With the passing of another Labor Day, a landmark event in Hampton Roads sports reached its silver anniversary. During that late summer weekend in 1965, the Fox Hill fast-pitch softball team won its first regional tournament and earned a berth in the world championships, where they placed fifth of 22 teams.
For the Hampton-based team, which played its home games at Francis Asbury Field, the win culminated 15 years worth of effort. At the time, the Central Atlantic Regional, which consisted of state champions from
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Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware, and metropolitan qualifiers from Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and the host team, was 25 years old and Fox Hill had participated seven times as the Virginia state champion.
But through 1964, a regional tournament victory to advance had been elusive for the Fox Hillers.
At Guy Mason Field in Washington, D.C., the team got off to an auspicious start, first beating Baltimore 3-0, and followed with a 1-0 win over D.C. in Game 2, highlighted by a perfect game from ace pitcher Ron Peterson.
Although the Fox Hill team was formed in 1950 as part of a church league, it was not the beer league many recreational softball players are accustomed to joining.
“This was not like some Sunday school league,” said Peterson, who later won first-team All-American honors for his performance in the 1969 national tournament. Indeed, pitches reached speeds upward of 100 miles per hour, and as Peterson added, “runs were at a premium. We had a lot of 1-0 games.”
In fact, the third game was another 1-0 affair, this time in a victory over Philadelphia. A 2-0 loss to Baltimore followed, pinning the Fox Hill team into a must-win situation in the double-elimination event. Based on their 3-1 record, the Fox Hillers earned a berth in the championship, but faced Baltimore for a third time. Fox Hill won the rubber match and region with a 3-1 victory. In that game, Don Brandt’s two-run homer turned out to provide the margin of victory.
Peterson was named the Most Valuable Pitcher of the tournament, while Brandt won overall Most Valuable Player honors.
Looking back 50 years, first baseman Ronnie Weber reflected on Brandt’s performance as the key to victory. “Home runs were a rarity. (Brandt) had an exceptional tournament.”
Manager and team catcher Jack Hull credited Brandt’s defensive skills.
“He caught the last out at the wall. If that ball had gotten by him, it would have been a whole other story.”
Looking ahead to their first world championship, which was held in Clearwater, Fla., the Fox Hill players took advantage of another asset — their fan backing.
Hull looked back on the celebration that took place immediately after the regional final. “After the regional, the old-timers got together at the firehouse. There were so many people there that they had to push the fire trucks out (of the building).”
Recalls Peterson, “Fans would follow us everywhere we went to tournaments,” noting that as many as 4,000 to 5,000 Fox Hill fans made the trip to Clearwater. Spectators were not the only people tracking the team. As Weber remembers, “writers from the Daily Press followed us back then, at home and on the road. In the ’60s, there was a morning and afternoon edition and we’d have Ron Colbert at our games. We outdrew the local Carolina League (minor-league baseball) team.”
The team got off to a quick start in the world tournament, beating St. Thomas (Ontario) 3-0 and Lakewood (Calif.) 2-0. However, the team hit the wall when it played against seven-time world/national champion Clearwater, losing 1-0. Fox Hill was eliminated by Chattanooga (Tenn.) 3-0 in Game 4.
Despite the two losses, Fox Hill’s 2-2 mark was good enough to tie for fifth place of the 22 teams. After 1965, the final tournament was reinvented as the national championships. Fox Hill went on to win three more regional titles, but the ’65 effort remained the club’s greatest collective accomplishment on the diamond.
Hull, who previously worked as a minor-league catcher in the Cincinnati and Boston organizations, recalled the difficult time he had learning to catch softballs whizzing toward him with the speed of a Sandy Koufax fastball.
“I thought I was a pretty good catcher. But that ball would jump 12-18 inches up, down or sideways, and you never knew where it was going sometimes.”
Asked if he had ever been injured, Hull quickly emitted an “Oh yeah!” and interjected that on one occasion, a pitch caused him to require 16 stitches in his hand.
“It (fast-pitch) is a hard game to play, especially for catchers,” added Hull, who managed for 12 of his 13 years with Fox Hill.
Weber, who was inducted into the Softball Hall of Fame in 1985, looked back on how the team recruited new prospects.
“We picked up a pitcher from Langley (Air Force Base) and another one from Oceana. Not all of our players were military guys, but a lot of our pitchers over the years were in the service.”
Peterson summed the experience up in one word: “Camaraderie.”
The term makes sense since the ballclub was together for 65 to 80 games throughout a season that started in early May and ended with either the regional championships on Labor Day weekend, or the world/nationals two weeks later.
“We’d play doubleheaders on Friday night, Saturday night, and usually on Wednesday night,” he said.
The friendships last until this day. Now, 50 years later, a group of players, “about 15, but a lot are non-ballplayers,” Weber said, gather every Wednesday morning at Vancostas Restaurant in Hampton to swap stories about softball, the military, or any other topic an octogenarian might find interesting.
Hull added one more recollection from his playing days — having the opportunity to play against famed pitcher Eddie Feigner, whose four-man King and His Court softball team toured the country, taking on all challengers with only a pitcher, catcher, shortstop and first baseman.
According to Hull, the reality of the King and His Court’s greatness may have become more legendary than it should have been.
“We’d go along with his shenanigans for a few innings. They were like the Globetrotters.” Asked if the King and Court were as good as they were cracked up to be, Hull was silent for a moment before answering.
“You know ...,” replied Hull, in a manner suggesting that indeed, the answer might have been no.
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