpe hit a tape-measure home run in the contest.

5 “Nine at West Point Possesses Remarkable Hurler in Neyland,” North Adams (Massachusetts) Transcript, May 14, 1915: 11.

6 “Army 8, Colgate 0,” Boston Globe, April 12, 1914: 18,

7 “Georgetown Wins from the Middies,” Baltimore Sun, May 24, 1914: 15.

8 “Middies Win Opener,” Baltimore Sun, March 26, 1914: 5.

9 “12,000 See Army Win Service Game,” Baltimore Sun, May 31, 1914: 13.

10 “12,000 See Army Win Service Game.”

11 “Cadets Watch Scoreboard,” Washington Evening Star, May 31, 1914: 1.

12 “12,000 See Army Win Service Game.”

1915 Holy Cross Baseball Team

Coming off a 16-2 victory over Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Maryland, the College of the Holy Cross baseball team traveled to Annapolis, Maryland, to play St. John’s College for the first time on March 30, 1915, the second day of Holy Cross’s nine-game Southern Trip.1 This was likewise the second game of the season for the St. John’s Cadets.2 Their first game was also played against Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, where they suffered an 11-6 loss.

Holy Cross, from Worcester, Massachusetts, was coached by William H. Dyer, who had guided them to a 16-5-1 record in 1914. St. John’s was led by John N. Wilson, a Cadets alumnus who had pitched in three games for the Washington Nationals in 1913. Starting on the mound this day for St. John’s was their captain, Howard Bidwell Matthews; his Holy Cross counterpart was James Hastings.

One of the main storylines of the game, by all accounts, was the weather. The early spring conditions were described as “Zero Weather” – a reference to the temperature on the Celsius scale – and “weather good for football” with a “biting wind.”3

Holy Cross quickly opened the scoring in the top of the first as the leadoff batter, center fielder4 Tommy Long, hit a triple and scored on an infield out. In the top of the second, Holy Cross made it 2-0 when third baseman John Norton walked, reached second on a wild pitch, was sacrificed to third by left fielder Eddie Costello, and scored on first baseman Mark Devlin’s single.

There was no more scoring until the top of the sixth. With one out, catcher Harry Carroll hit a single to left. On a perfectly executed hit-and-run play, Carroll made it to third on Norton’s single through second. Carroll scored on Costello’s fly ball to Fulton Turner in left, making the score 3-0, Holy Cross, which is where it stood after six.

Accounts characterized the game up to this point as a “pitchers’ battle”5 with both moundsmen “pitching a classy article of ball” and, in spite of the score, St. John’s Matthews was singled out for praise as he “mixed a sharp curve with a fast hopper, which greatly puzzled the visiting batsmen.”6 On the other side, Holy Cross’s Hastings had given up only two hits over the six innings while recording just one strikeout, as “the work of the Holy Cross infield was of the highest standard.”7

In the bottom of the seventh, St. John’s first baseman Samuel Freeny8 got the Cadets back in the game with a home run to deep right. After an out, left fielder Turner doubled. Turner scored when the next batter, catcher John Noble, hit a grounder that shortstop Joe Griffin booted. Hastings was able to retire the side with no more runs scoring, keeping the score 3-2, Holy Cross, after seven.

After a scoreless top of the eighth, Holy Cross’s Hastings was relieved by Tim Daley to start the bottom of the inning. Center fielder Herbert Jump walked with one out, stole second, and scored on an error by Long in center, tying the game, 3-3. A scoreless ninth sent the game to extra innings, possibly to the dismay of the remnant of the 400 spectators still braving the cold.

Daley opened the top of the 10th with a smash to right-center, which he turned into a triple. Long followed with a single through the middle of the diamond, scoring Daley and putting Holy Cross in the lead, 4-3. Daley pitched a scoreless bottom half, preserving the victory. Daley scored the winning run and was the winning pitcher. Despite giving up the tying run in the eighth, he pitched well in relief, striking out six and giving up two hits in his three-inning stint. Matthews, who ended up with a 10-inning complete game, allowing seven hits and striking out 14, took the loss.

Holy Cross played Mount St. Joseph in Baltimore the next day. The team then returned to Annapolis to play the US Naval Academy, then went back to Baltimore to play Yale at Terrapin Park and traveled to Washington to play two games with Georgetown. A scheduled game with Catholic University in Washington was snowed out. The trip ended with a game against Columbia in New York.

Holy Cross finished the 1915 season with 16 wins and 14 losses. As of 2025, Holy Cross – officially known as the Crusaders beginning in 19259 – has appeared in the NCAA tournament 12 times, winning the College World Series in 1952, and sent 79 players to the major leagues. Five players from Holy Cross have appeared in more than 1,000 big-league games: Jimmy Ryan (2,014); Joe Dugan (1,447); Tommy Dowd (1,321); Jack Barry, who coached the team from 1921 to 1960 (1,223); and Jack McCarthy (1,092).

1915 St. John’s (Maryland) Baseball Team

St. John’s ended the 1915 season with a record of 7 wins and 11 losses. Its intercollegiate baseball program, established in 1892, ended play in 1928 after a student vote on the school’s athletic priorities. The student body voted 60 to 50 to keep lacrosse and eliminate baseball.10 Baseball-Reference lists four major leaguers from St. John’s: Bill Lamar (550 major-league games), Dick Porter (675), Jim Stevens (2), and the coach in 1915, John Wilson (3).

Samuel Freeny – the only player from the 1915 Holy Cross-St. John’s game to play professionally, appearing in Class D leagues in 1915, 1916, and 1926 – reached the rank of lieutenant colonel in the US Marine Corps. Wounded at Corregidor in the Philippines in 1942, Freeny was held as a prisoner of war by the Japanese and was murdered in a group execution in December 1944.11

Author’s Note

This game turned out to be the only time the two schools played each other, but there is another interesting aspect in that it was “lost” to history. As the St. John’s baseball program ended nearly a century before the author researched this article in 2025, records of their baseball games are buried deep in the school’s archives.12

By contrast, the Holy Cross baseball program has kept records going back to 1876 and published an annual baseball yearbook until 2014. An entry in the Holy Cross (HC) vs. Opponent section of the 2011 Yearbook states:

Team: St. John’s
Record: HC 2 wins 1 loss
Series Began: 1915.13

As it turns out, this entry conflates the game in 1915 with St. John’s College with the two games Holy Cross played against St. John’s University of New York City in 1978, which the teams split.14 Bringing results up to 2025, what the Holy Cross records should have are two entries: 

Team: St. John’s (MD)
Record: HC 1 win 0 losses
Series Began: 1915   

Team: St. John’s (NY)
Record: HC  2 wins 9 losses
Series Began: 197815

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Gary Belleville and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo Credits: College of the Holy Cross, “Purple Patcher 1915” (1915). Purple Patcher Yearbook. 77, 210, accessed July 29, 2025, https://crossworks.holycross.edu/purple_patcher/77.

Cox, Marion, ed., “Rat Tat 1916,” St. John’s College Digital Archives, accessed July 29, 2025, https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/1372.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for general player, team and season data.

Box score from the Springfield Daily Republican, March 31, 1915.

Notes

1 According to the school’s website, St. John’s College is a coeducational liberal-arts college founded in 1696 as King William’s School and chartered in 1784 with a strong commitment to collaborative inquiry and to the study of original texts. Besides the Annapolis campus, it has a campus in Santa Fe, New Mexico. “About St. John’s,” St. John’s College, https://www.sjc.edu/about. Accessed July 28, 2025.

2 At the time, St. John’s had its own military department and all students except those physically disqualified were required to take part; so the athletic teams were called the Cadets.

3 “Triple and Single,” Springfield (Massachusetts) Daily Republican, March 31, 1915: 10. “Holy Cross in the Tenth,” Fall River Globe, March 31, 1915: 6. The statement about “Zero Weather” refers to the Celsius scale. According to National Weather Service records for March 30, 1915, in Annapolis, the low was 24 degrees Fahrenheit, which did make it the coldest day of the month.

4 In the box score, the designation for this position is m. for midfielder, which historically has been used as a synonym for center fielder. “Midfielder – Baseball Dictionary,” Baseball-Almanac.com, https://www.baseball-almanac.com/dictionary-term.php?term=midfielder. Accessed July 28, 2025.

5 “Extra Inning Is Needed for This,” Springfield (Massachusetts) Morning Union, March 31, 1915: 14.

6 “Triple and Single.”

7 “Holy Cross 4, St. John’s 3,” Boston Globe, March 31, 1915: 7.

8 In the box score and in the account of the game, his name is spelled “Freeney.”

9 Melville E. Webb, “Coaches Face Big Problem,” Boston Globe, October 8, 1925: 22.

10 “Stick Game Is Selected, Baltimore Sun, May 29, 1928: 17. The vote was taken after the lacrosse team had its most successful season while the baseball team had a “disappointing season.” A comparison of the St. John’s catalogs for 1927-1928 and 1928-1929 shows the school also dropped its track and tennis intercollegiate programs after the 1927-1928 academic year. As of 2025, it engages in four intercollegiate sports” crew, sailing, fencing, and, most famously, croquet. The Governor’s Cup, the annual croquet match between St, John’s and the US Naval Academy, celebrated its 41st anniversary in April 2025. “Athletics + Fitness,” St. John’s College, https://www.sjc.edu/annapolis/campus-life/athletics-fitness. Accessed July 28, 2025.

11 Gary Bedingfield, “Sam Freeny,” Baseball’s Greatest Sacrifice, https://www.baseballsgreatestsacrifice.com/biographies/freeny-sam.html. Accessed November 23, 2025. Bedingfield writes that while it’s not listed at Baseball-Reference.com, Sam Freeney did play for the Salisbury Indians of the Class D Eastern Shore League under the name of Samuel Wilson.

12 Special thanks to Sammy Young of the Greenfield Library at St. John’s College for her assistance in gathering information about St. John’s baseball in the school’s archives.

13 2011 Holy Cross Baseball Yearbook, https://goholycross.com/documents/2015/7/23/2011baseballguide.pdf. Accessed July 20, 2025.

14 This mistake lasted until at least 2014; The 2014 Holy Cross Baseball Yearbook, the last yearbook available on the web, has a similar entry.

15 “2025 Baseball Record Book Final,” redstormsports.com, https://redstormsports.com/documents/2025/2/16/2025_Baseball_Record_Book_FINAL.pdf. Accessed July 20, 2025.

Fitzpatrick held the Braves to one hit through six innings, a feat made even more amazing by the fact that he was pitching on a Monday after a nine-inning start on Saturday against Fordham. Yet the Braves were “utterly helpless before the crafty fork slants of Boston College’s sterling athlete,” wrote the Boston College weekly paper, The Heights.4 That one hit was controversial: Billy Southworth hit a ball to deep shortstop that Ted Palmer played slowly, then made a wide throw. Nevertheless, it was scored a base hit.

In the seventh inning, however, the Braves scored all four of their runs. Al Nixon doubled to left field and scored on a single by Tony Boeckel, who made it to second base on a bobble in the outfield. Fitzpatrick quickly fielded a Walter Holke bunt, but his throw was wild, and the runners were safe. Hod Ford singled to left field, scoring Boeckel, and then both Ford and Holke scored on a double by Frank Gibson. Edward Mullowney pitched the ninth inning for the Eagles, retiring the Braves in order, with one strikeout.

Johnny Cooney started for the Braves and allowed two hits over five innings. Cy Morgan pitched the final four innings, allowing only one hit.

Fitzpatrick, a native of Meriden, Connecticut, was a remarkable athlete who lettered in four varsity sports at Boston College: baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. He played center and guard for the basketball team, and goalie for the hockey team. Fitzpatrick had a punting average of 65 yards per kick, and in his sophomore year he faced the legendary Jim Thorpe in a punting competition in Canton, Ohio. “I don’t really remember if he beat me or I beat him. I know we got off some pretty good shots,” Fitzpatrick recalled.5 Fitzpatrick’s football career ended when he broke a shoulder in 1920.

After graduation from BC in 1921, Fitzpatrick joined the faculty at Portland High School, where he remained until he retired in 1966. He stayed active as a player in semipro baseball, and once faced Babe Ruth at Bayside Park in Portland. Ruth had come to Portland to do batting exhibitions. “I pitched the whole game,” Fitzpatrick recalled. “Ruth popped twice to the infield and the other two times, I struck him out, and when Babe didn’t speak to me after the game I knew he was mad and I was some shook up.”6

Fitzpatrick coached the Portland High School football, baseball, basketball, and golf teams. In 1947 he became the athletic director, a post he held until he retired. He was inducted into the Boston College Hall of Fame in 1970. The Fitzpatrick Trophy, nicknamed the “Fitzy,” recognizes the best high-school football players in Maine each year.7

“In the early years of the fast-moving 20th century, Jimmy Fitzpatrick put Boston College athletics on the map. His football exploits made headlines in the Boston papers. He was the Doug Flutie of his era,” wrote Tom Chard of the Portland Press Herald.8

Boston College third baseman Luke Urban, from Fall River, Massachusetts, made some sparkling defensive plays in this game. Urban played 50 games for the Braves in 1927-1928. He compiled a .273 batting average in 128 at-bats. Frank “Squash” Wilson, from Malden, Massachusetts, was the Eagles’ right fielder that day. Wilson played for the Braves from 1924 to 1926 and for the St. Louis Browns and Cleveland Indians in 1928. He batted .246 in 168 major-league games.

No specific information was found on how much money was raised for the fund. However, rain before the game began kept the crowd sparse. James C. O’Leary of the Boston Daily Globe reported an attendance of only 70 spectators.9

This article appeared in “Braves Field: Memorable Moments at Boston’s Lost Diamond” (SABR, 2015), edited by Bill Nowlin and Bob Brady. To read more articles from this book, click here.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the text, the author was assisted by the following sources:

Barker, Matthew Jude, “Fitzpatrick Stadium,” Maine Irish Heritage Trail. maineirishheritagetrail.org/fitzpatrickstadium_053.shtml. Accessed November 16, 2014.

“Doug Flutie,” Boston College Eagles. bceagles.com/genrel/flutie_doug00.html. Accessed November 26, 2014.

Gilley, Chad (2005), “Fitzy,” Gilley Media, gilleymedia.com/05/fitzpatrick/default.asp. Accessed November 16, 2014.

“Jim Fitzpatrick,” Boston College Varsity Club Hall of Fame: bceagles.com/genrel/fitzpatrick_jim00.html. Accessed November 16, 2014.

Pro-football-reference.com

Sports-reference.com/cfb

Notes

1950 Rutgers University baseball team. Standing (L-R): Ted McDonough, Charlie Ruddock, Jim Clark, Allen Willenbrock, George Ruddy, Tom Foster, Hardy Peterson, Hal Tindall, George Kaye, Bob Suba, Tex Maskalevich, Herm Hering, George Case; Squatting (L-R): Don Biehn, Jim Monahan, Dudley Eppel, Julie Leboff, Ray Van Cleef, Alan Stull, Steve Kalapos.

“I’d die for dear old Rutgers.”1

In June 1950 the Rutgers University baseball team made their first visit to the College World Series a memorable one. As numerous sportswriters watched the action in Omaha, Nebraska, they all affirmed Rutgers’ well-deserved bid to the eight-team, double-elimination tournament that determined college baseball’s national champion. Omaha World-Herald sportswriter and CWS official scorer Bob Phipps put it simply: “The New Jersey boys play a fast, heads-up game and look very good.”2

Still in its infancy in 1950, the College World Series began modestly in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1947, when California beat Yale, 17-4 and 8-7, to win a best-of-three series seen by fewer than 4,000 fans.

After a two-year stay in Kalamazoo, the CWS moved to Wichita, Kansas, in 1949 before settling in Omaha in 1950. Could it survive the small crowds fully expected for a first-time event in Omaha as well as the bad luck of miserable weather on the first weekend of competition? The sports editor of the hometown Omaha World-Herald noted, “The future fate of the NCAA meet remains in doubt.” He implored Omahans to show up, “even if they have to huddle under blankets.”3

The history books assure us that the College World Series survived and flourished, growing rapidly to become an institution and economic driver in Omaha.4 Take 2022, for example. Eight teams earned their way to Omaha, including Ole Miss, the eventual champion, and a record 366,105 fans watched 15 games.5

Surely there is more to the College World Series than economic impact and records. Every Division I baseball player, supported by family and friends, dreams of a trip to Omaha. One sportswriter called the CWS “a blend of passion, tradition, and unmatched summertime euphoria” with passionate fans bringing an electric atmosphere to baseball games unlike any other.6

Let’s look at that very first game in Omaha, Rutgers (17-4-1) vs. the University of Texas (22-5), played as part of a two-game opening session in front of just over 2,000 fans. The Texas Longhorns were the clear favorites. After all, they were the defending CWS champions, sweeping through the Southwest Conference in 1950 with a 14-1 record and a District VI playoff series win over the University of Arizona. The Rutgers Scarlet fell in the District II playoffs in both 1948 and 1949, but were named as outright District II representative to the 1950 CWS.7

Both teams reflected the major-league backgrounds of their head coaches, Rutgers’ George Case and Texas’s Bibb Falk. Case, a first-year coach and former outfielder with the Washington Senators (10 seasons) and Cleveland Indians (one season), led the major leagues in stolen bases for five consecutive seasons (1939-1943) and was a four-time American League All-Star. Naturally, when he gathered his team in February, the emphasis was on leg conditioning, a necessary ingredient for a running game.8

Falk, an outfielder for the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox from 1920 to 1931, had a .314 career batting average, and an enviable coaching record of nine straight Southwest Conference championships (1946-1954). SABR author Joseph Wancho tells us that Falk was a hard coach to play for, but his players would not trade the experience for anything.9

Case selected Herm Hering (6-0), one of his power hitters, to start for Rutgers, while Falk went with Murray Wall (8-2) for the Longhorns. Wall received All-American honors in 1949 and boasted a 27-5 career record for the defending national champions.10

Texas took the early edge in the second inning. Frank Womack hit a two-out 370-foot home run over the left-field wall with Guss Hrncir aboard for a 2-0 lead. Herring had walked Hrncir, one of seven walks he issued in the game. Over the next seven innings, however, Herring yielded only two hits, a single by catcher Stuart Benson in the fourth and an infield hit by Hrncir in the sixth.11

Could the lead stand for Texas’s All-American pitcher? For six innings, the answer was yes, but Rutgers finally broke through in the seventh. A single by All-American catcher Hardy Peterson, shortstop Ben Tompkins’ error on Tex Maskalevich’s sharp grounder, and an infield grounder gave the Scarlet their first run.12

Rutgers then mixed keen observation, a bit of daring, and outright speed with some good fortune to turn the game in their favor in the eighth inning. Wall retired Ray Van Cleef to open the inning; the Rutgers center fielder had hits in his three previous at-bats. But first baseman Bob Suba walked, and Charles Ruddock singled to left.

Good fortune then turned toward the Scarlet. Jim Monahan’s grounder to third baseman Frank Kana, marked “double play,” was mishandled to load the bases.

A bit of daring? Wall struck out Peterson for the second out, but Rutgers had noticed his overlong windup. With Maskalevich up, the steal sign was turned on! As Suba broke toward home, Ruddock and Monahan took off for third and second.

All were safe on the triple steal and the score was tied, 2-2. Rutgers’ seven stolen bases in one game remains the record for a national collegiate tournament game through 2022.13

Wall was clearly unnerved. He walked Maskalevich after two strikes and Steve Kalapos as well, to give Rutgers a 3-2 lead. Jim Ehrler replaced Wall on the mound, but Hering’s run-scoring single added an insurance run for a 4-2 lead heading to the ninth.

Hering finished the game by retiring the side in order, including grounders back to the mound by the last two batters, Womack and Sigmund Waghalter.

Rutgers had beaten the defending champions in the first College World Series game ever played in Omaha, but the double-elimination tournament was far from being over. In the next round, played in a steady drizzle, Rutgers recovered from a first-inning three-run deficit to beat the University of Wisconsin 5-3 behind Tom Foster’s six-hitter and Van Cleef’s four hits.14

The bats went cold in their next game when Washington State College beat Rutgers 3-1 in 10 innings.15 Rod Keogh limited the Scarlet to only one hit, Jim Monahan’s fourth inning triple, in his pitching duel with Al Willenbrock. A rematch with Texas seemed inevitable.

Meanwhile, Texas and outstanding pitching eliminated both Colorado A&M, 3-1, and Tufts, 7-0. In the latter game, Ehrler returned to the mound as the starter and tossed the first CWS no-hitter.16 Texas next beat previously unbeaten Washington State, 13-1, and Rutgers eliminated Wisconsin, 16-2, a complete-game six-hitter by Hering.

The rematch between Rutgers and Texas for the right to play Washington State for the title was all set. Tom Foster vs. Charlie Gorin. In his account of that game in the Omaha World-Herald, Phipps called it “a pantomime of one of the most famous of all college sayings … I’d die for dear old Rutgers.”17

Texas started hitting in the second inning and didn’t stop, leading 10-0 before Rutgers was finally able to put runs on the board in the fourth inning. Six Rutgers pitchers yielded 15 hits and 13 walks. The hitting stars for Texas included first baseman Kal Segrist, who homered and drove in five runs and Gorin, who helped his own cause with three hits and four RBIs.18 To its credit, Rutgers scored in each of the last three innings, collecting 12 hits for the game but losing 15-9.

Texas successfully defended its first College World Series title with a second one, shutting out Washington State 3-0 behind the pitching of Ehrler and Wall.19 And that success was followed by four more titles for the Longhorns – 1975, 1983, 2002, 2005 – and a record 38 appearances in the College World Series through 2022.20

For the third-place Scarlet, Ray Van Cleef was named the CWS Most Outstanding Player after batting .417 on 10-for-24. He was also named an All-American outfielder by the American Baseball Coaches Association, an honor he received again in 1951.

What would a return to the College World Series be like for any team more than 70 years after that very first game in Omaha? Think of the campus atmosphere on college football Saturday. Add a gathering of family and friends to celebrate a glorious occasion and experiencing the full range of emotions as every game is played. It’s the dream of college baseball players.

Author’s note

The author’s father graduated from Rutgers in 1935. In the early 1960s, he got to know Hardy Peterson and talk some baseball. Peterson – also known as “Pete” during his baseball career – held many positions in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization through 1985 after a stint as a backup catcher (1955-1959). He was the general manager for Pittsburgh’s 1979 World Series champions.

The author graduated from Rutgers in 1966. When he wasn’t studying chemical engineering during his undergraduate days, he was working part-time in the sports information office and broadcasting baseball and basketball play-by-play on WRSU, the college radio station. The research for this essay helped the author rekindle those experiences and bring the magical 1950 Rutgers baseball season to life again.

Home-plate umpire Lon Warneke served as a National League umpire (1949-1955) after a major-league career as a pitcher for 15 seasons (1930-1945). Warneke, a five-time All-Star, pitched for the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals and amassed a stellar record: 192-121, 3.18 ERA. The batter, Texas shortstop Ben Tompkins, spent seven seasons (1953-1959) in the Philadelphia Phillies minor-league system, rising to play for their Triple-A Miami team in the International League. He never played in the major leagues.

Acknowledgments

This essay was fact-checked by Evan Katz and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

The author accessed the following college baseball references: NCAA Men’s College World Series record book (ncaa.org/Docs/stats/baseball_cws_RB/2022/1-CWSGeneral.pdf); CWS Single-Games Records Book (ncaa.org/Docs/stats/baseball_cws_RB/2013/2-CWSSingleGame.pdf); University of Texas Baseball Fact Book archive (texassports.com/sports/2017/2/9/baseball-fact-book.aspx); Rutgers Baseball Fact Book (scarletknights.com/documents/2022/2/8//22Baseball_FactBook.pdf?id=16972); and Baseball Reference (baseball-reference.com/bullpen/College_baseball).

The digitized Rutgers University Libraries’ collection of the Rutgers Targum (collections.libraries.rutgers.edu/targum) was used for insights on the 1950 baseball season. The photos are used with the consent of the Rutgers University Office of Athletic Communications.

Notes

1 “Rutgers Traditional Songs,” rutgers.edu/about/traditional-songs. The song “Nobody Ever Died for Dear Old Rutgers” from the 1947 musical High Button Shoes, set in New Brunswick, New Jersey, refers to Rutgers legend Frank “Pop” Grant, who broke his leg in an 1892 football game against Princeton and was rumored to say, “I’d die for dear old Rutgers” as he was carried off the field.

2 “Rutgers Nine One of Most Popular Clubs in Omaha Tournament: Lauded by Writers,” Daily Home News (New Brunswick, New Jersey), June 22, 1950: 11. Participants in the 1950 College World Series included Rutgers, Texas, Wisconsin, Yale, Alabama, Bradley, Tufts, and Washington State.

3 Floyd Olds, “The Sports Editor’s Column,” Omaha Evening World-Herald, June 20, 1950: 17.

4 W.C. Madden and Patrick J. Stewart, The College World Series: A Baseball History, 1947-2003 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2004), 19. “The NCAA considered the Series [1950] a success despite a disappointing attendance of 17,185. Rain and temperatures in the 50s were to blame for the poor turnout. Organizers had hoped for an attendance of 30,000 and the poor showing resulted in the Series losing $7,500. Years later, a study (cwsomaha.com/economic-impact/) by Creighton University economists Ernie Goss and Scott Strain documented the economic impact of the College World Series in Omaha: $88.3 million and supporting more than 1,100 year-round jobs in 2019.

5 “Ole Miss Wins CWS as Event Draws Record Crowds,” SportsBusinessJournal.com, June 27, 2022, sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Morning-Buzz/2022/06/27/Ole-Miss-wins-College-World-Series.aspx. One of the 15 games in 2022 is the subject of the first College World Series essay posted to the SABR Baseball Games Project: Madison McEntire, “June 21, 2022: Will McEntire keeps Arkansas alive with clutch pitching at the College World Series,” SABR Baseball Games Project.

6 Brett Gibbons, The Greatest Sporting Event We’re Not Talking About,” SI.com, June 15, 2022, si.com/college/tcu/baseball/road-to-cfb-college-world-series-game-day.

7 Reading a late-season issue of the campus newspaper, Rutgers Targum, may have scared a few Rutgers baseball fans. Rutgers (14-2-1) was relying heavily on two pitching aces, Herman Hering and Tom Foster. “The NCAA selecting committee for District II announced Wednesday that depth of pitching staffs as well as season’s records would be considered when sending out invitations, since the teams competing in the tourney would have to play five games in eight days.” (Tek Talmont, “Lack of Depth on Mound May Cost Nine Playoff Bid,” Rutgers Targum, May 12, 1950: 3.) Perhaps two wins each against Lafayette (15-9) and Virginia (17-6) and a 14-1 record in midseason convinced the selectors that Rutgers deserved a CWS berth without a playoff round.

8 Joe Moore, “Baseball Schedule Includes 26 Games, Southern Tour,” Rutgers Targum, March 3, 1950: 3.

9 Joseph Wancho, “Bibb Falk,” SABR Baseball Biography Project.

10 “Rutgers Is Underdog in Tourney Opener,” Daily Home News, June 15, 1950: 15.

11 Wilbur Evans, “Steers Face Stiff Fight to Keep Baseball Title,” Austin Statesman, June 16, 1950: 22.

12 Robert Phipps, “Rutgers, Wisconsin Victors; Four New Nines Bid Tonight,” Omaha Morning World-Herald, June 16, 1950: 27.

13 “Scarlet Comes From Behind to Knock Off Defending Champions,” Daily Home News, June 16, 1950: 20. The CWS record of seven stolen bases in a game was tied by Wake Forest vs. Western Michigan, June 14, 1955; Pepperdine vs. Mississippi State, June 4, 1979; Arizona State vs. Oklahoma State, June 4, 1984; Clemson vs. Long Beach State, June 3, 1991.

14 “Tom Foster Weathers Rugged First Inning; Scarlet Plays Tonight, Sunday Times, New Brunswick, New Jersey, June 18, 1950: 13.

15 A triple play by Rutgers in the ninth inning helped send the game to extra innings. With the bases loaded, Don Paul grounds to third baseman Kalapos who throws home to Peterson. One out. Peterson fires to first baseman Suba. Two outs. Gordon Brunswick, the runner advancing from second, tries to sneak home and is thrown out, Suba to Peterson. Triple play. (Robert Phipps, “No-Hit Game, Triple Play Spice Tourney,” Omaha Evening World-Herald, June 20, 1950: 17).

16 Robert Phipps, “No-Hit Game, Triple Play Spice Tourney,” Omaha Evening World-Herald, June 20, 1950: 17.

17 Robert Phipps, “Texas Mauls Rutgers, 15-9, Gains Finals With Cougars,” Omaha Morning World-Herald, June 23, 1950: 37.

18 Phipps.

19 The losing pitcher for Washington State was Gene Conley. Conley is the only athlete to own championships in both major-league baseball and the NBA. He pitched for the World Series champion Milwaukee Braves in 1957 and was a member of three NBA championship teams with the Boston Celtics.

20 George Case coached Rutgers through 1960 and the Scarlet played in the NCAA baseball tournament 14 times (through 2022) since their lone CWS appearance in 1950.

Before BU dropped varsity football (in 1997) and baseball (in 1996), the “Battle of Commonwealth Avenue”1 played out in those sports as well. One memorable baseball matchup took place on Saturday, April 19, 1952, when four future major leaguers — all sons of New England — took the field for a closely played meeting with a nailbiter ending.

This game between two Boston schools didn’t take place in the city proper. At the time, BU’s baseball and football teams played at Nickerson Field in the suburb of Weston. The field was roughly 12 miles west of the city, near the Route 128 north-south beltway road that encircles Boston and its innermost suburbs. It bore the name of William E. Nickerson, a BU trustee and one of the founders of the Gillette Safety Razor Company, who presented the land and athletic facilities to the school in 1928.2 Some of the stands in use at Nickerson Field had been donated by Tom Yawkey, owner of the Boston Red Sox.3

The BC and BU teams met as part of the fifth annual BU Varsity Club Field Day, a fundraiser for BU athletic booster programs.4 The event also included a track meet between BU and Brown University, as well as a football game between the BU team and a squad of Terrier grid alumni. News stories reported that 3,000 people attended the field day. With the baseball game starting at noon, the track meet at 1 P.M. and the football game at 2:30 P.M., it seems likely that fans were free to roam between the events.5

The BC Eagles were coached by Johnny Temple, though not the Johnny Temple who made several All-Star Games as a second baseman in the 1950s and ’60s. BC’s Temple had been an outfielder for the Eagles in the early 1930s before returning to his alma mater as baseball and hockey coach.6 The 1952 Eagles went 12-7 under Temple’s tutelage.7

Going back to 1875, BC had produced 30 major leaguers, including Eddie Waitkus, Lennie Merullo, and the elder Joe Coleman.8 Two members of the 1952 squad were poised to carry on the tradition — infielder Joe Morgan of Walpole, Massachusetts, and catcher Mike Roarke of West Warwick, Rhode Island. Roarke had won a nonsports scholarship to BU but opted for a football scholarship to BC instead.9

BU’s best-known ballplayers were busy on Field Day. First baseman Harry Agganis of Lynn, Massachusetts, doubled as star quarterback for the football team, while catcher Tom Gastall of Fall River, Massachusetts, was a receiver. Agganis and Gastall played in both games that day.10 Later that fall, Agganis found Gastall for a fourth-quarter, game-winning touchdown pass as the Terriers beat William and Mary at Fenway Park.11 The 1952 baseball Terriers posted a 10-4 record.12 BU baseball was coached by Harry Cleverly, formerly a multi-sport star at the university. Cleverly concurrently coached the men’s hockey team to a 211-142-10 record between 1945 and 1962.13

BU starting pitcher Norm Luoni, a lefty from the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester,14 and BC’s righty starter Bill Scholz opened the game with 3½ scoreless innings. The Terriers broke through in the bottom of the fourth, as a single by third baseman Jim Hurley and a double by shortstop Don Russell produced the game’s first run.15

The lead didn’t last long, as BC rebounded for three runs in the top of the fifth. First baseman Jim Cisternelli and Scholz singled and advanced on a sacrifice bunt. A single by left fielder Bill McMorrow scored Cisternelli and moved Scholz to third. Morgan’s pop fly to Russell in shallow left field was deep enough to score Scholz and advance McMorrow. Roarke drove in the third run with a single.16 Outside of this rally, BU’s Luoni pitched well: He pitched a complete game and allowed just three additional hits.17

BU also collected seven hits that day. After being held hitless from the fifth inning through the eighth, the Eagles rallied against Scholz in the ninth. Gastall and pinch-hitter Doug Campbell opened with singles, and a walk loaded the bases with none out. Another Terrier pinch-hitter, Bill O’Donnell, grounded into a fielder’s choice at second base that scored Gastall.18 BU second baseman Johnny Nunziato tried to bring home Campbell from third with a squeeze bunt, but Campbell apparently missed the sign and did not break for the plate. Nunziato reached first safely, though, when Cisternelli dropped the throw. The Terriers had the bases loaded again, with their second- and third-place hitters coming up.19

Coach Temple stuck with Scholz against right fielder John Poce, who struck out for the second out. That brought Agganis to the plate with the game on the line. The “Golden Greek,” hitless so far, fell behind by two strikes, then lofted an easy fly ball to BC center fielder Bill Walsh to end the game at 3-2.

Roarke’s hit in the fifth proved to be the game-winning RBI. Evoking Massachusetts’ revolutionary history, the BC student newspaper declared: “After last Saturday’s performance, B.C. men will probably forget all about Paul Revere and the ‘embattled’ Minute Men to remember April 19 as the day the B.C. Minute Men turned back their Commonwealth Avenue foes with Senior Bill Scholz firing the shot heard round the world.”20

While the major leaguers are the best-remembered participants of the game, a few others went on to play in the minors. Luoni pitched two seasons in the Milwaukee Braves’ system, while Cisternelli played two seasons in the Baltimore Orioles’ organization. Scholz was reportedly eager to pitch professionally but received no offers.21 Incidentally, Scholz and Luoni faced each other in a rematch on May 2 at BC’s Alumni Field. Both went the distance again in a far sloppier game. Scholz surrendered six hits and nine walks and Luoni gave up 11 hits and 12 walks as BC again triumphed, 12-4.22

BU’s future major leaguers went on to star-crossed, prematurely shortened careers. Agganis was hitting .313 in 1955, his second season with the Red Sox, when he began to experience coughing spells and severe pain. After several weeks of hospitalization, Agganis died suddenly on June 27 of a massive pulmonary embolism, shocking sports fans across New England. He was 26.23 His former teammate Gastall also played two seasons in the majors with the Orioles, though unlike Agganis, he was not a starter. On September 20, 1956, Gastall died at age 24 when the small plane he was flying crashed in Chesapeake Bay.24 He appeared in only 52 major-league games.

BC’s star athletes enjoyed long and rewarding lifetimes in baseball. Roarke and Morgan signed with the Boston Braves within a day of each other — Roarke on June 19, 1952, Morgan on June 20. Morgan appeared with five major-league teams in parts of four seasons between 1959 and 1964. He went on to a lengthy career as a major- and minor-league manager, coach, and scout, capped by a fondly remembered tenure as manager of the Red Sox between 1988 and 1991.25 Roarke also played four seasons as a catcher with the Detroit Tigers between 1961 and 1964. He spent 20 seasons as a major-league coach between 1965 and 1994, with stints in the minor leagues in between. Roarke’s last baseball stop was also with the Red Sox, as pitching coach in the strike-shortened 1994 season.26

The story ends with one final connection to major-league baseball. In August 1953, the state of Massachusetts announced plans for a cross-state highway called the Massachusetts Turnpike with an eastern terminus at Route 128, roughly at the site of Nickerson Field.27 The state took the property by eminent domain in 195528 and built the highway as planned, holding opening ceremonies in May 1957 on the site where Terrier athletes once played.29 Anyone who has driven through the busy interchange of Route 128 (now Interstate 95) and the Turnpike has passed the approximate site of the old athletic fields.

BU had a backup plan in place. Less than a week before plans for the Turnpike were announced, BU bought the vacant Braves Field — located near its campus — for a price estimated at $250,000.30 The university transferred the Nickerson Field name to the Boston Braves’ former home. BU also significantly changed and renovated the old ballpark, though it kept a few recognizable features of Braves Field in place. As of 2021, the “new” Nickerson Field is still in use as a venue for BU sports, and also hosts the annual Commencement ceremonies. Nearby on Commonwealth Avenue is Agganis Arena, home rink for BU’s men’s hockey team, dedicated in 2004 in honor of the “Golden Greek.”31

Sources

In addition to the specific sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for general player, team and season data.

Neither Baseball-Reference nor Retrosheet provides box scores of college games, but the April 20, 1952, edition of the Boston Globe published a box score.

Image of 1961 Topps card #376 downloaded from the Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Commonwealth Avenue, popularly abbreviated to “Comm. Ave.”, is a major street in the city of Boston. It connects the main campuses of BU and BC.

2 “W.E. Nickerson Dead at Age of 76,” Boston Globe, June 6, 1930: 18. William Nickerson was not a BU alumnus; he graduated from another of the Boston area’s renowned universities, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

3 “Yawkey Gives Stands to B.U.,” Boston Globe, December 8, 1939: 29. This story mentions that BU used Fenway Park for football games expected to draw large crowds, while using Nickerson Field for games with smaller expected turnout.

4 Ernie Roberts, “Rugged Alumni Grid Team Plays B.U. Varsity Saturday,” Boston Globe, April 17, 1952: 14.

5 “B.C., Scholz Hand B.U. 3-2 Defeat,” Boston Globe, April 20, 1952: 51.

6 “John Temple,” Boston College Varsity Club Athletic Hall of Fame. Accessed online March 24, 2021. Temple guided the team to the College World Series the following year.

7 Boston College 2012 baseball media guide, accessed online March 24, 2021.

8 Boston College 2012 baseball media guide.

9 Jim Sargent, “Mike Roarke,” SABR Biography Project. Accessed online March 24, 2021.

10 BC’s Morgan and Roarke were also multi-sport athletes. Morgan was an All-American hockey player, while Roarke starred on the football field. But, unlike Agganis and Gastall, they were only called on to play one sport on April 19, 1952.

11 Malcolm Allen, “Tom Gastall,” SABR Biography Project. Accessed online March 24, 2021.

12 Ernie Roberts, “Holy Cross Still Undecided on Accepting N.C.A.A. Bid,” Boston Globe, May 22, 1952: 17 (Sports).

13 “Harry Cleverly Coaching Record,” College Hockey News. Accessed online March 24, 2021. In a distinction totally irrelevant to baseball or hockey, Cleverly was also the son-in-law of George Aiken, the longtime US senator from Vermont and former Vermont governor.

14 “Luoni Will Hurl Opening Tilt for B.U. Nine Today,” Boston Globe, April 12, 1952: 4 (Sports).

15 “B.C., Scholz Hand B.U. 3-2 Defeat.”

16 “B.C., Scholz Hand B.U. 3-2 Defeat.”

17 Jim Delay, “B.U. Bows in 3-2 Thriller,” The Heights, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, April 25, 1952: 9. The Heights is Boston College’s student newspaper.

18 “B.C., Scholz Hand B.U. 3-2 Defeat.” The game story in BC’s student newspaper has Luoni hitting into the force play, rather than pinch-hitter O’Donnell. This story opts for the Boston Globe’s account.

19 “B.C., Scholz Hand B.U. 3-2 Defeat”; Delay, “B.U. Bows in 3-2 Thriller.”

20 Delay.

21 Ernie Roberts, “Scholz, B.C. Pitcher, Has Yet to Receive Pro Offer,” Boston Globe, June 13, 1952: 11. The article noted that Scholz could have left school for the minor leagues two years before, but stayed on for a business degree and an ROTC commission.

22 “B.C. Nine Tops B.U. by 12 to 4,” Boston Globe, May 3, 1952: 4 (Sports).

23 Agganis’s SABR Biography Project article, written by Mark Brown and Mark Armour, includes more information on the athlete’s final illness, as well as questions surrounding his medical care.

24 Allen.

25 Rory Costello’s SABR Biography Project article on “Walpole Joe” Morgan is a delightful read. Accessed online March 24, 2021.

26 Sargent.

27 Jerome Sullivan, “Toll Route Ends at 128, Weston,” Boston Globe, August 4, 1953: 1. The plan all along was to extend the road into downtown Boston, but the original route ended in the suburbs; the connector to Boston was added later.

28 “BU Awarded $391,000 for Nickerson Field Land,” Boston Globe, February 1, 1956: 1.

29 A.S. Plotkin, “Toll Road Open,” Boston Globe, May 15, 1957: 1.

30 “Braves Field Bought by Boston University,” Boston Globe, July 31, 1953: 1.

31 BU’s women’s hockey team, also a national power, played as of 2021 in Walter Brown Arena, a facility named for the former owner of the Boston Celtics basketball team and president of the Boston Bruins hockey team.

On June 17, 1952, in front of 6,914 fans,1 the University of Missouri, coached by John “Hi” Simmons,2 and the College of the Holy Cross, coached by Jack Barry, a five-time World Series champion as a player with the Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox,3 faced off in the winner-take-all game of the College World Series4 at Omaha Municipal Stadium.

Holy Cross, located in Worcester, Massachusetts, was trying to become the first team east of the Mississippi to win the championship in the six-year history of the tournament,5 while Missouri was trying to make it two consecutive championships for the Big Seven Conference following the University of Oklahoma’s win in 1951.6

The double-elimination, eight-team tournament had started on June 12 with Duke University, led by star shortstop Dick Groat, being the number-one seed.7 Missouri began strong, winning three straight in three days, earning a day of rest on the fourth day of the tournament. The winning streak included a 1-0 win over Holy Cross on the second day of the tournament, despite Missouri’s getting only one hit.

Holy Cross, having been relegated to the losers bracket, would be playing its seventh game in six days, including a 7-3 defeat of Missouri the previous night that necessitated this final game. Remarkably, during this stretch Holy Cross used only 11 players and did not make a substitution in any of these games.

The starting pitcher for Holy Cross was 6-foot-5-inch right-hander James “Shuffles” O’Neill. O’Neill had already pitched two complete games in the tournament, including one two days earlier in 102-degree afternoon heat. The starting pitcher for Missouri was Dick Atkinson,8 a right-hander who was the winning pitcher in Missouri’s earlier 1-0 victory over Holy Cross.

Holy Cross started quickly when the first batter of the game, left fielder Johnny Turco,9 singled, stole second, and scored on a single by the cleanup hitter, shortstop Jack Concannon.10 Holy Cross increased the lead to 3-0, scoring two runs in the second with only one hit. Right fielder Dick Hogan walked. First baseman Fran Dyson laid down a sacrifice bunt but was safe on an error by third baseman Gil Lauer. Catcher Pete Naton11 attempted another sacrifice, but this time Hogan was forced at third. O’Neill walked, loading the bases. Turco then singled to center, scoring Dyson, and when center fielder Lowe “Junior” Wren bobbled the ball, Naton scored.

The score remained the same until the bottom of the fifth inning, when Missouri first baseman Bob Schoonmaker hit a 380-foot homer over the left-field bleachers. Catcher Herb Gellman followed with a single. After Atkinson fanned, shortstop Dick Dickinson reached on a fielder’s choice. O’Neill seemed out of the inning when second baseman Kent Kurtz12 grounded to short, but Concannon tried to throw the ball to second before he had it secured and all hands were safe. The error proved costly as left fielder Ralph Monroe hit a single, scoring Dickinson with the second run of the inning, making the score 3-2. 

Missouri struck again in the bottom of the sixth. Right fielder Jack Patchett opened the inning with a single. Lauer popped out to first baseman Dyson while trying to sacrifice. However, just as he had in the previous inning, Schoonmaker belted an O’Neill pitch, this time 400 feet to center field for a triple, scoring the tying run. Hogan chased down a long foul fly by Atkinson for the second out but was in no position to throw home after the catch, allowing Schoonmaker to come home with the go-ahead run.

Entering the top of the seventh, Atkinson had retired 14 of his last 15 batters, including nine in a row. After getting two more outs, he ran into trouble. He walked Turco and gave up a single to second baseman Paul Brissette. When center fielder Art Moossmann singled to right, Turco scored the tying run and, when the throw went to third to unsuccessfully get Brissette, Moossmann took second. Concannon was walked intentionally to load the bases, but the strategy failed when third baseman Frank Matrango grounded the ball through the infield to the left of second base, scoring two runs and putting Holy Cross up 6-4.

Missouri tried to come back in its half of the inning, getting the first two men on base and brining up Wren, who led the team in batting, home runs, and runs batted in.13 Instead of trying to sacrifice the runners over to get the tying run in scoring position, Wren swung away, and he flied out. When Patchett popped to first and Lauer struck out, the inning was over.

After Missouri’s Atkinson was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the eighth, Bert Beckman came in to pitch the top of the ninth. He got the first two outs, but Moossmann reached on an error by shortstop Dickinson. Beckman walked Concannon and Matrango, loading the bases for Hogan. Hogan blasted a single to right, scoring two insurance runs and making the score 8-4. In the bottom of the ninth, Dickinson led off with a single, but Kurtz fanned. Monroe forced Dickinson at second for the second out. When Wren flied out to center, the game and the championship went to Holy Cross.

The win gave Holy Cross a 6-1 record in the tournament with all the games being complete games.14 O’Neill pitched three of those games, all victories, becoming the first man to win three games in the finals. His achievement was reminiscent of the 1910 World Series, when Jack Coombs won three games, leading the Philadelphia Athletics over the Chicago Cubs, particularly since Coombs was the coach who brought the top-seeded Duke team to the 1952 tournament. Coincidentally, Holy Cross coach Barry was the shortstop of the Athletics’ famous “$100,000 infield” and a teammate of Coombs during that World Series.

While O’Neill was named the most valuable player of the tournament, Turco also had an outstanding series, amassing 10 hits in 22 at bats with 11 runs scored in the seven games. As part of the 25th anniversary of the College World Series, a committee selected a College World Series All-Time Team in 1971, and O’Neill and Turco made the second team.15 Of course, special recognition also needs to go to Holy Cross’s other seven position players, who played every inning of every game, and the other two pitchers in the Series, Jack Lonergan (1-1), who lost the 1-0 one-hitter, and Ron Perry16 (2-0), who beat Missouri, 7-3, in the next-to-last game. 

While currently Omaha and the College World Series are seemingly inseparable, this was not always the case. What became known as the (Men’s) College World Series started in 1947 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and was played there again in 1948. In 1949 it was played in Wichita, Kansas, and then moved to Omaha in 1950. One of the significant aspects of the 1952 College World Series is that, largely because of record attendance, it was the first time the series in Omaha was a profitable event.17

Author’s Note

The author would particularly like to thank the staff of Holy Cross’s Archives and Distinctive Collections for their invaluable assistance.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information. The game account was compiled from the June 18, 1952, editions of the Omaha Morning World-Herald, Worcester Telegram and Gazette, Boston Globe, and Columbia (Missouri) Missourian, as well as the Associated Press account.

(Click image to enlarge)

Notes

1 This brought the total attendance for the series to a record 38,371, which was nearly 11,000 over the previous record set the year before. Robert Phipps, “Holy Cross Captures Series Crown, 8 to 4,” Omaha Morning World-Herald, June 18, 1952: 27. By contrast, the 2023 College World Series set an attendance record of 392,946, for a per-game average across the 16 games of 24,559. Brendan Preisman and Evan Bland, “Starting Woes Catch Up to Gators in Championship Series,” Omaha World-Herald, June 27, 2023: B3.

2 Simmons coached baseball at Missouri from 1937 to 1973, compiling a 481-294-3 record and capturing the NCAA Championship in 1954. Vahe Gregorian, “Former Mizzou Baseball Coach Simmons Dies,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 14, 1995: 4C.

3 John J. “Jack” Barry coached at Holy Cross from 1921 to 1960, compiling a record of 616-150-6 (.802) while never having a losing season. Before that, he played for Holy Cross from 1905 to 1908 and then played with the Philadelphia A’s from 1908 to 1915 and the Boston Red Sox from 1915 to 1917 and 1919. (He missed 1918 due to World War I military service.) He also managed the Red Sox in 1917. Barry was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.  Holy Cross Athletics Hall of Fame, “John J. Barry,” accessed September 18, 2023.

4 While the tournament is almost always referred to today as the College World Series, in 1952 it was just as likely to be called the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Baseball Championship. In fact, the Associated Press story about the game used the phrase “so-called college world series.” Associated Press, “Holy Cross Wins NCAA Baseball Title,” Waterloo (Iowa) Daily Courier, June 18, 1952: 18.

5 As of 2023, Holy Cross was still the only New England team to win the College World Series.

6 In 1952 the Big Seven Conference consisted of Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.

7 The eight teams in the tournament were Colorado State College (now known as the University of Northern Colorado), Duke, Holy Cross, Missouri, Oregon State, Penn State, Texas, and Western Michigan. Duke finished 1-2, beating Oregon State, but then losing to Penn State and to Western Michigan in an elimination game.

8 Atkinson was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals right after the series and would have a five-season minor-league career.

9 Turco was named to the Second-Team All-American squad in 1952. “3 Tigers Make All-American,” Columbia (Missouri) Missourian, July 2, 1952: 8. Nonetheless, in the account of the game in the Columbia (Missouri) Missourian, he is referred to as “Don Turko.”

10 After the season Concannon, a Boston native, signed with the Boston Braves and spent three years in their system before finishing up his professional career in the Mexican League in 1955.

11 Naton played with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1953, his only major-league season.

12 Kurtz, a Third-Team All-American selection in 1952, played three seasons in the New York Yankees organization, including a couple of games with Triple-A Kansas City in 1952 when the team suffered injuries to several key players. “Columbia’s Kent Kurtz Joins Kansas City Blues This Week,” Columbia Missourian, August 11, 1952: 6. “3 Tigers Make All-American,” Columbia Missourian, July 2, 1952: 8.

13 Wren received First-Team Baseball All- American Honors in 1952, along with teammate pitcher Don Boenker and Holy Cross’s O’Neill. A two-sport star, Wren signed with the Chicago White Sox in 1952, but he made his mark in professional sports as a defensive back in the National Football League. “Baseball Award Winners,” NCAA.org, accessed September 18, 2023: 5. Missouri Athletics Hall of Fame, “Junior Wren,” accessed September 18, 2023.

14 Their record for the season was 21-3. Missouri finished with a 20-7 record.

15 “General College World Series Records,” NCAA.org, accessed September 18, 2023: 38.

16 Perry was also a member of the Holy Cross basketball team that won the National Invitational Tournament championship in 1954.

17 Floyd Olds, “Nebraska, Kansas Miss Only One Big Seven Title,” Omaha World-Herald, December 28, 1952: 3C. In fact, the event lost money in 10 of the first 12 years it was played in Omaha (1950-1961). “History,” CWSOmaha.com, accessed October 17, 2023, https://cwsomaha.com/sports/2023/3/13/history.aspx.

Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field was a special place for baseball fans of all ages. Baseball’s literature tells the story of the National League’s Brooklyn Superbas, Robins, and Dodgers – over 3,400 games in 45 seasons (1913-1957) and 28 World Series games in nine different postseasons.2

Ask any kid about a very first visit to the storied ballpark at Bedford Avenue and Sullivan Place.3 What might they remember? The sparkling white home uniforms with a favorite number on the back. Pee Wee, Duke, Skoonj, Gil, Oisk, Campy, Jackie, and all the rest. The luscious green grass of the playing field meticulously framed by lines of white chalk. It was a sight one could only imagine watching Dodgers games on a small black-and-white television.

Ebbets Field hosted its last Dodgers game on September 24, 1957.4 Nearly seven months later, in April 1958, with Opening Day only five days away, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants were getting ready to open the season on the other side of the continent at Seals Stadium in San Francisco.5 Still, the playing field in Flatbush was ready for a baseball game.

SABR author Rory Costello recounted how Ebbets Field clung to life after that last Dodgers game until the wrecking ball struck on February 23, 1960.6 The ballpark entertained with soccer, the circus, and even the demolition derby. Soccer matches were very popular, often drawing crowds in excess of 20,000.7

College baseball also became part of the entertainment fare in 1958 and 1959 when St. John’s University and Long Island University hosted a slate of home games. Costello notes that Buck Lai, LIU coach, Dodgers scout, and instructor at Dodgertown Camp for Boys, was instrumental in bringing college baseball to Ebbets Field.8

Brooklyn baseball fans were still mourning the loss of Dem Bums,9 and the sparse crowd for Ebbets Field’s Opening Day 1958, St. John’s (2-3) vs. Rutgers (2-3), reflected that sentiment. A photo of an empty Ebbets Field on the first page of the New York Times sports section provided the evidence.10 Sportswriter Roscoe McGowen suggested that the major-league scouts in attendance, there to watch no particular prospect, outnumbered the fans.

Both teams had notable leaders. St. John’s Jack Kaiser, a Brooklyn native, was well on his way to a legendary 18-year coaching career (1956-1973) with the Redmen11 – two seasons, a combined 37-9 record, and two NCAA tournament appearances. He played for St. John’s in the 1949 College World Series and four seasons in the Boston Red Sox minor-league system (1950-1953).

Rutgers’ George Case, a former major-league outfielder with the Washington Senators and Cleveland Indians and a four-time American League All-Star, was now in his ninth season as the Scarlet coach. He was still seeking to match the success of that very first season – a trip to the 1950 College World Series.12 The Rutgers Targum noted that Case had been complaining about the distant fences on Rutgers’ University Heights home field.13 He was going to like the bandbox dimensions of Ebbets Field.14

The respective coaches picked Charles Schmidt to start for St. John’s and lefty Paul Tootleman (1-0) to take the mound for Rutgers.

The Redmen took the early lead with their first two batters of the game. Tootleman walked Vinnie Merola, who scored on Hugh Kirwan’s triple up the right-center-field alley. It was the only earned run that Tootleman would yield all day.15 Tootleman stranded Kirwan by striking out Ted Schreiber and Frank Ciraulo and inducing Chris Affrunti’s groundout to second.

Rutgers took back the lead at 2-1 in the second inning on singles by Bob Hoffer, Bill Hopwood, and George Carlson and a throwing error by Redman right fielder Dom Moreo. They added another run in the third inning when Jake Quick doubled to left-center and scored on Hoffer’s line single to left, his second hit of the game. Rutgers 3, St. John’s 1.

Rutgers added another run in the fourth inning. Hopwood, who had singled, stood on third with two outs and Tootleman at the plate. When second baseman Schreiber could not handle Tootleman’s groundball, Hopwood scored with what proved to be the deciding run even though the game was far from over.

The score stood at 4-1 until St. John’s batted in the seventh. Tootleman could only blame himself for what was about to happen. He walked one batter and hit another one, sandwiching a pair of strikeouts in between. When Affrunti tapped back to Tootleman, the pitcher threw wildly past first baseman Lee Ammerman and two runs scored, but Affrunti was thrown out at third trying to advance and ending the inning.16 The Redmen still trailed, 4-3.

Relievers Jack Prendergast and Ed Brennan retired the Rutgers side in order over the last three innings, so it was Tootleman’s determination and endurance that sealed the victory for the Scarlet despite yielding five walks, three hit batsmen, and one wild pitch. Tootleman limited St. John’s to three hits in the complete-game performance and struck out 10 batters, pushing his two-game season total to 23 strikeouts.17 He was on his way to the third best single-season ERA (1.56) in Rutgers baseball history.18

Although this was only the seventh time the two teams had played baseball against each other, the Scarlet victory over St. John’s was their first since 1884.19 It was actually the Rutgers football team that had Ebbets Field in its history. Their 14-0 win over Newport Naval Reserves in 1917 marked the first college football game ever played at this storied ballpark.20

St. John’s had the great fortune to be the home team again at Ebbets Field in 1958, beating Manhattan College and Hofstra College, but losing to New York University. In 1959 they split two games with Manhattan.21 St. John’s finished its 1958 season with a 14-10 record, while Rutgers’ season record stood at 8-9.

What was it like to play at Ebbets Field as a college baseball player? Schreiber remembered well. “The field was so smooth! The regular places I played in Brooklyn, the Parade Grounds was good, but get in front of a ball in Marine Park, you deserve combat pay. I was impressed. As soon as you come out of the tunnel, you see the lights and it takes hold. It was very exciting to be on a major-league field.”22

Schreiber was one of the 11 third basemen for the hapless 1963 New York Mets, his only season in the majors. He never hit a home run for the Mets, but he did hit one at Ebbets Field when St. John’s beat Manhattan College, two weeks after the Redmen lost to Rutgers.23 Schreiber recalled, “Most of my career, I never saw the ball hit the bat. But a lefty was pitching, so the angle was good, and the ball was out in front of the plate. My concentration was so keen, I didn’t look up, I was running hard to first base. Then I heard a rattle, and I knew it had to be the ball in the seats.”24 That’s what a home run did at Ebbets Field after the Dodgers left Brooklyn!

What about the winning pitcher, Paul Tootleman? Tootleman finished his Rutgers career in 1959 having earned his letter for three seasons. Tootleman was recruited by the Detroit Tigers but never played professional baseball.25 Instead, his considerable baseball skills led him to a long career as a power-hitting first baseman in a Rockland County (New York) softball league.

In 1983, White Plains (New York) Journal News sportswriter Bill Madden’s column quoted a local softball veteran who tabbed Tootleman as one of the three best softball players to ever play in Rockland County.26 Others agreed with the sentiment. In 1985 Tootleman was inducted into the Rockland County Softball Hall of Fame.27 He earned that honor just as he earned that win from the hallowed mound of an empty Ebbets Field.

Author’s note

This game intrigued the author, a Brooklyn Dodgers fan as a kid in the 1950s, who fondly remembers visiting his grandparents’ home in Jamaica, Queens, a stone’s throw from the new St. John’s campus and the future site of Jack Kaiser Stadium. The author, a Rutgers graduate in the Class of 1966, broadcast baseball and basketball play-by-play on WRSU, the campus radio station, during his undergraduate days.

Acknowledgments

A thank-you to SABR author Rory Costello for inspiration about a time in Brooklyn that fans of a certain age wish had never happened. Another thank-you to Paul Tootleman’s son, Sandy, for his enthusiasm and insights in contributing to the research effort for this Games Project essay. This essay was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

The author accessed the following college baseball references: Rutgers Baseball Fact Book; Baseball Reference; St. John’s Baseball 2023 Record Book. The digitized Rutgers University Libraries’ collection of the Rutgers Targum was used for insights on the 1958 baseball season.

The Ebbets Field lithograph is owned by the author and contains an authenticated piece of brick from the old ballpark as well as the autographs of Carl Erskine, Clem Labine, Johnny Podres, Don Newcombe, and Roger Craig. The photo of Paul Tootleman was provided by the Tootleman family.

Notes

1 Roscoe McGowen, “Ebbets Field Just Isn’t the Same,” New York Times, April 11, 1958: 28.

2 Bob McGee, The Greatest Ballpark Ever (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2005). Gregory H. Wolf, ed., Ebbets Field – Great, Historic, and Memorable Games in Brooklyn’s Lost Ballpark (Phoenix: Society for American Baseball Research, 2023).

3 Steven C. Weiner, “June 3, 1951: Don Newcombe strikes out 12 Cubs in Sunday opener at Ebbets Field,” SABR Baseball Games Project. Steven C. Weiner, “June 3, 1951: Preacher Roe, Gene Hermanski lead Dodgers to sweep of Cubs,” SABR Baseball Games Project.

4 Rory Costello, “Major-League Finale at Ebbets Field,” in Gregory H. Wolf, ed., Ebbets Field – Great, Historic, and Memorable Games in Brooklyn’s Lost Ballpark, 384.

5 Kevin Larkin, “April 15, 1958: Giants, Dodgers meet on the West Coast for the first time,” SABR Baseball Games Project.

6 Rory Costello, “Twilight at Ebbets Field,” The National Pastime (Volume 26, 2006).

7 Costello, “Twilight at Ebbets Field.”

8 Costello, “Twilight at Ebbets Field.” Lai was a career minor-league and semipro third baseman. Under contract with the New York Giants to start the 1928 season, he remained on the roster for a month, but never appeared in a game, earning the designation as a phantom major leaguer. See Paul Dickson, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, 3rd Edition (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009), 632.

9 “Traditional affectionate nickname for the Brooklyn Dodgers established and characterized by a bewhiskered cigar-chomping cartoon tramp drawn by Willard Mullin (New York World-Telegram, August 9, 1939).” Dickson, 250.

10 McGowen.

11 St. John’s changed its nickname to Red Storm in 1994. (“Call St. John’s the Red Storm,” New York Times, June 9, 1994: B18.)

12 Steven C. Weiner, “June 15, 1950: Rutgers’ late rally defeats defending champion Texas in College World Series opener,” SABR Baseball Games Project.

13 Steve Shoenholz, “Scarlet Nine Bows to Tigers; Meets St. John’s Squad Today,” Rutgers Targum (New Brunswick, New Jersey), April 10, 1958: 3.

14 “A ballpark whose small dimensions make it easier to hit home runs, e.g., Baker Bowl in Philadelphia in the early 1930s and Ebbets Field in Brooklyn in the 1950s.” Dickson, 54. Selected dimensions for Ebbets Field in 1957: LF pole, 348’; CF, 393’; RF, 297’ (baseball-almanac.com/stadium/stadiume.shtml).

15 “Rutgers Nine Edges St. John’s, 4-3,” The Daily Home News (New Brunswick, New Jersey), April 11, 1958: 15.

16 “Rutgers Nine Edges St. John’s, 4-3.”

17 Shoenholz. Tootleman struck out 13 in his victory over CCNY nine days earlier. His second win surpassed his 1957 pitching record (1-4).

18 Through the 2023 season, Tootleman’s 1.56 ERA in 1958 ranked eighth in the Rutgers single-season record book. Rob Kenney holds the record with a 0.69 ERA in 1967.

19 Shoenholz.

20 “Rutgers Football at MLB Venues,” Rutgers Football Media Guide Archives. The long history of Rutgers playing football in major-league ballparks began in 1914 when the team lost to Washington & Lee (20-13) at the Polo Grounds.

21 Costello, “Twilight at Ebbets Field.”

22 Rory Costello, “Ted Schreiber,” SABR Baseball Biography Project.

23 “Schreiber’s Two-Run Circuit Drive Enables St. John’s to Beat Manhattan,” New York Times, April 25, 1958: 38.

24 Costello, “Ted Schreiber.”

25 Sandy Tootleman, email to author, August 7, 2023.

26 Bill Madden, “Area Players Have Lists of Their Own,” White Plains Journal News, September 3, 1983: 25.

27 Bill Madden, “Softball Hall of Fame to Induct New Members,” White Plains Journal News, March 27, 1985: 21.