FIGMENT FIRST FAMILY STILL MAKING AN IMPACT ON UNIVERSE
It has been 75 years since Rufus Barrell left his family farm in Egypt, GA. and moved to Savannah to try his hand at a professional baseball career. Rufus never pitched in an official big-league game, blowing out his arm in an exhibition a few days prior to what would have been his big-league debut. It turned out he made it to the Baseball Hall of Fame anyway, as a builder, scout and innovator of the sport. Three of his children would eventually join him in the Boone County baseball museum as Bobby became one of the greatest power hitters the game has ever seen, Tom was a pitcher like his dad and won three Allen Awards while Harry was a ten-time all-star selection at shortstop.
The children of Rufus and Alice Barrell, ten in all, spawned a generation of talented athletes in nearly every sport imaginable and even now, three-quarters of a century later, the Barrell name figures prominently across the sporting world.
Let's take a look at the current generation of Barrell's active across four sports.
BASEBALL
HARRY BARRELL - Manager Pittsburgh Miners
Harry is one of three of Rufus' sons to go into managing after their baseball career came to an end. Fred and Tom have both retired but Harry, now age 51, followed up his Hall of Fame playing career in which he amassed 3,028 hits over 21 seasons with Brooklyn and Boston while winning a World Championship Series with the Kings in 1937 by spending the past 14 seasons as a skipper. Harry began his managerial career with Boston while still occasionally playing for the Minutemen and guided them to back-to-back WCS titles in 1959 and 1960. After a rough 1961 campaign he was let go but immediately signed by the Pittsburgh Miners, for whom he continues to manage. Among his player on the Pittsburgh roster is his son Reid Barrell.
REID BARRELL- Third Base Pittsburgh Miners
The 25-year-old has been around baseball clubhouses all his life. He was born in Brooklyn in 1940 while Harry was playing for the Kings and played his high school ball in Boston while his dad was with the Minutemen. Reid, a third baseman, was selected 7th overall by the Miners in the 1958 FABL draft (dad Harry has bragging rights as he went first overall in the 1931 draft). Reid made his debut in Pittsburgh in 1962 -the same year Harry was hired as manager of the club-. The Miners have been roughly a .500 club over the past four years but did go 90-72 in Reid's second season - the highest winning percentage the franchise has seen since 1942 when another Barrell, Reid's uncle Tom, was pitching for the club.
Reid is not a future Hall of Famer by any stretch of the imagination but has some pop in his bat, averaging a little over a dozen homers per seasons through his first four years in the majors while batting .240.
RALPH BARRELL - Third Base Los Angeles Stars
Like Reid, cousin Ralph is a 25-year-old third baseman but has a much higher upside and already owns a Whitney Award. Ralph is the eldest son of Philadelphia Keystones Hall of Fame slugger Bobby Barrell and also has a younger brother, Bobby Jr., playing college football at Coastal State.
Born in Philadelphia, Ralph is one of the many first rounders to come out of the competitive Philadelphia high school baseball scene. He was selected second overall by the Los Angeles Stars in the 1958 draft, five spots ahead of his cousin Reid. Despite missing a month of his rookie season of 1959 with an injury, Ralph finished second to Toronto's Sid Cullen in voting for the Kellogg Award as top newcomer. He was just 19 at the time but hit .305 with 19 homers in 85 games for the Stars.
Another injury in 1960 stole a good chunk of his sophomore season as well but Ralph has been healthy since. He socked 35 homers for the Stars in 1961 and did the same in 1962 while also batting .305 that season, numbers that earned Ralph his first of three straight trips to the All-Star Game. 1964 was Ralph's best season to date as he led the Continental Association in homers with 45 and rbi's with 123 while batting .318 and won the Whitney Award as CA Most Valuable Player. He helped the Stars win their first pennant in 12 years but they fell to St Louis in five games in the WCS.
The Stars expected more of the same this past season from their slugging third baseman who entered his age 25 season with 193 homers (dad Bobby had just 128 at the same point in his career) but while Bobby took off with a 53 homer season and a second of his six career Whitney Awards as a 25-year-old, son Ralph struggled mightily. There was no injury, at least none disclosed, but Ralph saw his average dip over 100 points from the previous season to .209 while hitting just 11 homers in 121 games. Ralph struggled so badly he even lost his starting job for a spell to a journeyman by the name of Larry Klinker.
The Stars finished in second place, four games back of their in-state rivals from San Francisco and many felt the difference that cost them a second straight pennant was the production drop-off from Ralph. He will clearly face a lot of scrutiny next April when the 1966 campaign begins.
CHARLIE BARRELL - First Base Chicago Chiefs
Known as "The Heartbreak Kid" Charlie is the son of the late Joe Barrell, a former football star who played Tarzan in the movies, and screen actress Dorothy Bates. He is also the half-brother of 359 game winner and future Hall of Famer Deuce Barrell and Roger Cleaves, a former catcher who is currently the manager of the Washington Eagles.
Charlie may well be the best natural athlete out of all the Barrell's and that is saying something considering this clan. Born in Los Angeles he ended up playing his high school sports in Washington DC while living with his uncle Dan's family. A three-sport star in high school, he opted to go to college in Georgia where he attended Noble Jones and was not just a baseball star but also a guard on the Colonels basketball team and quarterback of the football team.
At Noble Jones College he won a collegiate basketball national title in the spring of 1950, helping the Colonels to the only perfect season in AIAA basketball history when, despite being just a sophomore, he scored a game high 15 points as Noble Jones College beat a Liberty College team that featured basketball legend Luther Gordon 65-60 in the title game. Both schools entered the championship game undefeated, and it is still considered one of the biggest games in college cage tournament history. Two years later Charlie would be named a second team All-American his senior year as well as the Deep South Conference player of the year.
Barrell was also a three time All-American on the baseball diamond and although he did not win one, Charlie was nominated for the Christian Trophy each of his three seasons with the Colonels baseball club. He led the Colonels baseball team to the collegiate World Championship Series each of his three years and they reached the finals twice but came up short both times.
Success did not come as easily on the gridiron as the Colonels were just 3-8-1 Charlie's junior year but as a senior he did lead them to a 6-4 record.
He would also be the only person ever to play three sports professionally. The Chicago Panthers basketball team drafted Charlie second overall in 1952 and he would play parts of seven seasons with the Panthers, where he teamed up with his old rival Luther Gordon to win a Federal Basketball League title in the spring of 1957, although by that point Charlie was focused on baseball and would leave the Panthers at the start of spring training. There is no doubting his basketball talent had Charlie focused on it, as in the only year he played more than 55 games, 1953-54, Charlie was named All-League First Team. In all he played 316 professional basketball games, all for Chicago.
Charlie's pro football career was much less successful. Lured by a big money contract offer from Thomas X. Bigsby and the urging of his mother, Charlie joined the Los Angeles Tigers for the 1952 season. He started all 12 games but had limited success, completing just 28% of his passes and throwing for 995 yards but a strong defense allowed the Tigers to finish with a 7-5 record. A year later he lost his starting job to John Stanphill and left the team after three games to join the basketball Panthers. Charlie never did go back to football.
On the diamond is where Charlie found his most success. Originally drafted by the Cincinnati Cannons first overall in 1951 - the club his half-brother Deuce starred for- Charlie quickly became frustrated when the Cannons left him in the minors and bounced him all around the organization. Following the 1952 season, when he was threatening to leave baseball and just focus on basketball, the Cannons made a blockbuster trade with the New York Stars, sending Charlie to the Big Apple in a multi-player deal that saw future Hall of Famer Bill Barrett move to the Queen City.
The Stars immediately promoted him to the majors and in 1953 Charlie would win the Kellogg Trophy after a .310,25,101 season. The club moved to Los Angeles the following year and Charlie spent the next 11 seasons on the west coast, winning a Continental Association batting title in 1955, a Diamond Defense Award in 1960 and was named to the all-star team 8 times. In the later years one of his Stars teammates was his cousin Ralph.
Charlie, now 35, had slowed the past couple of seasons and lost his starting job in Los Angeles in 1964 so prior to the 1965 season he was dealt and would return to the location of his basketball stardom by joining the Chicago Chiefs. Charlie started 122 games for the Chiefs, more than he did the previous two years with the Stars, hitting .256 with 16 homers and may just spend a few more seasons playing first baseman at Whitney Park.
ROGER CLEAVES - Manager Washington Eagles.
The son of the late Joe Barrell and Charlotte Cleaves, Roger was born into baseball royalty as his half-siblings are three Hall of Famers in Deuce Barell (not eligible yet for Hall but a lock to be elected), George Cleaves and Jack Cleaves along with 3-sport star Charlie Barrell. He is also the grandson of two more Hall of Famers in Rufus Barell and George Theobald.
Cleaves served in the Pacific as a marine in World War II which delayed his baseball debut for three years after being selected by the Philadelphia Keystones in the 7th round of the 1942 draft. Cleaves spent 1946 in the minors before joining the Keystones in 1947 where his teammates included Bobby Barrell. He hit 29 homers as a rookie and fit right in with the power-happy Keystones, spending a decade in Philadelphia as their starting catcher and being named to the Federal Association all-star team nine times. Cleaves finished out his career with the Chicago Cougars, retiring after the 1959 season at the age of 35. He spent just one year as a minor league manager before the Washington Eagles came calling and he has been their skipper for the past five seasons, compiling a 517-418 record. His grandfather George Theobald, is the winningest manager in FABL history.
BOBBY BARRELL - broadcaster, Los Angeles Stars radio
The Hall of Famer retired from the Philadelphia Keystones following the 1952 season and worked on a few World Championship Series television broadcasts in the mid-fifties before joining the Los Angeles Stars as their full-time radio voice. Now 55, Bobby hit a single season record 64 homers in 1947 and retired with 639 round-trippers, second only to the great Max Morris. Bobby remains third all-time in career hits as well, finishing with 3,815. His son Ralph plays for the Stars while a second son, Bobby Jr., is a highly touted college football lineman.
BASKETBALL
Basketball and the Barrell's got their start together as Rollie Barrell, a former golfer turned sport magnate, was one of the founders of both the first professional basketball loop and the modern fay Federal Basketball League where he was the original owner of the Detroit Mustangs. Rollie, who still owns the football Detroit Maroons, has sold his basketball interest and no longer is associated with the league. Charlie Barrell, as noted above, had a decent career with the Chicago Panthers and won a FBL title. However, at this time there is just one Barrell family member with active pro basketball ties.
STEVE BARRELL - Forward Boston Centurions
The youngest of two sons of former FABL player and commissioner and current athletic director at Chicago Poly Dan Barrell, Steve has spent the past seven seasons with the Boston Centurions of the Federal Basketball League. A high school star first in Washington DC and the in Chicago after his father took the job with Chicago Poly, Barrell committed to his father's school and started 98 games over four seasons with the Catamounts. Chicago Poly only made the AIAA tournament once during Steve's tenure - his freshman season- and he did score 9 points in a 60-51 victory over Oklahoma City State which remains the Catamounts only tournament win since 1940.
Boston selected Barrell second overall in the 1958 FBL draft and he earned a starting job that first training camp and has been a fixture in the Centurions starting five ever since. He was named FBL rookie of the year in 1958-59 and has been named to the All-League First Team four times in his career. In the spring of 1962 the Centurions won their first and so far only FBL championship and Steve Barrell was named the post-season Most Valuable Player. He is presently 29 years old and looks to still have a number of years left as a key player in the league.
HOCKEY
Despite their Georgia roots the Barrell family has made its mark on the ice, dating as far back as the early days of the North American Hockey Confederation when Jack Barrell moved to Canada to live with his grandmother before becoming one of the first star players in the NAHC. Jack, now retired, also enjoyed a long coaching career in Detroit and Toronto. One of Jack's daughters ended up marrying Quinton Pollack, who is still active in the NAHC at the age of 42 and is the league's all-time scoring leader. Quinton is, of course, a Barrell by marriage only so a detailed career recap will not be included here but there is a good chance that Quinton's son John Barrell Pollack will be signed by a team in the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, which is the steppingstone to being drafted by an NAHC club. The younger Pollack is 15 and expected to play in the CAHA in 1965-66.
BENNY BARRELL - Center Detroit Motors
The eldest son of former big league baseball catcher and manager Fred Barrell, both Benny and his younger brother Hobie took quickly to hockey while growing up in Detroit and Toronto during their father's stint as a scout in the Motor City and a manager of the Toronto Wolves. Quinton Pollack was a big influence on the boys during their years in Toronto and both Benny and Hobie would go on to star in the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association before each was drafted by Detroit.
Benny, 27, spent four years in junior with the Hull Hawks before being selected 4th overall by the Motors in the 1956 NAHC amateur draft. He missed half of his rookie season as a 21 year old in Detroit with a fractured jaw, limiting him to 41 games. Benny scored just 3 goals and 6 assists that season. He has been with the Motors ever since and has started producing a little more offense, topping the 50 point plateau in two of the past three seasons and has recorded 259 points to date in 421 NAHC games.
More a supplemental player rather than a star, Benny did win the Yeadon Trophy for gentlemanly play in 1963 and has been a part of two Challenge Cup winning teams in Detroit.
HOBIE BARRELL - Left Wing Detroit Motors
Unlike his big brother, Hobie has been a scoring star right from the get-go. He scored 294 points in three seasons of junior with the Halifax Mariners including 105 to finish second in the league in 1959-60 as an 18-year-old when much of the competition was two years older. The 1960 NAHC draft featured two franchise-altering type talents in scoring sensation Hobie and elite defenseman Mark Moggy. Montreal had first pick in the draft and the Valiants opted for the rearguard, allowing Hobie to end up joining his brother Benny in the Motor City.
Neither the Vals nor the Motors can be disappointed with their choice. Moggy beat Barrell out for the rookie of the year award that first season and has won three Dewar Trophy's as top defenseman while helping Montreal win each of the last two Challenge Cups. Barrell has won two McDaniels Trophy's as league MVP and led the NAHC in scoring twice while helping Detroit win two Cups and make the finals on two other occasions. And each of them are just 24 years old.
Hobie has been a first team All-Star selection each of the past four years, has already accumulated 353 points including 163 goals in his five seasons. He scored a career best 42 goals three years ago and is one of just seven players in NAHC history to top the forty goal mark (Quinton Pollack is another). He had 83 points three years ago and 84 points two seasons ago. Only two players - Quinton Pollack and Tommy Burns- have ever accumulated more points in a season. Hobie did have what has to be considered a down year by his standards - but a career year for nearly every other player in the league- last season when he tallied just 30 goals and 68 points in the recently completed 1964-65 season.
Barrell's 18 playoff points in the 1961-62 postseason, which came in 11 games, tied Tommy Burns 1951-52 mark for the most ever record in a single postseason. Hobie also notched 17 points in a playoff year on two different occasions.
At this stage it does not look like Quinton Pollack will ever retire but if he does perhaps Hobie Barrell will someday challenge him for all of the NAHC career scoring records.
Hobie and Benny's father Fred, does not get to many of their games as the now 59 year old former FABL catcher and manager left baseball to return to the CIA, after he was believed to be working as a spy during WWII, and is currently based in Bonn, West Germany.
FOOTBALL
Barrell's have played a key role in the evolution of pro football. Joe was among the early stars of the game and Jack spent sometime moonlighting on the gridiron before hockey season started. Dan was a college star and an Olympic decathlete before suffering a devastating injury on the football field that caused him to turn his attention to baseball. A fourth of Rufus Barrell's sons also became involved in the game, but as an owner. Rollie Barrell was and remains majority owner of the Detroit Maroons of the American Football Association although at age 69 he is retired and his 35-year-old daughter Alice Barrell (Robertson) is now the Maroons president.
Among Rollie's former Detroit players is Tom Bowens, who married Rufus' only daughter Betsy. Bowens was a star end for the Boston Americans and later Detroit and spent some time as the head coach of the Maroons before moving west to coach the CC Los Angeles Coyotes of the AIAA.
GEORGE BOWENS - Wide Receiver, Los Angeles Tigers
Tom and Betsy's son George spent four seasons playing college ball for his dad at CC Los Angeles. An end like his father, George made 70 catches and scored 14 receiving touchdowns in four years with the Coyotes, including 7 scoring grabs his senior year. As a senior Bowens was fifth in the nation in receiving yards and tied for second in touchdown catches and was named to the West Coast Athletic Association All-Conference team. He played on New Year's Day just once, winning the Lone Star Classic as a freshman, while the Coyotes had some ups and downs during George's tenure, bottoming out at 2-8 his junior season but they went 5-5 in his final year.
Bowens did not have to travel far to turn pro. In fact he could continue to live at home with his parents as the Los Angeles Tigers selected him with the seventh pick of the second round in the 1963 AFA draft. Bowens has been brought along slowly by the Tigers, making six catches as a rookie but just 2 this past season as he remains buried on their depth chart behind 1961 first rounder Tony Riat and long-time Tigers star Rod Hamilton.
TOM BOWENS JR - Two-Sport star in High School, Los Angeles, Ca.
George's younger brother is a high school senior this year and a top recruit in both football and basketball. He has not committed to a college, but the expectation is he joins his father at CC Los Angeles.
BOBBY BARRELL JR - Defensive End, Coastal State University
The pressure of trying to live up to the name of a baseball Hall of Famer for a father and a Whitney Award winner as a brother perhaps was the impetus that prompted Bobby Barrell Jr. to select a different sport to focus on. Blessed with the size and strength of his father, all 6'3", 250 pounds of it, made Bobby an imposing figure on the gridiron and he developed into one of the best defensive linemen ever to come out of the Philadelphia high school leagues. As a high school senior Bobby Jr. was ranked number 4 in the nation by the OSA, a football offshoot of the scouting service his grandfather helped pioneer, and was a highly sought after as a recruit in 1961.
He decided to stay closer to hope and ventured to Florence, SC, to play for Coastal State. That was despite a push from many schools including those of his uncle's Dan Barrell, to join Chicago Poly, and Tom Bowens to come west and play at CCLA. With the Eagles, Bobby Jr. earned a starting role right away and now, as he prepares for his senior season, he has started 31 of 32 games at Coastal State and is likely to be playing on Sunday's a year from now.
The Eagles went 7-3 his freshman season followed by a 10-1 campaign in 1963 that included a Cajun Classic victory over Western Florida that boasted Coastal State to second in the final rankings, its highest finish ever. Bobby Jr. was named Defensive Player of the Game in that Cajun Classic victory. The 1964season was a step back as the Eagles struggled through a 6-5 campaign although Bobby was named one of the team captains. Bobby and the rest of the Coastal State Eagles are looking for a much better showing in his senior season. He is a potential first round AFA draft pick next spring.
DAN BARRELL - Athletic Director, Chicago Poly University
The 61-year-old former Olympic decathlete and big league baseball player joined Chicago Poly as its athletic director and, for a spell, football coach, after being ousted from his short tenure as President of FABL. One of his sons, Steve, played basketball at Chicago Poly before turning pro with the Boston Centurions. Dan's eldest son, Michael, attended Rome State where he played both football and basketball and is now serving in the military.
The Catamounts are an independent school and have had their ups and downs but under Dan's leadership they did win a College World Championship Series title in 1959. It was Chicago's Poly's first national title in any team sport since their basketball squad won two: in 1916 and 1925. A year ago the Catamount cagers went 21-11 and qualified for the AIAA tournament for the first time in a decade. The school has only had modest success on the gridiron and has yet to play in a New Year's Day Classic game but they did go 8-2 and were ranked 16th in 1962. Last year the Catamounts football team posted a 6-5 record and there is some optimism for the current campaign with quarterback Chuck Miller (1079 yds, 13 TD) and halfback Robert Ellington (1294 yds rushing) coming back to lead an offense that returns eight starters.