Talk:Sam Newton
From SABR Encyclopedia
[edit] Emails received by baseball reference
The following information was sent to baseball-reference.com's bugs email address in two different emails. Neil passed it on to me. --GarverP01 13:36, 5 February 2010 (EST)
[edit] First email
Newton (born 1893 in Thomasville NC, died June 20, 1970 in Raleigh NC, age 76) is far better known to sports historians as William S. (probably for Samuel) "Doc" Newton, a noted college football coach at Davidson, North Carolina State and South Carolina, 1932-44, and maybe even as innovator of what we today call the "shotgun" formation and "hurry-up, no-huddle" offense. He also coached the 1935 Gastonia NC Post 23 team to the national junior American Legion baseball championship. He played collegiately at the University of South Carolina before joining the Baltimore Orioles in 1916. He also pitched, I think, with the Birmingham Barons of the Southern Association in 1921-22, before becoming a high school, and later a college, coach. Sidenote: Two members of the 1935 Gastonia legion champs went to the big leagues -- Outfielder Howie Moss who saw brief service with the Giants, Indians and Reds and, more notably, Lawrence (Crash) Davis, the Athletics infielder whose name was inspiration for the Kevin Costner character name in the movie "Bull Durham" and who, himself, coached a Gastonia Legion team to the national finals (in 1954) only to finish second.
[edit] Second email (in response to a request for sources)
Actually, I was mainly trying to acquaint you with the man's full name (William S. "Doc" Newton) and his dates of birth and death.
The other I threw in largely because he is a seldom cited (these days) notable whose feats in the athletic realm are just plain interesting to read about.
The information comes from myriad sources … ("Services Scheduled for Coaching Great," Burlington NC Daily Times-News, Monday, June 22, 1970)
The stuff about him being an innovator of football technique probably is more specifically accurate if it includes him among the game's innovators. My conversations with oldtimers, 90 and up, reveal quite a few coaches of that era with similar backfield formations and variations of the no-huddle offense.
But nothing is in dispute with regard to his coaching the Gastonia junior American Legion team. Doc Newton was legendary as a molder and tutor of young athletes. (PAT'S PECKINGS, By Neale Patrick, Gastonia NC Gazette, Tuesday, June 23, 1970, "Doc Newton: A Legion Baseball Legend Here")
I'm not set up to provide you email copies of clips, but I can point you to a variety of easily obtainable stories that are available by Googling:
As a Baltimore Oriole pitcher …
As coach of the Gastonia American Legion team:
Via NewspaperArchive.com I dialed up the following on Page 6, from the Gastonia NC Daily Gazette of Friday, September 24, 1937, and herewith provide you an excerpt of the story (accompanied by a two-column cartoon sketch of Doc Newton) which introduced the then-new North Carolina State football coach:
… He went to the University of South Carolina in the fall of 1915 and played football, basketball and baseball for two years. In 1917 he joined the army and was commissioned a captain. He served in the 81st division, but did not get across the water.
After the war Newton joined the pitching staff of the Baltimore Orioles and stayed there four years with Lefty Grove as his teammate.He was sold to Birmingham and pitched in the Southern League for a couple of years. In 1923 he became head coach at Jones Valley High School in Birmingham.
Putting aside whether Newton "lost" his amateur status (Avery Brundage probably would have been inclined to so rule, off the Jim Thorpe experience of 1912 at Stockholm) by pitching for the Orioles (as "Sam Newton") in 1916, while still cavorting on the University of South Carolina playing fields, this same "Sam Newton" – by your records – appeared over four seasons on the Baltimore Oriole pitching staff, the final one (1920) in the company of then-rookie Lefty Grove.
Incidentally, if your name is Bill and your nickname is Doc, and you're not crazy about people knowing you're spending your summer moonlighting as a Baltimore Oriole pitcher, you might want to use "Sam Newton" as your pro baseball name.
