[Eugene Church]

Southern-Fried Fact

The Mobile Bears of 1947 had a future television star on the team... his name was Chuck Connors... he had very interesting life according to Wikepedia.

Howdy y'all... and howdy do to you, too... southerners are friendly folks, you know... you are going to have to get used to my southern accent... ree-member, y'all, this is the SOUTHERN Association.

Can y'all believe it, Connors and me were born on the same date, but 19 years apart... he was quite an athlete... had a chance to play pro in all sports, baseball, basketball and football... he was 6-foot-5 and a very good athlete... did anyone ever play in all the pro leagues?

Connors was born Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors on April 10, 1921, in Brooklyn, New York. Connors did not like his first name and was seeking another one. He tried out "Lefty" and "Stretch" before settling on "Chuck", because while playing first base, he would always yell, "Chuck it to me, baby, chuck it to me!" to the pitcher. The rest of his teammates and fans soon caught on and the name stuck. He loved the Brooklyn Dodgers despite their losing record during the 1930s, and hoped to someday join the team himself. Connors' athletic abilities earned him scholarships to the Adelphi Academy (from which he graduated in 1939) and Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, which he left after two years.

Sports:
During his Army service, Connors moonlighted as a professional basketball player, joining the Rochester Royals and helping to lead them to the 1946 National Basketball League championship. Following his military discharge in 1946, he joined the newly formed Boston Celtics of the Basketball Association of America.

Connors left the team for spring training with Major League Baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers. He played for numerous minor league teams before joining the Dodgers in 1949, for whom he played in only one game. He joined the Chicago Cubs in 1951, playing in 66 games as a first baseman and occasional pinch hitter. In 1952, he was sent to the minor leagues again to play for the Cubs' top farm team, the Los Angeles Angels.

He was drafted by the NFL's Chicago Bears, but never suited up for the team. He is also credited as the first professional basketball player to break a backboard. During warmups in the very first Boston Celtics game, on November 5, 1946 at Boston Arena, Connors took a shot that caught the front of the rim and shattered an improperly installed glass backboard.

In 1966, Connors played an off-field role by helping to end the celebrated holdout by Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax when he acted as an intermediary during negotiations between management and the players.

Movies and TV:
Connors did well at AAA for the International League Montreal Royals and the Pacific Coast League Los Angeles Angels, but he realized that he would not make a career in professional sports, so he decided to pursue an acting career, where he could make much more money. Playing baseball near Hollywood proved fortunate, as he was spotted by an MGM casting director and subsequently signed for the 1952 Tracy–Hepburn film Pat and Mike. In 1953, he starred opposite Burt Lancaster as a rebellious Marine private in the film South Sea Woman and Trouble Along the Way opposite John Wayne as a football coach.

In 1957, Connors was cast in the Walt Disney film Old Yeller in the role of Burn Sanderson... he was the original owner of Ole Yeller... Fess Parker was the star of the movie... no, I have to restate that... Ole Yeller was really the star... I do believe he should have won the Academy Award that year.

In later years as a character actor, Connors acted in feature films including The Big Country with Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston, Move Over Darling with Doris Day and James Garner, Soylent Green with Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson, and Airplane II: The Sequel.

In 1958 Connors beat 40 other actors for the lead on The Rifleman, portraying Lucas McCain, a widowed rancher known for his skill with a customized Winchester rifle. This ABC Western series, which aired from 1958 to 1963, was also the first show to feature a widowed father raising a young child. Johnny Crawford played his son, Joey. The series ranked in the top 10 shows until 1963.

Conners was offered the role of The Rifleman, but turned it down... he could make more money free-lancing... the show producers took their own kids to see Ole Yeller, where Chuck played a strong father figure... the producers were very impressed and decided to pay more money... including 5% of the show.

Johnny Crawford said of his relationship with Connors: "I was very fond of Chuck, and we were very good friends right from the start. I admired him tremendously." Crawford also said about the same sport that Connors had played: "I was a big baseball fan when we started the show, and when I found out that Chuck had been a professional baseball player, I was especially in awe of him. I would bring my baseball and a bat and a couple of gloves whenever we went on location, and at lunchtime I would get a baseball game going, hoping that Chuck would join us. And he did, but after he came to bat, we would always have trouble finding the ball. It would be out in the brush somewhere or in a ravine, and so that would end the game." They remained close friends for life.

Crawford spoke about his hero this way, "He was a great guy, a lot of fun, great sense of humor, bigger than life, and he absolutely loved people."

Ya know, I think I might have liked ole Chuck, too... sounds like my kind of guy.

Y'all know I'm long-winded... sorry, it was so long... but I thought Chuck Connors was a very interesting ballplayer and he played for my all-time favorite team, my beloved Mobile Bears of my beloved Southern Association.