Frederic William Sington (February 24, 1910 – August 20, 1998) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

player. Sington was also an accomplished saxophonist. Sington was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and was Jewish. He attended Phillips High School.

College football

Sington was a prominent two-time All America tackle for

Wallace Wade William Wallace Wade (June 15, 1892 – October 7, 1986) was an American football player and coach of football, basketball, and baseball, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at the University of Alabama fro ...

Alabama Crimson Tide football The Alabama Crimson Tide football program represents the University of Alabama (variously Alabama, UA, or Bama) in the sport of American football. The team competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Asso ...

teams. While in college he was a member of the

Zeta Beta Tau Zeta Beta Tau () is a Greek-letter social fraternity based in North America. It was founded on December 29, 1898. Originally a Zionist youth society, its purpose changed from Zionism in the fraternity's early years when in 1954 the fraternity beco ...

fraternity, Psi chapter at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...

. He was elected to the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

in 1955. Sington was chosen for an Associated Press Southeast Area All-Time football team 1920–1969 era.

1930

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be ...

, a year in which Alabama won the

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

and Sington was an All-American,

Rudy Vallée Hubert Prior Vallée (July 28, 1901 – July 3, 1986), known professionally as Rudy Vallée, was an American singer, musician, actor, and radio host. He was one of the first modern pop stars of the teen idol type. Early life Hubert Prior Vall ...

wrote a song about Sington, entitled "Football Freddie", that would go on to become a nationwide hit.

Baseball

In 1932 he led the

Middle Atlantic League The Middle Atlantic League (or Mid-Atlantic League) was a lower-level circuit in American minor league baseball that played during the second quarter of the 20th century. History The Middle Atlantic League played from 1925 through 1951, with t ...

with a batting average of .368 and a slugging percentage of .720, and in triples with 12 and home runs with 29. In 1936 he was third in the

Southern Association The Southern Association was a higher-level minor league in American organized baseball from 1901 through 1961. For most of its existence, the Southern Association was two steps below the Major Leagues; it was graded Class A (1902–1935), Cl ...

with a batting average of .384 and a slugging percentage of .589, as he led the league with 22 triples. He would also play professional

as an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

with the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...

and Washington Senators, batting .271/.382/.401 with 7 home runs and 85 RBI in 181 games.

Death and burial

He is buried in Birmingham's Elmwood Cemetery.

References

Sources

* Groom, Winston. ''The Crimson Tide – An Illustrated History''. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2000. .

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sington, Fred 1910 births 1998 deaths 20th-century American journalists American football tackles American male journalists American men's basketball players Alabama Crimson Tide baseball players Alabama Crimson Tide football players Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball players Brooklyn Dodgers players Major League Baseball outfielders Washington Senators (1901–1960) players World Football League announcers Albany Senators players Atlanta Crackers players Beckley Black Knights players Chattanooga Lookouts players Columbus Foxes players High Point Pointers players Jackson Senators players Louisville Colonels (minor league) players All-American college football players All-Southern college football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees Baseball players from Birmingham, Alabama Players of American football from Birmingham, Alabama Journalists from Alabama Jewish American baseball players Jewish Major League Baseball players 20th-century American Jews Burials at Elmwood Cemetery (Birmingham, Alabama)