Quad-Cities
Online an edition of The Dispatch
Reprinted From The Rock Island Argus
Copyright 1998,
Moline Dispatch Publishing Co.
June 4, 2003 12:15 AM
By Roger Ruthhart,
staff writer |
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May marked another milestone in the
storied history of Rock Island Rocks baseball when they played, and won, at St. Louis'
Busch Stadium.
It's just another benchmark for a program
that this year celebrates its 120th anniversary.
While the IHSA web site claims that the
first high school baseball game played in the state was in 1884 when Chicago (Hyde Park)
defeated Chicago (North Division), we know differently. The historical fact is that the
first high school baseball game in Illinois was played May 5, 1883, between Rock Island
and Moline. It was reported in The Rock Island Argus.
``A baseball nine has been organized from
scholars in the high school with Bernard Connelly as Captain,'' The Argus reported on
April 5, 1883. ``The base ball fever has taken a strong hold on Rock Island youth, but it
is manly sport conducive of good health and we are glad to see the boys take the interest
that they do.''
On May 7, The Argus reported: ``The
baseball nine of this city defeated the baseball nine of Moline on Saturday (May 5)
afternoon at the Hopp's Field ground.''
And thus it began -- 120 years ago.
``Moline was always an easy opponent for
Rock Island in these days, but Davenport had a strong team and gave the Islanders
considerable opposition every year for the tri-city championship,'' The Argus wrote in
1925.
``The baseball history at Rock Island High
School is incomplete because of the fact that athletic officials of the school paid little
attention to the sport and also because it was unpopular with the students with the
exception of the first 10 years of its existence,'' the 1925 report said.
Followers of the sport said the teams of
1899 and 1900 were the greatest in the history of the school until the modern era.
The Argus reported that the city had an
``abundance of baseball teams. Some new club is coming to light every day. Base ball is
the most commendable sport yet discovered and successful players will always receive
public favor.''
When the first team was organized, there
were 120 students at the school, almost half of them girls. The players had no coach and
the only knowledge they had of the game was obtained from professional ballplayers in
town.
That first 1883 team also marked the first
time that a black ballplayer played for Rock Island High School. ``Dobbs Tolliver, a
colored lad, was quite a conspicuous figure with the Cable Grays as he was an athlete of
unusual ability,'' The Argus reported.
While baseball boomed, the players were
apparently playing for local teams and no longer for the high school. In a letter to The
Argus, May 6, 1887, ``Old Timer'' wrote ``Why don't the high school and college boys
organize and give an expectant public a chance to discover their ballistic abilities? --
Several years ago we had a first class High School Nine and I see no reason why we can't
have one now. Have the present youth degenerated?''
Things were better by the turn of the
century and many schools were fielding teams. May 14, 1900, The Argus reported that the
Rock Island High School team had defeated Geneseo High School, 8-3, giving them their
second victory over Geneseo in a week. May 3, The Argus reported that there would be two
games Saturday at the 12th Street Park -- the first between Augustana and Northern
Illinois College of Fulton, and the second between Geneseo and Rock Island high school
teams. Admission to both games was 25 cents.
Baseball was still hanging on by 1911, but
a page from the school yearbook reported that ``The High School has not played much
baseball. For some reason or another it has not been popular, probably due to the fact
that the school year closes before the baseball season is well advanced. Mr. Harmon, the
coach, is well adapted to this work and has succeeded in turning out a fast nine. He is
greatly handicapped, however, by other spring events. The track takes some of the school
material and conflicts with the nine's schedule. Some of the games have been played, but
the best part of the season still lies before them. The high school team had started the
season with a 12-2 win over the school's alumni.''
Baseball popularity continued to grow with
Rock Island hosting a professional team in the Three I League. But the school team did not
fare as well.
In a 1925 historical issue to commemorate
the paper's 75th anniversary, The Argus confirmed baseball had enjoyed ``an uneventful
career'' at the school. The sport, which had started athletics at RIHS ``when a group of
students decided that it was time that some varsity team was organized to represent the
high school in some form of athletics,'' was abolished in 1911.
``Officials of the institution, realizing
that it conflicted with the track work of the school and that insufficient support had
been accorded it for a number of years, decided in 1911 to abolish it,'' The Argus
reported. Track at the time included such things as bicycle races.
Baseball, its proud heritage well in the
past, lay dormant at RIHS for decades. It wasn't until after World War II that competition
resumed.
On April 16, 1946, The Argus reported that
Coach Hugo ``Scoop'' Birkhahn's Islanders outlasted St. Ambrose Academy, 5-4, on a
windswept diamond in North Douglas Park as Rock Island High School won its first baseball
game in 35 years. In the fifth inning, a Marv Hancks double, two walks ``and some
chance-taking base-running'' turned into four runs for Rock Island -- their first in 35
years.
The Rocks scored the winning run, according
to The Argus report, when Chick Lautz reached on a fielder's choice, went to second on
Hancks' single and crossed the plate when Jim O'Melia singled to right.
Then April 30, 1946, history repeated
itself when Rock Island squared off with Moline High School again. Rock Island won 11-3.
Lefty Jim Aversing, who was also quarterback at Rocky, was the ``twirler" for Rock
Island, struck out seven and hit a home run.
``Racking up six straight decisions, Coach
Hugo Birkhahn's young Rocks have been little less than amazing in the stickwork
department, realizing 56 hits in 164 times at bat for a healthy .341 average,'' wrote The
Argus' Bill Kinney later that season. ``Ordinarily no-hitters against prep school clubs
are a dime a dozen and a high school team that can average .116 in the safety department
commands considerable respect.''
Later Kinney would write ``Rock Island high
school baseballers, who finish the season Friday against Davenport in a tilt at North
Douglas Park, already can consider the first campaign since the high-collar days of 1911
as commendable. Considering the fact that the sport was renewed after an interruption of
35 years, the record of ten wins and four losses to date is little short of terrific.''
In 1947 Carl ``Boats'' Aronson replaced
Birkhahn as head coach, while Harold V. ``Shorty''Almquist, who was also athletic
director, remained the assistant coach. Lyle Jones would become the assistant in 1948.
Baseball would be alive, well, and thriving
for decades to come. The Boats Aronson era continued for 26 years and set the cornerstone
for modern baseball at Rocky.
Aronson had been a hard-throwing
left-handed pitcher with a possible professional baseball career when World War II broke
out. He served as a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, stationed in the Pacific
Islands and Japan, and was awarded the Bronze Star for heroism as a medic. He never talked
about the war. Friends said his scars said it all.
After the war, he became a physical
education teacher at Franklin Junior High, where he coached basketball and football. He
served as head baseball coach at Rock Island High School for 26 of the 33 years he taught.
He retired in 1977 and died in 2000 at age 85. ``Boats'' is remembered as one of Rock
Island's most illustrious figures and left an imprint on the lives of many students and
players. Former players remember him as someone who was fair and honest and who treated
all players the same.
``He was very much in love with baseball
and he loved the kids,'' said his wife, Alice. ``He had some good years, and some not so
good years, but he was very proud of his players,'' she said.
Frank Youngquist was the head sophomore
coach for several years under Aronson. The varsity played at Douglas Park, but the
sophomores had nowhere to play. One day, Youngquist said, he threw down bases on the
football practice field. Football coach Shorty Almquist had a fit, but in the end the
baseball team had a place to play.
Coach Gary Bender recalled that Almquist
was so protective of the field that students could get detention if they were caught off
the sidewalks and walking on the grass.
``The field was rough. There we no good
hops, just bad ones, but we got used to playing them,'' Youngquist said in a 1998
interview. Today, that bumpy field is one of the finest high school baseball fields in the
state.
Aronson stepped down as coach in 1973. The
next era in Rock Island baseball began when Jack Carroll became the varsity baseball coach
and Bender the head sophomore coach. Bender was a product of the system, having played for
Aronson before graduating in 1966.
Eleven years later, in 1984, Bender was
named varsity head coach.
Bender still remembers the day he and
Carroll got permission to take the grass out of the baselines on the field in front of the
school. ``Jack said we had to have a place for the kids to be able to play on their own
high school field,'' Bender recalled.
There was fence, but no bleachers and
improvements were made a little at a time, year by year. Initially, the left-field foul
line was only 275 feet.
Bender went to work with former Rocky
baseball player turned state representative Joel Brunsvold. In 1986 he wrote a grant and
received a $20,000 Build Illinois grant to fund construction of a new baseball stadium.
The diamond was moved back toward the school to make the outfield fences farther away, and
the facility that the school enjoys today was built.
``I built it for the kids of Rock Island,
not just the high school,'' said Bender. ``It's used by summer teams, the Legion has
played there and others. I tried to teach the kids to have some pride in it.''
In 1985, Bender led the first Rock Island
team to ever make it to the state finals. They finished eighth and ironically, current
coach Andy Campbell was a player on that team. Bender would go back again in 1997 and
again in 1999, his final year of coaching, finishing third both times. The 1997 team also
formed the nucleus of the Rock Island American Legion Post 200 team that finished third in
the nation at the American Legion World Series.
``I had a wonderful time being coach,''
Bender said, recalling players and games like yesterday. ``Jack Carroll taught be a lot
about baseball, and he had a heart of gold.''
But in the end, Bender said, ``I just did
it for the kids.''
Bender was the winningest coach in Rock
Island baseball history. He had only one losing season in running up a record of 328-148.
During his tenure, he had over 130 players go on to play college baseball; more than 20
played Division 1. Nine of his players played professional baseball.
After Bender's retirement from coaching,
another former Rock Island player, Andy Campbell, the son of former Rock Island Mayor Alan
Campbell, was named the new varsity coach.
``Whenever you've played at a high school
and end up getting into coaching, somewhere down the line I think you'd always like to
coach at your alma mater. I feel lucky to have that opportunity,'' said Campbell, in
accepting the job.
In just three seasons as head coach,
Campbell has run up an impressive 101-41 record. In 2001, with some help from Bender, the
Rocks played in the Metrodome in Minneapolis over spring break. This year they played in
St. Louis' Busch Stadium.
The tradition continues.
Roger Ruthhart is managing editor of The
Rock Island Argus. Thanks to Chris Carmack for research assistance for this story.
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