The FV Museums staff try to follow up on requests or questions for individual and on information which arises over the course of our research which either adds to something or corrects something we had previously been told.
Mickey Smith, Arthur Ray Talley and others recalled some things about baseball in Fuquay Springs when we were researching for Red Seagroves article. Among other ideas, they recalled Tom Seagroves wrote for the Independent on sports.
Following up on these, research has located these details.
A Sep 22, 1949 column by Thomas Seagroves in the Independent “Sports Review” Listed were Dick’s All stars and the Varina Sluggers with both Tom and J. C. Seagroves playing
Into the 1955 issues of the Independent there is the column continued by Seagroves “Sports Review”
Names of different teams we found in different issues:
April 24, 1947: Fuquay Cowboys, Varina Sluggers
April 25, 1947: Rawls Stumpdiggers
May 8, 1947: Holly Springs Rams
Sept 8, 1949: Varina Sluggers were in finals.
April 14, 1949: Rawls Stumpdiggers, Varina Sluggers, Wilbon Owls, Dick’s Service Station All Stars, Wake Harnett Cardinals.,
Sept 23, 1954: Nemo Sherman played with Rawls Stumpdiggers
Coach: Ben Perry, playing at Fleming Field
Another issue caught our attention with this story about a Fuquay native. March 24, 1949 Bobby Chappell signed with Philadelphia Phillies. He transferred to Phillies when Dusty Cooke was trainer. Earlier he was at St. Petersburg Jr. College to train with the Yankees.
The Museums have a picture of Dusty Cooke with Babe Ruth. Dusty was Mickey Smith’s uncle. According to Mickey, Dusty was expected to be the “next” Babe Ruth until he suffered an injury.
Other Professional baseball figures from Fuquay were Bill Holland (relative of Becky Medlin’s family) and Hollis Atkinson. There may be more to be uncovered.
From different articles we found all these individuals a lot of us may remember:
Players: Harry Rowland, Harry, “faster than lightning” was pitcher.
Curtis Cotton, Billy Powell, Leon Pearce, Phillip Ransdell, Ray Williams, Donald Wagstaff, Tom Seagroves, Red Seagroves, Tommy Howard, Clinton Abernathy, Gaither Snipes, Roy Talley, Jimmy Tilley, Joe Chappell, Ed Brown, J. K. Shearon
We did not locate anything on the African American team from Holly Springs in the Independentyet; however, Mickey and others did recall that there was a good team which they saw play.