David
Whitney’s first love in sports was baseball.
He was born on January 8, 1930 in Midway, Kentucky, a little town not
far from the state capital of Frankfort.
As a teenager he was on a semi-professional baseball team in nearby
Lexington that played against barnstorming Negro League baseball teams in the
mid-1940s. Although small in stature, Whitney was a good
fielding infielder that could hit. The
Indianapolis Clowns offered him a contract, but Whitney’s father coaxed him to
go to college at nearby Kentucky State.
After
college Whitney signed with the Kansas City Monarchs in 1952. He was the number two shortstop behind Ernie
Banks. Whitney went into the military
and returned as the team’s number one shortstop. Banks
had left the Monarchs to begin his Hall of Fame Major League career with the
Chicago Cubs. With the dismal economic condition of Negro
League baseball in the mid-1950s and not getting offers from Major League
scouts as he had hoped, Whitney left the Monarchs to coach high school
basketball in Tennessee.
He
went on to coach basketball for over 30 years in the Southwestern Athletic
Conference (SWAC), first at Texas Southern and then Alcorn (Miss.) State. At Alcorn he won 12 SWAC championships and
was nine times named Coach of the Year.
Which three of Dave Whitney’s teammates
on the 1955 Kansas City Monarchs went on to play in the Major Leagues?
No comments:
Post a Comment