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Watson Spoelstra
Watson N. "Waddy" Spoelstra (April 5, 1910 – July 20, 1999) was an American sportswriter for ''The Detroit News'' from 1945 to 1973. He served as the president of the Baseball Writers' Association of America in 1968. After retiring from ''The Detroit News'', he founded Baseball Chapel, a Christian ministry for professional baseball players, which he led from 1973 to 1982. Spoelstra was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1910. He attended Hope College where he played baseball and basketball. He became Hope College's all-time leading scorer in basketball. He graduated from Hope College in 1932. After graduating from college, Spoelstra was hired as a sportswriter by the Associated Press, assigned to Detroit. In approximately 1945, Spoelstra was hired by ''The Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Michigan, second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the central city of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area, which has a population of 1,087,592 and a combined statistical area population of 1,383,918. Situated along the Grand River (Michigan), Grand River approximately east of Lake Michigan, it is the economic and cultural hub of West Michigan, as well as one of the fastest-growing cities in the Midwestern United States, Midwest. A historic furniture manufacturing center, Grand Rapids is home to five of the world's leading office furniture companies and is nicknamed "Furniture City". Other nicknames include "River City" and more recently, "Beer City" (the latter given by ''USA Today'' and adopted by the city a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gus Dorais
Charles Emile "Gus" Dorais (July 2, 1891 – January 3, 1954) was an American football player, coach, and athletic administrator. Dorais played college football at the University of Notre Dame, where he was an All-American in 1913 at quarterback, and then played professionally with the Fort Wayne Friars and Massillon Tigers. He was the head coach at Dubuque College (1914–1917) in Dubuque, Iowa, Gonzaga University (1920–1924) in Spokane, Washington, and the University of Detroit (1925–1942), compiling a career college football coaching record of 150–70–12 (). He was also the head coach of the National Football League's Detroit Lions from 1943 to 1947, tallying a mark of . In addition, Dorais was the head basketball coach at Notre Dame, Gonzaga, and Detroit and the head baseball coach at Notre Dame and Gonzaga. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1954. Early years Dorais was born in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, in 1891. He was the so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dizzy Trout
Paul Howard "Dizzy" Trout (June 29, 1915 – February 28, 1972) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher from to , most notably as a member of the Detroit Tigers team that finished either in first or second place in the American League pennant races between 1944 and 1947 and won the 1945 World Series. The two-time All-Star player was the American League wins leader in 1943 and, was the league ERA leader in 1944. In , Trout made a brief comeback attempt at the age of 42 with the Baltimore Orioles. He also played for the Boston Red Sox. 1939–1942 Trout was born in Sandcut, Indiana. He first played professionally in 1935 with the Terre Haute Tots in the Three-I League before signing with the Tigers in 1939. In his first four seasons (1939–1942), Dizzy Trout never had a winning record and totaled 33 wins and 44 losses. Even in 1940, as the Tigers won the American League pennant, Trout finished 3-7. 1943–194 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hal Newhouser
Harold Newhouser (May 20, 1921 – November 10, 1998), nicknamed "Prince Hal," was an American professional baseball player. In Major League Baseball (MLB), he pitched 17 seasons on the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians, from 1939 through 1955. Newhouser was an All-Star for six seasons and was considered to be the most dominating pitcher of the World War II era of baseball, winning the pitching triple crown for the Tigers in 1945. To date, he is also the only pitcher in MLB history ever to win two consecutive MVP awards. Newhouser was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992. After his retirement from baseball, Newhouser stepped away from the sport for 20 years, serving as a bank vice president. He later worked as a scout for several MLB teams, including the Houston Astros. Angered when they rebuffed his recommendation to draft future Hall of Famer Derek Jeter in favor of Phil Nevin, he quit shortly after. Early life Newhouser was a schoolboy star at W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Westfall
Robert Barton "Bullet Bob" Westfall (May 5, 1919 – October 23, 1980) was an American football fullback who played for the University of Michigan (1939–1941) and the Detroit Lions (1944–1947). He was a consensus first-team All-American in 1941 and a first-team All-Pro player in 1945. In 1987, Westfall was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame. Biography Westfall was born in 1919 in Hamtramck, Michigan. His father abandoned the family when Westfall was two years old which necessitated he and his older sister living in foster homes until his mother was able to move them to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1924. There, Westfall's mother worked 14-hour days in a laundry six days per week and the children worked, too, to make ends meet. At age 10 Westfall started as a caddy and worked other jobs while his sister sewed as they struggled to survive during the Great Depression. They lived in a tiny second-floor apartment on Greene Street "in the shadow of the Michigan Stadium"-a l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jesse Owens
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games. Owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifetime as "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history". He set three world records and tied another, all in less than an hour, at the 1935 Big Ten track meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan—a feat that has never been equaled and has been called "the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport". He achieved international fame at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, by winning four gold medals: 100 meters, long jump, 200 meters, and 4 × 100-meter relay. He was the most successful athlete at the Games and, as a black American man, was credited with "single-handedly crushing Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy". The Jesse Owens Award is USA Track and Field's highest accolade for the year's best track and field athlete. Owens w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syd Howe
Sydney Harris Howe (September 18, 1911 – May 20, 1976) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Howe played 17 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Ottawa Senators, Philadelphia Quakers, Toronto Maple Leafs, St. Louis Eagles and Detroit Red Wings. Playing career Howe played in the NHL from 1929–30 to 1945–46 primarily with the Detroit Red Wings where he would enjoy his greatest personal and team successes. One of the leading scorers of his era, Syd Howe was a part of three Stanley Cup championships with the Red Wings. Syd Howe often skated on Patterson's Creek and the Rideau Canal with his brother Lawrence 'Pete' Howe while growing up in his hometown of Ottawa, Ontario. He played hockey with the Glebe Collegiate high school team and the Lansdowne Park Juveniles in 1926 before joining the Ottawa Gunners junior team in the newly formed Ottawa City Hockey League. He and his Gunners teammates became the first Ottawa club to reach the Memorial Cup final ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Bennett
Harry Herbert Bennett (January 17, 1892 – January 4, 1979), was a boxer, Naval sailor, and businessman. From the 1920s through 1945, he worked for Ford Motor Company and was best known as the head of Ford’s "service department", the company's internal security agency. While working for Henry Ford, Bennett's union-busting tactics made him an enemy of the United Auto Workers (UAW) trade union. He gained infamy for his involvement in activities such as in the Battle of the Overpass, a 1937 incident where UAW members protesting for higher wages were assaulted by Ford security guards. He had various residences in Michigan, including the Great Lakes Landmark and Ford Motor Company; built Pagodahouse, the Asian-themed boathouse on Grosse Ile, MI; Bennett's Lodge near Farwell, a log cabin-style house in East Tawas; and Bennett's Castle, an estate located on the Huron River in Ypsilanti, where he kept pet lions and tigers. After being fired by Henry Ford II in 1945, Bennett left ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stubby Overmire
Frank W. Overmire (May 16, 1919 – March 3, 1977) was a Major League Baseball pitcher who played ten seasons for the Detroit Tigers (1943–1949), St. Louis Browns (1950–1952), and New York Yankees (1951). In ten seasons, Overmire won 58 games and lost 67 with a 3.96 earned run average. Because of his stature, and , the left-hander was nicknamed "Stubby." Born in Moline, Michigan, Overmire attended Western State Teachers College, now known as Western Michigan University, where he played for the then Hilltoppers from 1938 to 1941 Overmire signed with the Detroit Tigers after in 1941 as an undrafted free agent. He debuted for the Tigers in April 1943 and won 7 games with 8 complete games and 3 shutouts in his rookie season. In his second season, Overmire pitched 11 complete games, 3 shoutouts, and had his career-low ERA at 3.07. In 1945, Overmire started 22 games, and won 9, for the American League pennant winning Tigers. He was the Tigers' starting pitcher in Game 3 of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1943 Detroit Tigers Season
The 1943 Detroit Tigers season was a season in American baseball. The team finished fifth in the American League with a record of 78–76, 20 games behind the New York Yankees. Offseason * November 2, 1942: Johnny Welaj was drafted from the Tigers by the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1942 rule 5 draft. at ''Baseball Reference'' Regular season Season standings Record vs. opponents Roster Player stats Batting Starters by position ''Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in''Other batters ''Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting ave ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve O'Neill
Stephen Francis O'Neill (July 6, 1891 – January 26, 1962) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher, most notably with the Cleveland Indians. As a manager, he led the Detroit Tigers to the World Series championship, Early life O'Neill was born in Minooka, Pennsylvania (now a part of Scranton), to Irish immigrants from Maum, County Galway, Michael "Squire" O'Neill and Mary ( Joyce) O'Neill. He was one of four brothers who escaped a life in the coal mines by playing in the major leagues.Kashatus (2002), pg. 14. Other notable members of the O'Neill family were Jack, a catcher in the National League (1902–1906); Mike, a right-handed pitcher in the NL (1901–1904, 1907); and Jim, an infielder with the American League Washington Senators (1920, 1923). Baseball historian William C. Kashatus noted that Michael and Jack "would become the first brother battery in major league history". The O'Neill brothers "were kno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
