(Columbia Daily Tribune, Sept. 28, 1953)
(1954 MU Baseball players in BOLD)
The University of Missouri football team whipped up the best offense a Tiger team has displayed in years - some old-timers said five, seven or 10 years - to whip Purdue, 14 to 7, before a sun-blistered crowd of 19,000 in Memorial stadium Saturday afternoon.
The victory, a surprise to most Missouri followers and an altogether heartening one even for all of them, set the stage for M.U.'s Big Seven debut against Colorado at Boulder next Saturday and cast a decidedly brighter hue over the Tigers' prospects in the conference campaign.
The Tigers had about everything against the co-champions of the Big Ten, despite the fact that they were outweighed substantially by their Western conference opponents.
They reeled off first downs in amazing succession, first with Vic Eaton in the driver's seat and then with Tony Scardino calling signals. They intercepted passes. They blocked a Purdue kick at the goal line and quickly turned the play into the winning touchdown, and they showed fine blocking and powerhouse running which Purdue couldn't stop.
Bob Bauman, Skimp Merrifield and Bob Schoonmaker reeled off the yardage, with Eaton, starting his first game, calling the signals. Midway of the opening drive Bauman threw a spectacular block to clear the way for a 19-yard sprint by Schoonmaker around the left end that carried the Tigers to the Purdue 29.
The Tigers bogged momentarily, but Eaton's pass to Pete Corpeny was good for the first down on the Purdue 13, and Bauman and Merrifield went on the Boilermakers' six. Then, on fourth down Eaton passed to Corpeny in the end zone for what looked like a touchdown - but Alvin Portney, sophomore tackle, was downfield and the penalty for that was 15 yards and loss of the down.
And that gave Purdue the ball on the Boilermakers' 21.
The Tiger defense was stern and Purdue had to punt without making a first down, an and the Bengals started from their 41.
On the first play, Merrifield caught Schoonmaker's pass just across the midfield and went down to the Purdue 40 for the first down.
The Tigers took to the air...
"It was Simmons’ desire for excellence that made him a valued member of (Don) Faurot’s coaching staffs. {John "Hi")Simmons was known for his detailed scouting reports. They were concise and broke down every possible aspect of MU’s opponents.
"He was a heck of a football scout," (Ken) Kurtz said. "He knew everything about the other team. His reports were very humorous, but they got everyone’s attention and got the point across."
(Columbia Daily Tribune, October 4, 1999)
Tall in those days at 6-foot-3, Simmons lettered in three sports under Don Faurot.
Faurot hired Simmons to the MU football staff in 1935 and put him in charge of scouting.
``He always gave the report on Sunday afternoons,'' said his wife of 56 years, Jan. ``And from what I heard the boys say, he made it colorful.''
(Columbia Daily Tribune, January 14, 1995)
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Norm Stewart on joining the MU Baseball team
My getting into baseball at the college level was a bit of a fluke in the first place. It all really boiled down to a one-dollar bet.
One afternoon I headed toward the athletics department to pick up some basketball gear from the equipment manager.
Just then a brash young guy out of the St. Louis area, Emil Kammer, walked up to me and said, “What the hell are you doing?”
I knew of Kammer because he was an outstanding player out of Normandy High School. He was to become a leading pitcher on the Missouri staff, and a good third baseman as well.
I thought I would pull his leg a little, so I said, “I’m going out for baseball.”
Kammer went crazy. ”Why?”
“I’m a hell of a baseball player.”
“If you make the team, we won’t win a game,” Emil said.
Here’s this small-town kid being confronted by a wise-cracker from St. Louis. I had to come back with some sort of response. I took his remark as a challenge.
“I will bet you a dollar I’ll make the team.”
Emil said, “I’ll take that bet.”
(Norm Stewart, in Stormin' Back; p. 37)
Tiger Cage Drills Begin On Monday
(Columbia Daily Tribune, October 31, 1953)
Coach Wilbur Stalcup will launch preparations Monday for the University of Missouri's 1953-54 basketball campaign with a nucleus of nine lettermen and a likely lot of reserves and tall sophomores that make M.U. prospects at least above average.
The Tigers will have a good deal more height than usual as Jerald Mundell, 6 feet 9 inches, of Brookfield; Norman Stewart, 6-5 of Shelbyville, and Charles Denny, 6-4 of Fayette, all sophomores, join the veteran Bob Reiter, 6-8 of Brentwood, on the varsity squad.
Along with Reiter, the lettermen reporting Monday include Wynne Casteel, Jr., of Fort Lauderdale, Fla; Lloyd Elmore of Farmington, Gary Filbert of St. Joseph, Lee Fowler of Boonville, Ronald Hughes of Carthage, Bill Holst of Sedalia, and Medford Park of Lexington. Bob Schoonmaker of Lebanon, who is a regular starter on Coach Don Faurot's football team, will join the cage squad in late November.
Sophomore candidates listed by Stalcup, in addition to Mundell, Denny and Stewart include Kent Henson of Oran, Dick Jensen of Kansas City Southeast, Harold (Bud) Johnson of Columbia, Duncan Matteson of Kansas City Southwest, Eldon Morgan, Jr., of Kansas City East, Redford Reichert of Calhoun, Tom Saunders of Lebanon and Todd Sickel of Kansas City Central.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Musgrave Returns
(Columbia Missourian, May 5, 1993)
Bob Musgrave said today's players are similar to those on the 1954 championship team.
As he walked into Simmons Field on April 25, Bob Musgrave looked up at the flagpole and said ``There it is, there's our flag.''
He wasn't a veteran paying homage to Old Glory. Rather, he was a member of the 1954 Missouri baseball team looking at the commemorative flag. That team was the only M.U. one to ever win a national championship.
``We had a great team that year, as a team I think we hit .311. I hit .418 and about five other guys hit over .300,'' Musgrave said. ``But more impressively, we had a team ERA of about 2.30.''
That combination helped Missouri to a 22-4 record, 11-1 in the Big Seven Conference. After losing the first conference game, the Tigers rattled off 11 straight.
Winning the national championship did not come as a total shock to Musgrave and his teammates.
"We came in second place in the state in American Legion baseball and won 17 straight football games at Hickman,'' Musgrave said.``So it was almost like you expected to win. I got to Missouri and I expected us to do well and we did.
"We had some great athletes on that team. Jerry Schoonmaker still holds several records, I'm still fifth in on-base percentage for a season (.526), and our captain Dick Dickenson, Buddy Cox and our two pitchers, Emil Kammer and Ed Cook were all great ballplayers.''
Schoonmaker was named All-American in 1954 and is the only member of that team to see any major league service. He played with the Washington Nationals (who became the Senators in 1957) for parts of 1955 and 1957, compiling a .130 batting average in 50 games and 69 at bats.
Musgrave was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles, but never made it to the major leagues.
Although he didn't play in the majors, Musgrave has seen many games in New York where he works in corporate public relations.
Living in New York, Musgrave has found it difficult to keep up with Missouri baseball, usually just getting the score in the paper. But recently, he had a chance to get together with old high school and college teammates, a chance he welcomed.
"I came back last year for my 40th high school reunion,'' Musgrave said. ``My buddy Dick Hazle and I played on the undefeated state champs in 1951. They held a Black and Gold golf tournament, and Dick and I finished something like 6th. But it was a lot of fun, seeing a lot of jocks that I hadn't seen in - my God - 40 years.''
The first game he saw all year proved to be a success, as Jason Meyhoff pitched the Tigers to a 7-6 victory. But while watching, he couldn't help comparing the 1954 team to the current Tigers.
"I know we would throw the ball 90 mph, and not much else has changed in baseball. The players are all the same size we were,'' Musgrave, a right fielder, said. ``I see these guys in the outfield, and I have to think that I could throw that hard, but I still ask myself if I did. I guess at 59 years old, the old arm feels a little different, and you're not all that sure.''
The game may not have changed, and it may not have improved from Missouri's view. No Tiger team has come close to winning a national chammpionship in baseball, a fact that took a while to sink in for Musgrave.
"When you're playing in high school and college, you don't realize what you did,'' he said. ``We had an awful good team, certainly, and now it's been 39 years and suddenly no one has even come close, you say, `whoa, that's an awesome accomplishment,' and obviously history has proven that."
"We were having fun and nobody ever got serious," outfielder Bob Musgrave recalled. "I would occasionally sing Lefty Friesell songs out in right field, and more than once I probably gave 'Hi' an ulcer or two. I was a little bit of a rebel or an iconoclast, but only because I was having fun and life at that time was kind of an experiment where you make the best of it."
(Columbia Missourian, December 31, 1999)
''I'm sure we drove Hi nuts,'' Kammer said. ''Bob, he was always doing something, just goofing off. He was the wild guy of the bunch. He didn't like a bat we had so he went to a dimestore and bought a 98-cent bat. Biggest damn thing you ever saw, but he could hit with anything.''
(Columbia Missourian, March 13, 1994)
MUSGRAVE ANTICS
Outside the batter's box, Musgrave was an original.
"Bob was the real character of the whole ballclub,'' shortstop and team captain Dick Dickinson said.
Missouri basketball coach Norm Stewart, a sophomore pitcher in 1954, said the team had an air of Gashouse Gang about it.
"There's no comparison in talent, but the attitude's the thing,'' Stewart said. ``It was a loose group.''
He recalls Musgrave singing country songs and walking on his hands in the outfield. One time at Colorado, Stewart said, Musgrave did both - hand- walking while singing Hank Snow's ``It Don't Hurt Anymore.'' Then there was the ``imaginary focusing of the eyes.'' He remembers Musgrave swinging and
missing, then leaning out of the box and looking toward the bench while making a turning motion with his hand next to his eye. Then he hit the next pitch way out of the park.
"When you're 19 or however old I was, you just have that sort of carefree insouciance as the French say,'' said Musgrave, now retired from a public relations career in White Plains, N.Y.
``I was pretty serious, but at the same time I enjoyed having a good time,'' Musgrave said. ``You have a little bit of ham in you when you're young.
``I had a pretty good audience.''
Simmons was the one critic whose opinion mattered.
``Occasionally I would see him roll his eyes as if, `Oh, my God, what's he
doing now?' '' Musgrave said. ``I kind of knew how far I could go, because Hi
was a pretty tough cookie.''
Simmons gives them thumbs up for attitude. ``They had a lot of fun, but when the game started they were all business.''
(Columbia Daily Tribune May 14, 1994)
Bob Musgrave said today's players are similar to those on the 1954 championship team.
As he walked into Simmons Field on April 25, Bob Musgrave looked up at the flagpole and said ``There it is, there's our flag.''
He wasn't a veteran paying homage to Old Glory. Rather, he was a member of the 1954 Missouri baseball team looking at the commemorative flag. That team was the only M.U. one to ever win a national championship.
``We had a great team that year, as a team I think we hit .311. I hit .418 and about five other guys hit over .300,'' Musgrave said. ``But more impressively, we had a team ERA of about 2.30.''
That combination helped Missouri to a 22-4 record, 11-1 in the Big Seven Conference. After losing the first conference game, the Tigers rattled off 11 straight.
Winning the national championship did not come as a total shock to Musgrave and his teammates.
"We came in second place in the state in American Legion baseball and won 17 straight football games at Hickman,'' Musgrave said.``So it was almost like you expected to win. I got to Missouri and I expected us to do well and we did.
"We had some great athletes on that team. Jerry Schoonmaker still holds several records, I'm still fifth in on-base percentage for a season (.526), and our captain Dick Dickenson, Buddy Cox and our two pitchers, Emil Kammer and Ed Cook were all great ballplayers.''
Schoonmaker was named All-American in 1954 and is the only member of that team to see any major league service. He played with the Washington Nationals (who became the Senators in 1957) for parts of 1955 and 1957, compiling a .130 batting average in 50 games and 69 at bats.
Musgrave was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles, but never made it to the major leagues.
Although he didn't play in the majors, Musgrave has seen many games in New York where he works in corporate public relations.
Living in New York, Musgrave has found it difficult to keep up with Missouri baseball, usually just getting the score in the paper. But recently, he had a chance to get together with old high school and college teammates, a chance he welcomed.
"I came back last year for my 40th high school reunion,'' Musgrave said. ``My buddy Dick Hazle and I played on the undefeated state champs in 1951. They held a Black and Gold golf tournament, and Dick and I finished something like 6th. But it was a lot of fun, seeing a lot of jocks that I hadn't seen in - my God - 40 years.''
The first game he saw all year proved to be a success, as Jason Meyhoff pitched the Tigers to a 7-6 victory. But while watching, he couldn't help comparing the 1954 team to the current Tigers.
"I know we would throw the ball 90 mph, and not much else has changed in baseball. The players are all the same size we were,'' Musgrave, a right fielder, said. ``I see these guys in the outfield, and I have to think that I could throw that hard, but I still ask myself if I did. I guess at 59 years old, the old arm feels a little different, and you're not all that sure.''
The game may not have changed, and it may not have improved from Missouri's view. No Tiger team has come close to winning a national chammpionship in baseball, a fact that took a while to sink in for Musgrave.
"When you're playing in high school and college, you don't realize what you did,'' he said. ``We had an awful good team, certainly, and now it's been 39 years and suddenly no one has even come close, you say, `whoa, that's an awesome accomplishment,' and obviously history has proven that."
"We were having fun and nobody ever got serious," outfielder Bob Musgrave recalled. "I would occasionally sing Lefty Friesell songs out in right field, and more than once I probably gave 'Hi' an ulcer or two. I was a little bit of a rebel or an iconoclast, but only because I was having fun and life at that time was kind of an experiment where you make the best of it."
(Columbia Missourian, December 31, 1999)
''I'm sure we drove Hi nuts,'' Kammer said. ''Bob, he was always doing something, just goofing off. He was the wild guy of the bunch. He didn't like a bat we had so he went to a dimestore and bought a 98-cent bat. Biggest damn thing you ever saw, but he could hit with anything.''
(Columbia Missourian, March 13, 1994)
MUSGRAVE ANTICS
Outside the batter's box, Musgrave was an original.
"Bob was the real character of the whole ballclub,'' shortstop and team captain Dick Dickinson said.
Missouri basketball coach Norm Stewart, a sophomore pitcher in 1954, said the team had an air of Gashouse Gang about it.
"There's no comparison in talent, but the attitude's the thing,'' Stewart said. ``It was a loose group.''
He recalls Musgrave singing country songs and walking on his hands in the outfield. One time at Colorado, Stewart said, Musgrave did both - hand- walking while singing Hank Snow's ``It Don't Hurt Anymore.'' Then there was the ``imaginary focusing of the eyes.'' He remembers Musgrave swinging and
missing, then leaning out of the box and looking toward the bench while making a turning motion with his hand next to his eye. Then he hit the next pitch way out of the park.
"When you're 19 or however old I was, you just have that sort of carefree insouciance as the French say,'' said Musgrave, now retired from a public relations career in White Plains, N.Y.
``I was pretty serious, but at the same time I enjoyed having a good time,'' Musgrave said. ``You have a little bit of ham in you when you're young.
``I had a pretty good audience.''
Simmons was the one critic whose opinion mattered.
``Occasionally I would see him roll his eyes as if, `Oh, my God, what's he
doing now?' '' Musgrave said. ``I kind of knew how far I could go, because Hi
was a pretty tough cookie.''
Simmons gives them thumbs up for attitude. ``They had a lot of fun, but when the game started they were all business.''
(Columbia Daily Tribune May 14, 1994)
Former M.U. Letterman Dies
Former M.U. Letterman Dies
(Columbia Daily Tribune, December 6, 1996)
Bob Schoonmaker was the last Tiger to play three sports.
Former M.U. athletic legend Bob Schoonmaker, 64, died Thursday morning.
Bob Schoonmaker was one of the three-sport lettermen that we've had at the University of Missouri in the history of our sports," said M.U. basketball coach Norm Stewart.
Schoonmaker was the last three-sport athlete at M.U. He earned eight letters in football (1951-53), baseball (1952-54) and basketball (1953-54).
Schoonmaker, from Lebanon, Mo., was an all-Big Seven infielder when M.U. won the College World Series in 1954. That was the school's first national championship in any sport.
Schoonmaker was the last player to captain the football team for a two-year period before Dick Chapura completed the feat in 1985-86.
"It was different then," said Stewart, who also was a member of the M.U. team which won the College World Series. "You could play two sports if you had the talent and the ability. Very few people have that. He had the ability to play three. He was very unique."
Schoonmaker was inducted into the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame in 1991. Despite his enormous success, Schoonmaker never basked in his own glory.
"In my years, he was the person who had the most integrity in the way he played and the way he conducted his life," Stewart said. "He never was pretentious. Even until the end, I don't think he ever told his family about some of the outstanding things that he did."
"After going 17-3 in the regular season, the team headed to Omaha, Neb., itching for a do-over of 1952. MU, you see, had made it to the NCAA title game against Holy Cross, a game the Tigers expected to win. An 8-4 shellshocking later, the team was headed back to Columbia. Lovable losers.
Two years later, with that scar still visible, MU returned for Part Deux.
"When we went back in 1954, I know (team member) Bob Schoonmaker and I talked and said, 'Boy, it would sure be nice to win this game and say we're No. 1 in the country,'" team captain Dick Dickinson said. "We went in figuring we have as good a chance as anyone."
(Columbia Daily Tribune, December 31, 1999)
Holy Cross Again Beats Tigers for NCAA Championship
Schoonmaker Blasts Homer and Triple
(Columbia Daily Tribune, June 18, 1952)
Eleven rugged men from Holy Cross today ruled as champions of college baseball.
The Crusaders last night defeated Missouri, 8-4, for the NCAA title.
Holy Cross was off to a 3-0 lead at the end of the second inning last night and held it until the fifth when Bob Schoonmaker belted a 375-foot homer for Missouri's first score. The Tigers got a second run the same inning.
In the sixth, Bob Schoonmaker was good for a tremendous smash, this time a 400-foot triple that scored one run. Schoonmaker himself scored shortly afterward.
But the Crusaders, whose eight hits were all singles, got to Missouri starter Dick Atkinson for three more runs in the seventh, and to reliefer (sic) Bert Beckman for two in the ninth.
(Columbia Daily Tribune, December 6, 1996)
Bob Schoonmaker was the last Tiger to play three sports.
Former M.U. athletic legend Bob Schoonmaker, 64, died Thursday morning.
Bob Schoonmaker was one of the three-sport lettermen that we've had at the University of Missouri in the history of our sports," said M.U. basketball coach Norm Stewart.
Schoonmaker was the last three-sport athlete at M.U. He earned eight letters in football (1951-53), baseball (1952-54) and basketball (1953-54).
Schoonmaker, from Lebanon, Mo., was an all-Big Seven infielder when M.U. won the College World Series in 1954. That was the school's first national championship in any sport.
Schoonmaker was the last player to captain the football team for a two-year period before Dick Chapura completed the feat in 1985-86.
"It was different then," said Stewart, who also was a member of the M.U. team which won the College World Series. "You could play two sports if you had the talent and the ability. Very few people have that. He had the ability to play three. He was very unique."
Schoonmaker was inducted into the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame in 1991. Despite his enormous success, Schoonmaker never basked in his own glory.
"In my years, he was the person who had the most integrity in the way he played and the way he conducted his life," Stewart said. "He never was pretentious. Even until the end, I don't think he ever told his family about some of the outstanding things that he did."
"After going 17-3 in the regular season, the team headed to Omaha, Neb., itching for a do-over of 1952. MU, you see, had made it to the NCAA title game against Holy Cross, a game the Tigers expected to win. An 8-4 shellshocking later, the team was headed back to Columbia. Lovable losers.
Two years later, with that scar still visible, MU returned for Part Deux.
"When we went back in 1954, I know (team member) Bob Schoonmaker and I talked and said, 'Boy, it would sure be nice to win this game and say we're No. 1 in the country,'" team captain Dick Dickinson said. "We went in figuring we have as good a chance as anyone."
(Columbia Daily Tribune, December 31, 1999)
Holy Cross Again Beats Tigers for NCAA Championship
Schoonmaker Blasts Homer and Triple
(Columbia Daily Tribune, June 18, 1952)
Eleven rugged men from Holy Cross today ruled as champions of college baseball.
The Crusaders last night defeated Missouri, 8-4, for the NCAA title.
Holy Cross was off to a 3-0 lead at the end of the second inning last night and held it until the fifth when Bob Schoonmaker belted a 375-foot homer for Missouri's first score. The Tigers got a second run the same inning.
In the sixth, Bob Schoonmaker was good for a tremendous smash, this time a 400-foot triple that scored one run. Schoonmaker himself scored shortly afterward.
But the Crusaders, whose eight hits were all singles, got to Missouri starter Dick Atkinson for three more runs in the seventh, and to reliefer (sic) Bert Beckman for two in the ninth.
John "Hi" Simmons, August 16, 1905 - January 12, 1995
(Columbia Daily Tribune, January 14, 1995)
They called him ``Hi'' because of his height. Anybody who came within a foul ball of the Missouri baseball program during John Simmons' days couldn't avoid being touched by his seemingly endless shadow, friends and family recalled last night, a day after Simmons died at his home. He was 89.
Simmons lost his larynx and his voice to surgery in 1979, the result of cancer. That condition and ``maybe old age more than anything else just caught up with him,'' his youngest son, Robert, said.
A moment of silence will be observed before tipoff of Missouri's basketball game against Kansas State tonight, athletic director Joe Castiglione said. In that moment, the university family will mark the passing of the legend who brought MU baseball to prominence.
Simmons framed a 481-294-3 career record with enough honors to fill a small encyclopedia during his 35 seasons. He is best remembered for fashioning a
group of mostly Missouri-born players into the 1954 national championship team, one of only two national titles in MU athletic history. His teams made six appearances in the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., finishing second four times.
``I think he was paying taxes in Nebraska,'' said Norm Stewart, who like many was able to smile when he talked about The Master. Stewart, now coach of the
Tiger men's basketball program, pitched on Simmons' 1954-56 teams.
Stewart said Simmons' lessons often reached beyond the baselines.
``I think people like John `Hi' Simmons influenced people,'' Stewart said. ``People that were around him, he was an excellent teacher.
``The thing he had, a great gift, was his humor. He did in it a distinct manner. It was all the time. He had it going all the time. It wasn't any attempt'' to be funny on purpose; ``it was just him, the way he talked and the
way he saw things.''
A master of the game, who had an eye for untapped talent, Simmons possessed a stubborn streak that demanded near perfection of his players and stressed the timeless march of fundamentals. If your performance didn't agree with Simmons, ``he had his own unique way of letting you know,'' said Gene McArtor, whom Simmons recommended to succeed him after 1973. ``He would let you know right
away.''
Like the time during McArtor's first season as head coach, when Simmons called after MU was roughed up in a doubleheader.
``He said, `Well, I'd like to indicate a little problem to you,' '' McArtor said. ``Boy, I was all ears because I was going to hear something from The Master. And he said, `You haven't got any damn pitching.' ''
That was always Simmons' way.
``He was just a hard hombre,'' Gary Woods, who played in '63 and '64, once told the Tribune. ``He couldn't say two words without a word-and-a-half being a curse word. In a loving way, he'd call you an S.O.B.''
Said Dennis Musgraves, a member of the '64 four-man rotation that still holds the NCAA record for team ERA at 0.65: ``He was stern with his ballplayers, but
I don't think anyone that I played with was afraid of him.''
In a 1991 interview, Simmons told the Tribune: ``I enjoyed my players. I treated them all alike. I always felt that if you wanted to get the best out of the players, you had to let them know that it's fun to play, and it's fun to be alive.''
Though he had not visited the MU field that bears his name in about 10 years and had been in particularly poor health the last few months, ex-players still dropped by the Simmons home in Columbia, phoned and sent cards often, Robert Simmons said. Most members of the '54 team went to his home last May during their 40th reunion weekend.
The '54 team was lionized, but Robert Simmons said his father believed he had more talented teams and relished the runner-up seasons.
Perhaps what he enjoyed most was ``the development of his players,'' Robert Simmons said. ``The University of Missouri baseball team certainly had a great reputation over the years, but frankly it didn't always have a lot of money and school support. The real success I think my dad had was to take a player and develop them to their highest ability.''
Born Aug. 16, 1905, in Lancaster near the Iowa border, Simmons graduated from Kirksville State College, now Northeast Missouri State. Tall in those days at 6-foot-3, Simmons lettered in three sports under Don Faurot.
Faurot hired Simmons to the MU football staff in 1935 and put him in charge of scouting.
``He always gave the report on Sunday afternoons,'' said his wife of 56 years, Jan. ``And from what I heard the boys say, he made it colorful.''
The Simmons baseball era began in 1937.
``Not just part of an era,'' Castiglione said. ``He was an era.''
John "Hi" Simmons
1905-1995
Obituary
John "Hi'' Simmons, 89, of Columbia died Thursday, Jan. 12, 1995, at his home.
Services are 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 15, at First Presbyterian Church with the Rev. H. Wilkes O'Brien officiating. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery.
Visitation will immediately follow services at the church.
Mr. Simmons was born Aug. 16, 1905, in Lancaster to Oliver H. and Etta Leedom Simmons.
On Jan. 22, 1939, he married Francis Janet Vlcek, and she survives.
Mr. Simmons was head baseball coach at the University of Missouri-Columbia from 1937 to 1973, and also worked as an assistant to former MU football coach Don Faurot.
His baseball teams won 11 conference championships and in 1954 won the first NCAA title in school history. He led MU to six appearances in the NCAA College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
He was former president of the American Baseball Coaches Association and in 1977 was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. He also is a member of the ABCA Hall of Fame.
Other survivors include three sons, John Simmons Jr. of Tinley Park, Ill., Don Simmons of Virginia Beach, Va., and Robert Simmons of Chesterfield; a sister, Christine Melvin of Los Bandos, Calif.; and five grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his parents and a sister.
Memorials can be made to the John ``Hi'' Simmons Athletic Scholarship Fund in
care of the MU Athletic Department, PO Box 677, Columbia, Mo., 65205.
Simmons had been coaching at Missouri when the players of '54 were pre-schoolers, and he would stay on the job until they were crowding 40.
``He could rip you up one side and down the other without saying very many words,'' Dickinson said.
There were object lessons as well.
Kammer recounted one intrasquad game. ``I
remember one guy, he just sent him up there without a bat because he wouldn't pay any attention to take a ball.''
Jerry Schoonmaker remembers Simmons as ``very unexplosive, which I appreciate. I don't like the yellers and the screamers, never have.''
(Columbia Daily Tribune, May 14, 1994)
They called him ``Hi'' because of his height. Anybody who came within a foul ball of the Missouri baseball program during John Simmons' days couldn't avoid being touched by his seemingly endless shadow, friends and family recalled last night, a day after Simmons died at his home. He was 89.
Simmons lost his larynx and his voice to surgery in 1979, the result of cancer. That condition and ``maybe old age more than anything else just caught up with him,'' his youngest son, Robert, said.
A moment of silence will be observed before tipoff of Missouri's basketball game against Kansas State tonight, athletic director Joe Castiglione said. In that moment, the university family will mark the passing of the legend who brought MU baseball to prominence.
Simmons framed a 481-294-3 career record with enough honors to fill a small encyclopedia during his 35 seasons. He is best remembered for fashioning a
group of mostly Missouri-born players into the 1954 national championship team, one of only two national titles in MU athletic history. His teams made six appearances in the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., finishing second four times.
``I think he was paying taxes in Nebraska,'' said Norm Stewart, who like many was able to smile when he talked about The Master. Stewart, now coach of the
Tiger men's basketball program, pitched on Simmons' 1954-56 teams.
Stewart said Simmons' lessons often reached beyond the baselines.
``I think people like John `Hi' Simmons influenced people,'' Stewart said. ``People that were around him, he was an excellent teacher.
``The thing he had, a great gift, was his humor. He did in it a distinct manner. It was all the time. He had it going all the time. It wasn't any attempt'' to be funny on purpose; ``it was just him, the way he talked and the
way he saw things.''
A master of the game, who had an eye for untapped talent, Simmons possessed a stubborn streak that demanded near perfection of his players and stressed the timeless march of fundamentals. If your performance didn't agree with Simmons, ``he had his own unique way of letting you know,'' said Gene McArtor, whom Simmons recommended to succeed him after 1973. ``He would let you know right
away.''
Like the time during McArtor's first season as head coach, when Simmons called after MU was roughed up in a doubleheader.
``He said, `Well, I'd like to indicate a little problem to you,' '' McArtor said. ``Boy, I was all ears because I was going to hear something from The Master. And he said, `You haven't got any damn pitching.' ''
That was always Simmons' way.
``He was just a hard hombre,'' Gary Woods, who played in '63 and '64, once told the Tribune. ``He couldn't say two words without a word-and-a-half being a curse word. In a loving way, he'd call you an S.O.B.''
Said Dennis Musgraves, a member of the '64 four-man rotation that still holds the NCAA record for team ERA at 0.65: ``He was stern with his ballplayers, but
I don't think anyone that I played with was afraid of him.''
In a 1991 interview, Simmons told the Tribune: ``I enjoyed my players. I treated them all alike. I always felt that if you wanted to get the best out of the players, you had to let them know that it's fun to play, and it's fun to be alive.''
Though he had not visited the MU field that bears his name in about 10 years and had been in particularly poor health the last few months, ex-players still dropped by the Simmons home in Columbia, phoned and sent cards often, Robert Simmons said. Most members of the '54 team went to his home last May during their 40th reunion weekend.
The '54 team was lionized, but Robert Simmons said his father believed he had more talented teams and relished the runner-up seasons.
Perhaps what he enjoyed most was ``the development of his players,'' Robert Simmons said. ``The University of Missouri baseball team certainly had a great reputation over the years, but frankly it didn't always have a lot of money and school support. The real success I think my dad had was to take a player and develop them to their highest ability.''
Born Aug. 16, 1905, in Lancaster near the Iowa border, Simmons graduated from Kirksville State College, now Northeast Missouri State. Tall in those days at 6-foot-3, Simmons lettered in three sports under Don Faurot.
Faurot hired Simmons to the MU football staff in 1935 and put him in charge of scouting.
``He always gave the report on Sunday afternoons,'' said his wife of 56 years, Jan. ``And from what I heard the boys say, he made it colorful.''
The Simmons baseball era began in 1937.
``Not just part of an era,'' Castiglione said. ``He was an era.''
John "Hi" Simmons
1905-1995
Obituary
John "Hi'' Simmons, 89, of Columbia died Thursday, Jan. 12, 1995, at his home.
Services are 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 15, at First Presbyterian Church with the Rev. H. Wilkes O'Brien officiating. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery.
Visitation will immediately follow services at the church.
Mr. Simmons was born Aug. 16, 1905, in Lancaster to Oliver H. and Etta Leedom Simmons.
On Jan. 22, 1939, he married Francis Janet Vlcek, and she survives.
Mr. Simmons was head baseball coach at the University of Missouri-Columbia from 1937 to 1973, and also worked as an assistant to former MU football coach Don Faurot.
His baseball teams won 11 conference championships and in 1954 won the first NCAA title in school history. He led MU to six appearances in the NCAA College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
He was former president of the American Baseball Coaches Association and in 1977 was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. He also is a member of the ABCA Hall of Fame.
Other survivors include three sons, John Simmons Jr. of Tinley Park, Ill., Don Simmons of Virginia Beach, Va., and Robert Simmons of Chesterfield; a sister, Christine Melvin of Los Bandos, Calif.; and five grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his parents and a sister.
Memorials can be made to the John ``Hi'' Simmons Athletic Scholarship Fund in
care of the MU Athletic Department, PO Box 677, Columbia, Mo., 65205.
Simmons had been coaching at Missouri when the players of '54 were pre-schoolers, and he would stay on the job until they were crowding 40.
``He could rip you up one side and down the other without saying very many words,'' Dickinson said.
There were object lessons as well.
Kammer recounted one intrasquad game. ``I
remember one guy, he just sent him up there without a bat because he wouldn't pay any attention to take a ball.''
Jerry Schoonmaker remembers Simmons as ``very unexplosive, which I appreciate. I don't like the yellers and the screamers, never have.''
(Columbia Daily Tribune, May 14, 1994)
33 Candidates Out for Tiger Baseball Squad
(Columbia Daily Tribune, February 11, 1954)
Thirty-three candidates for the University of Missouri baseball squad heard Coach John Simmons outline training rules and plans for the coming season yesterday at a meeting in Rothwell gymnasium.
The Tigers lost eight lettermen from last year's team, which finished third in the Big Seven conference. Hardest hit were the pitching and catching departments, with Bert Beckman, a right-handed hurler, the only batteryman returning.
Herb Gellman, who divided the catching duties with Moe Mohesky, was lost through graduation and Mohesky is in military service. George Gleason, a numeral winner from last year's freshman squad, is a top candidate for the catching job, along with Lloyd Elmore, now a member of the basketball team.
Gone from the pitching staff are Don Boenker, John Jenkins, and John Willingham, who were Simmons' three starters in 1953.
Besides Beckmann, the eight returning lettermen include infielders Bob Schoonmaker, Dick Dickinson and Buddy Cox, and outfielders Jerry Schoonmaker, Leroy Wynn, Jim Doerr and Vic Swenholt.
Yesterday's turnout included eight pitchers, three catchers, 11 infielders and 11 outfielders. The squad will begin practice Monday evening in Brewer Field house.
``We had a lot of different personalities on the team, but we all seemed to get along well together,'' [George] Gleason said.
Gleason had come to MU from a seminary in Kansas City. He carried 20 credit hours a semester to graduate a year ahead of schedule. ``I can always recall showing up with $28.35 for 18 hours of tuition,'' Gleason said.
(Columbia Daily Tribune, May 15, 1994)
College Baseball Ready for Fight Against "Raids"
HAMILTON, N.Y., Feb. 18 (UP) - College baseball's long fight against raiding by the major leagues has another round coming in July.
Rebuffed again last month when they tried to effect a "no raiding" agreement, the college officials say they're ready for an all out fight if the major leagues turn them down again at the major league meetings in July.
Due to the excitement over players' pensions at the Jan. 30 meeting of the American and National leagues, the major leaguers' actions on the collegians' latest proposal escaped notice.
The National League voted 5-3 against the resolution, which called for professional baseball to refrain from signing or negotiating with college players once they had commenced their sophomore year. The American League tabled it until July.
Thirty-three candidates for the University of Missouri baseball squad heard Coach John Simmons outline training rules and plans for the coming season yesterday at a meeting in Rothwell gymnasium.
The Tigers lost eight lettermen from last year's team, which finished third in the Big Seven conference. Hardest hit were the pitching and catching departments, with Bert Beckman, a right-handed hurler, the only batteryman returning.
Herb Gellman, who divided the catching duties with Moe Mohesky, was lost through graduation and Mohesky is in military service. George Gleason, a numeral winner from last year's freshman squad, is a top candidate for the catching job, along with Lloyd Elmore, now a member of the basketball team.
Gone from the pitching staff are Don Boenker, John Jenkins, and John Willingham, who were Simmons' three starters in 1953.
Besides Beckmann, the eight returning lettermen include infielders Bob Schoonmaker, Dick Dickinson and Buddy Cox, and outfielders Jerry Schoonmaker, Leroy Wynn, Jim Doerr and Vic Swenholt.
Yesterday's turnout included eight pitchers, three catchers, 11 infielders and 11 outfielders. The squad will begin practice Monday evening in Brewer Field house.
``We had a lot of different personalities on the team, but we all seemed to get along well together,'' [George] Gleason said.
Gleason had come to MU from a seminary in Kansas City. He carried 20 credit hours a semester to graduate a year ahead of schedule. ``I can always recall showing up with $28.35 for 18 hours of tuition,'' Gleason said.
(Columbia Daily Tribune, May 15, 1994)
College Baseball Ready for Fight Against "Raids"
HAMILTON, N.Y., Feb. 18 (UP) - College baseball's long fight against raiding by the major leagues has another round coming in July.
Rebuffed again last month when they tried to effect a "no raiding" agreement, the college officials say they're ready for an all out fight if the major leagues turn them down again at the major league meetings in July.
Due to the excitement over players' pensions at the Jan. 30 meeting of the American and National leagues, the major leaguers' actions on the collegians' latest proposal escaped notice.
The National League voted 5-3 against the resolution, which called for professional baseball to refrain from signing or negotiating with college players once they had commenced their sophomore year. The American League tabled it until July.
1954 Missouri Tiger Baseball team inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame
(Missouri Sports Hall of Fame)
Under the tutelage of legendary baseball coach John “Hi” Simmons, the 1954 University of Missouri baseball team won the NCAA National Championship and will celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2004. Missouri Sports Hall of Famer Norm Stewart, perhaps most notably known for his contributions as a basketball player and coach for the Tigers, was an outstanding pitcher for Simmons’ team.
The team was inducted into the Hall of Fame in ceremonies on Sunday, February 8th at the University Plaza Convention Center. The Killian Group of Companies is the presenting sponsor of the annual event, which will featured special emphasis being placed on the Hall of Fame’s 10th Anniversary.
Belleville East High School selects members for its Hall of Fame
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 30, 2003)
When it comes time for Belleville East High School to select charter members for its Hall of Fame, here's a vote for retired athletic director Lloyd Elmore of Belleville.
A teacher, coach and/or athletic director at East from the time the school opened in the fall of 1966 until he retired in 1993, Elmore, 70, already is a veteran of Hall of Fame honor and on Feb. 8 will add induction into the Missouri State Hall.
Previously inducted into the University of Missouri Hall of Fame for having been a member of the Tigers' 1954 NCAA national championship baseball team, Elmore will join surviving members of that team in Springfield, Mo., and 13 other individuals who have distinguished themselves in sports.
"We had a team that really pulled together," said Elmore, a reserve catcher during his junior year when Missouri advanced with a Big Eight [actually Big Seven] Conference title and a 17-3 record into the finals in Omaha, Neb.
Whether togetherness resulted from riding to the tournament in a refurbished 1927 rental bus or from having to rally from the losers' bracket, Missouri's baseball team pulled together so well it remains the only team in the university's Hall of Fame.
"We had a crafty lefthander from East Alton named Ed Cook, who won the title game (4-1 over Rollins, Fla.)," said Elmore.
Prior to the title game, Elmore confirmed that Coach John "Hi" Simmons had told the team "if you get second place, you'll get no meal money, and you'll walk home before you get on that bus."
"He threw a heavy ball," Elmore said of [Norm] Stewart. "It was like catching a shot put."
Ironically, had Elmore been healthy for his senior baseball season, he would have gained a starting role after catcher George Gleason, who had started for the '54 championship team, had five teeth knocked out in a game.
"He jumped out on a bunt play, but the batter swung and hit George in the jaw," Elmore said of the freak play.
"If I hadn't been injured, I would have replaced him," said Elmore.
A .260 hitter when he did play at Missouri, Elmore considered himself a good receiver with a good throwing arm but added, "if I could have seen better, I could have hit the fastball."
Sikeston man and his Mizzou teammates score a spot in Missouri Sports Hall of Fame
(Standard Democrat, February 8, 2004)
SIKESTON — Today Buddy Cox will reunite with some of his former teammates from his baseball days in college as they are inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in Springfield.
“I was shocked,” said Cox about finding out the team was going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. “It’s quite an honor. I’ll never forget it (winning the championship).”
“At that time it was the Big Seven. There wasn’t a Big Eight, and now it’s the Big 12,” explained Cox, who played second base. “We were not even supposed to win. Michigan State was supposed to win, but we beat them in the semifinals.”
Cox said: “Coach called us up to the room and said, ‘Now, I wanna tell you boys something: I didn’t come up here to win second. If you don’t win today, there will be no meal money tonight.’
"Well that made me so mad I couldn’t see straight,” Cox said. “So we went out there and won. I honestly believe we wouldn’t have done as well if we went out there and hadn’t played under pressure. We didn’t make any errors. We just played our game.”
Missouri won 4-1 with Cox hitting a home run and hitting .412 in the series. Cox was also selected as MVP by the Associated Press and the Omaha World-Herald.
“I led the World Series in hitting which was quite an honor. It’s one of most memorable things that has happened to me,” Cox said.
“It’s always good to see them,” Cox said about his teammates. “We’ve got one coming from New York, one from Chicago and the rest are in the state of Missouri. It will be a lot of fun.” Fifty years have almost passed, and Cox’s old glove, now a little stiff, and the bat he played with remain on a book case full of awards, photos and plaques in his home.
Under the tutelage of legendary baseball coach John “Hi” Simmons, the 1954 University of Missouri baseball team won the NCAA National Championship and will celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2004. Missouri Sports Hall of Famer Norm Stewart, perhaps most notably known for his contributions as a basketball player and coach for the Tigers, was an outstanding pitcher for Simmons’ team.
The team was inducted into the Hall of Fame in ceremonies on Sunday, February 8th at the University Plaza Convention Center. The Killian Group of Companies is the presenting sponsor of the annual event, which will featured special emphasis being placed on the Hall of Fame’s 10th Anniversary.
Belleville East High School selects members for its Hall of Fame
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 30, 2003)
When it comes time for Belleville East High School to select charter members for its Hall of Fame, here's a vote for retired athletic director Lloyd Elmore of Belleville.
A teacher, coach and/or athletic director at East from the time the school opened in the fall of 1966 until he retired in 1993, Elmore, 70, already is a veteran of Hall of Fame honor and on Feb. 8 will add induction into the Missouri State Hall.
Previously inducted into the University of Missouri Hall of Fame for having been a member of the Tigers' 1954 NCAA national championship baseball team, Elmore will join surviving members of that team in Springfield, Mo., and 13 other individuals who have distinguished themselves in sports.
"We had a team that really pulled together," said Elmore, a reserve catcher during his junior year when Missouri advanced with a Big Eight [actually Big Seven] Conference title and a 17-3 record into the finals in Omaha, Neb.
Whether togetherness resulted from riding to the tournament in a refurbished 1927 rental bus or from having to rally from the losers' bracket, Missouri's baseball team pulled together so well it remains the only team in the university's Hall of Fame.
"We had a crafty lefthander from East Alton named Ed Cook, who won the title game (4-1 over Rollins, Fla.)," said Elmore.
Prior to the title game, Elmore confirmed that Coach John "Hi" Simmons had told the team "if you get second place, you'll get no meal money, and you'll walk home before you get on that bus."
"He threw a heavy ball," Elmore said of [Norm] Stewart. "It was like catching a shot put."
Ironically, had Elmore been healthy for his senior baseball season, he would have gained a starting role after catcher George Gleason, who had started for the '54 championship team, had five teeth knocked out in a game.
"He jumped out on a bunt play, but the batter swung and hit George in the jaw," Elmore said of the freak play.
"If I hadn't been injured, I would have replaced him," said Elmore.
A .260 hitter when he did play at Missouri, Elmore considered himself a good receiver with a good throwing arm but added, "if I could have seen better, I could have hit the fastball."
Sikeston man and his Mizzou teammates score a spot in Missouri Sports Hall of Fame
(Standard Democrat, February 8, 2004)
SIKESTON — Today Buddy Cox will reunite with some of his former teammates from his baseball days in college as they are inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in Springfield.
“I was shocked,” said Cox about finding out the team was going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. “It’s quite an honor. I’ll never forget it (winning the championship).”
“At that time it was the Big Seven. There wasn’t a Big Eight, and now it’s the Big 12,” explained Cox, who played second base. “We were not even supposed to win. Michigan State was supposed to win, but we beat them in the semifinals.”
Cox said: “Coach called us up to the room and said, ‘Now, I wanna tell you boys something: I didn’t come up here to win second. If you don’t win today, there will be no meal money tonight.’
"Well that made me so mad I couldn’t see straight,” Cox said. “So we went out there and won. I honestly believe we wouldn’t have done as well if we went out there and hadn’t played under pressure. We didn’t make any errors. We just played our game.”
Missouri won 4-1 with Cox hitting a home run and hitting .412 in the series. Cox was also selected as MVP by the Associated Press and the Omaha World-Herald.
“I led the World Series in hitting which was quite an honor. It’s one of most memorable things that has happened to me,” Cox said.
“It’s always good to see them,” Cox said about his teammates. “We’ve got one coming from New York, one from Chicago and the rest are in the state of Missouri. It will be a lot of fun.” Fifty years have almost passed, and Cox’s old glove, now a little stiff, and the bat he played with remain on a book case full of awards, photos and plaques in his home.
5 M.U. Cage Players Report for Baseball
(Columbia Daily Tribune, March 11, 1954)
With the basketball season over, five University of Missouri cagers joined Coach John Simmons' baseball squad yesterday afternoon, and a sixth is expected to report next week.
The five new additions yesterday included outfielders Gene Sally and Kent Henson, infielders Dick Jensen and Herb Morgan, and catcher Lloyd Elmore. The first four won freshmen numerals last season, while Elmore was a member of the the varsity squad.
Bob Schoonmaker, a two-year letterman first baseman, also was a member of the basketball squad and plans to join the baseballers next week.
Simmons had his men outdoors for the second straight day yesterday and managed to get in a four-inning practice game before the weather interfered.
Braves Bank on Negro Rookie To Fill Bobby Thompson's Shoes
(Columbia Daily Tribune, March 1954)
Bobby Thomson's injury has catapulted into the spotlight with the Milwaukee Braves a 20-year-old Negro youth who never has played higher than Class A ball. He is Henry Aaron who, until last Saturday when Thomson fractured his right ankle, was ticketed for Toledo of the American association.
The only reason he was in the Milwaukee camp was so the Braves could get a good look at the lad who led the Sally league with a .362 batting average last year.
1954 schedule
(Home Games Bold)
4/3 Fort Leonard Wood
4/6 Fort Leonard Wood
4/9 Arkansas
4/10 Arkansas
4/16 Oklahoma A&M
4/17 Oklahoma A&M
4/19 Tulsa
4/20 Tulsa
4/26 Iowa State
4/27 Iowa State
4/30 Kansas
5/1 Kansas
5/7 Kansas State
5/8 Kansas State
5/10 Colorado
5/11 Colorado
5/14 Oklahoma
5/15 Oklahoma
5/17 Nebraska
5/18 Nebraska
5/21 Iowa State
5/22 Iowa State
With the basketball season over, five University of Missouri cagers joined Coach John Simmons' baseball squad yesterday afternoon, and a sixth is expected to report next week.
The five new additions yesterday included outfielders Gene Sally and Kent Henson, infielders Dick Jensen and Herb Morgan, and catcher Lloyd Elmore. The first four won freshmen numerals last season, while Elmore was a member of the the varsity squad.
Bob Schoonmaker, a two-year letterman first baseman, also was a member of the basketball squad and plans to join the baseballers next week.
Simmons had his men outdoors for the second straight day yesterday and managed to get in a four-inning practice game before the weather interfered.
Braves Bank on Negro Rookie To Fill Bobby Thompson's Shoes
(Columbia Daily Tribune, March 1954)
Bobby Thomson's injury has catapulted into the spotlight with the Milwaukee Braves a 20-year-old Negro youth who never has played higher than Class A ball. He is Henry Aaron who, until last Saturday when Thomson fractured his right ankle, was ticketed for Toledo of the American association.
The only reason he was in the Milwaukee camp was so the Braves could get a good look at the lad who led the Sally league with a .362 batting average last year.
1954 schedule
(Home Games Bold)
4/3 Fort Leonard Wood
4/6 Fort Leonard Wood
4/9 Arkansas
4/10 Arkansas
4/16 Oklahoma A&M
4/17 Oklahoma A&M
4/19 Tulsa
4/20 Tulsa
4/26 Iowa State
4/27 Iowa State
4/30 Kansas
5/1 Kansas
5/7 Kansas State
5/8 Kansas State
5/10 Colorado
5/11 Colorado
5/14 Oklahoma
5/15 Oklahoma
5/17 Nebraska
5/18 Nebraska
5/21 Iowa State
5/22 Iowa State
Tiger Third Baseman in Hospital With Virus
(Columbia Daily Tribune, March 20, 1954)
Todd Sickel, leading third base candidate on the University of Missouri baseball team, entered the university infirmary with a virus ailment yesterday and Coach John Simmons shifted outfielder Jim Doerr to the hot corner as insurance in case Sickel should be out of action for any length of time.
Sickel's ailment was not believed to be serious, however, and he is expected to leave the hospital within a few days. Sickel became the squad's only third baseman when Ray Uriarte, who held down the position last season, withdrew from school last week.
Meanwhile Norman Stewart, another member of the basketball team, reported to Coach Simmons and began working out as a pitcher. Simmons was impressed by Stewart's control and has hopes that the slender right-hander may help fill the gaps left by the loss of three of last year's moundsmen.
I'm sure John "Hi" must have said some very quotable things about the weather, but I went there to be a baseball coach, not a journalist. In three short seasons I had moved from the over-32 degrees rule, to the "You'll Work Outside When I Tell You to Rule" to John Hi's over-40 degrees rule.
I never new 40 degrees could feel so warm.
On cold game days the facilities staff actually brought kerosene heaters into the dugout. Unlike football, where gathering around the sideline heaters immediately categorized you as a wimp, baseball players showed no shame in pushing and shoving to get to the closest space.
At Missouri we also had a secret weapon--wool uniforms. For those of you who have not had the pleasure (or the itch) of wearing wool, let me tell you this. It's hard to play baseball when you're using both hands to scratch yourself.
We also wore long underwear underneath the uniforms. But I think that served more to protect us from the wool than the cold.
(from Diary of An Aging Baseball Player, by Max Utsler)
Texas Wins Baseball Opener From Sooners
(Columbia Daily Tribune, March 20, 1954)
AUSTIN, Tex., March 20 (INS) - A badly-needed homer in the bottom of the seventh inning by Steeler McKinney brought the Tecas Longhorn nine from behind to a 9-8 victory over the Oklahoma Sooners at Austin yesterday.
The Longhorns' ace pitcher, Boyd Linker, won the game despite giving away 13 hits while his teammates were committing five errors.
Losing pitcher was Oklahoma's Larry Foley, who gave up 10 hits as worked through the entire session.
Looking at Sports, by JP Hamel
(Columbia Daily Tribune, March 17, 1954)
"They were much sharper than we were all the way."
"They were sharp as a razor's edge, freshly honed, and we were as dull as a worn out old sword with a nicked blade - neither ready nor aggressive."
"It was the greatest game Missouri has played us in 20 years."
"Bob Reiter and Norm Stewart were tremendous in every department - not just in scoring. Their rebounding murdered us.
The words are those of Dr. Forrest C. Allen, veteran coach of the University of Kansas basketball team, delivered in an interview with a Lawrence Journal-World correspondent after his title-defending Jayhawkers became title-tieing Jayhawkers as they lost to Missouri in the grand finale of the Big Seven conference basketball season last Tuesday.
Final statistics on the M.U. team for the season show that Bob Reiter collected 165 field goals and 81 freethrows for 411 points which produced a new individual scoring record for a Missouri player. Reiter averaged 19.6 points a game, hit 165 of his 430 field goal attempts for an average of 38.4 per cent, and made good 81 of his 116 freethrow attempts. Norm Stewart, who scored 256 points, or an average of 12.2 per game, to take second place, had a field goal average of 35.7 per cent.
Lloyd Elmore had the best free throwing record among the regulars, hitting 39 of his 53 shots for 73.5 per cent.
Todd Sickel, leading third base candidate on the University of Missouri baseball team, entered the university infirmary with a virus ailment yesterday and Coach John Simmons shifted outfielder Jim Doerr to the hot corner as insurance in case Sickel should be out of action for any length of time.
Sickel's ailment was not believed to be serious, however, and he is expected to leave the hospital within a few days. Sickel became the squad's only third baseman when Ray Uriarte, who held down the position last season, withdrew from school last week.
Meanwhile Norman Stewart, another member of the basketball team, reported to Coach Simmons and began working out as a pitcher. Simmons was impressed by Stewart's control and has hopes that the slender right-hander may help fill the gaps left by the loss of three of last year's moundsmen.
I'm sure John "Hi" must have said some very quotable things about the weather, but I went there to be a baseball coach, not a journalist. In three short seasons I had moved from the over-32 degrees rule, to the "You'll Work Outside When I Tell You to Rule" to John Hi's over-40 degrees rule.
I never new 40 degrees could feel so warm.
On cold game days the facilities staff actually brought kerosene heaters into the dugout. Unlike football, where gathering around the sideline heaters immediately categorized you as a wimp, baseball players showed no shame in pushing and shoving to get to the closest space.
At Missouri we also had a secret weapon--wool uniforms. For those of you who have not had the pleasure (or the itch) of wearing wool, let me tell you this. It's hard to play baseball when you're using both hands to scratch yourself.
We also wore long underwear underneath the uniforms. But I think that served more to protect us from the wool than the cold.
(from Diary of An Aging Baseball Player, by Max Utsler)
Texas Wins Baseball Opener From Sooners
(Columbia Daily Tribune, March 20, 1954)
AUSTIN, Tex., March 20 (INS) - A badly-needed homer in the bottom of the seventh inning by Steeler McKinney brought the Tecas Longhorn nine from behind to a 9-8 victory over the Oklahoma Sooners at Austin yesterday.
The Longhorns' ace pitcher, Boyd Linker, won the game despite giving away 13 hits while his teammates were committing five errors.
Losing pitcher was Oklahoma's Larry Foley, who gave up 10 hits as worked through the entire session.
Looking at Sports, by JP Hamel
(Columbia Daily Tribune, March 17, 1954)
"They were much sharper than we were all the way."
"They were sharp as a razor's edge, freshly honed, and we were as dull as a worn out old sword with a nicked blade - neither ready nor aggressive."
"It was the greatest game Missouri has played us in 20 years."
"Bob Reiter and Norm Stewart were tremendous in every department - not just in scoring. Their rebounding murdered us.
The words are those of Dr. Forrest C. Allen, veteran coach of the University of Kansas basketball team, delivered in an interview with a Lawrence Journal-World correspondent after his title-defending Jayhawkers became title-tieing Jayhawkers as they lost to Missouri in the grand finale of the Big Seven conference basketball season last Tuesday.
Final statistics on the M.U. team for the season show that Bob Reiter collected 165 field goals and 81 freethrows for 411 points which produced a new individual scoring record for a Missouri player. Reiter averaged 19.6 points a game, hit 165 of his 430 field goal attempts for an average of 38.4 per cent, and made good 81 of his 116 freethrow attempts. Norm Stewart, who scored 256 points, or an average of 12.2 per game, to take second place, had a field goal average of 35.7 per cent.
Lloyd Elmore had the best free throwing record among the regulars, hitting 39 of his 53 shots for 73.5 per cent.
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