A Favorite Moment in Seahawk Baseball History

Rip Collins
Wilmington StarNews Sports Editor

The faculty and students aren’t the only ones heaving a sigh of relief as Wilmington College prepares to take their first step toward being a four-year college.

Such far-flung spots as Mesa, Colo., Southern Utah, Trinidad, Ariz., and Manatee of Bradenton, Fla., can be excused if they share in the jubilance.

These clubs have something in common with Wilmington College … they are junior colleges. They have also been beaten by Wilmington College on the baseball diamond during the past three years, although Phoenix, Ariz., did defeat the Seahawks in 1962 for the national junior college baseball title.

In 1961 Bill Brooks’ amazing kids rolled to their fourth straight Virginia-Carolina Conference title, defeating Spartanburg in a regional playoff, and then swept to their first national title, defeating Mesa, the host team at Grand Junction, Colo., 8-3. Earlier in the tournament they had defeated Mesa, 15-0.

The outstanding player of that series – he was voted most valuable – was Ronnie Durham, who won three of the four tournament games he appeared in. The present member of the Burlington team in the Carolinas League also hit a fat .600 in that particular series.

On the same squad can be found the names of Dave Miller, Wake Forest star, Bill Haywood, 1964 captain of the UNC squad and the team’s top hurler this year, and Lefty Lou Howard, a fine twirler for Wake Forest, which won the ACC title this year.

Miller was an All-American, junior division, in 1961, as was Durham.

Larry Edens, Ronnie Smith, since signed by the Colts, Lawrence Keith, Harry Burchette, Hiram Lee, Phil Stephenson, Bennie Broome, Sterling Coward, Blair Walker, Tommy Hines, Jimmy Worthington, Bob Tate and Don Honeycutt, were other members of that particular squad.

In 1962 Howard was chosen to an All-American team as the Hawks copped another conference title and then took off on the dusty – and now familiar – jaunt to Colorado. The Birds had a 9-4 record, they were to wind up with 13-6 for the year.

They beat Manatee and Mesa, but Phoenix took them into camp twice.

But if they couldn’t win the national title for the second straight year they had at least gone to the last round and they came home loaded down with honors. Included in the list was the selection of second baseman Sterling Coward, Smith and Howard to the All-Tournament team.

In addition Smith was voted the “player most likely to succeed in professional baseball” after he set a record with five straight hits in one ball game.

As a team the Birds batted .350 for the six games and wound up the season with a combined effort of .305.

Coward clouted the ball at a neat .391 clip for the 1962 team. Haywood hit .378.

The trophy that year, recalls Brooks, “was just as big as the winner’s, but it had a 2 on it instead of a 1.”

Haywood was 5-2 for the year, but Howard was the strikeout king with 66 to Haywood’s 60.

Then it was the 1963 and the Hawks, slow to roll, compiled 12 straight victories and headed for Grand Junction with a fat cat 19-4 record.

Brooks (pictured below), who is not given to wild elation, indicated prior to leaving that he felt the Hawks could do it.

It was a tough young team, having more depth in every position and it was a confident club.

Their confidence paid off in spades as the Seahawks bowed out of junior college baseball with a classy sweep.

They won it in four straight, defeating Mesa twice to run their three year winning record to a fat .944 percentage, 59 wins and 12 losses.

It was their fifth appearance, in the swan song of 1963, and it was one of their best.

Brooks’ boys have been out three times, they have won 15 and lost two against the country’s best.

Too bad their new status prevents an encore … it would have been a beaut.