The Little-Known Story Of Alabama Baseball's Historic 1950 Season

Editor's Note: This article is dedicated to my friend Sam Faucett, who originally piqued my interest in this story.

TUSCALOOSA, AL — It was arguably the greatest baseball team in the University of Alabama's history, but few still living are likely to recall that the Crimson Tide started the 1950 season a meager 2-3, dropping separate road series to regional lightweights Stetson and Rollins.

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The opening slate of games were part of a tour of Florida to start a season that culminated in Alabama's first appearance in the College World Series — a fledgling concept only in its fourth season at the famed Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska.

But as the years have worn on, these stories have been increasingly difficult to find in one place.

Despite the Crimson Tide falling well short of making it to the Greatest Show On Dirt this year, the SEC per usual has been well-represented on the big stage. So, in the spirit of the 2022 College World Series nearing its conclusion, Tuscaloosa Patch set out to tell the story of that historic season.

A Team Of Legends

After limping back to Alabama following the unsuccessful Florida road trip, Tide baseball head coach and assistant football coach Tilden "Happy" Campbell had penciled in his team to play the first of two exhibition games against the Birmingham Barons — then a minor league affiliate for the Boston Red Sox.

Future Detroit Tiger "Yankee Killer" and Northport native Frank Lary was the standout over the Florida trip, posting the lowest earned run average for a staff that also included his two talented brothers Ed and Al.

What's more, the Tide's stable of pitchers featured Birmingham native and future major leaguer Al Worthington, who went on to play 14 seasons in the majors as a pitcher for five different big league clubs. As a teammate of fellow Alabama native Willie Mays, Worthington was part of the legendary New York Giants team that won the 1954 World Series.

Nicknamed "Red," Worthington retired from the MLB after the 1969 season with more years of major league experience under his belt than any of his Crimson Tide teammates. He then eventually settled into his longtime role as the head baseball coach and athletic director at Liberty University. He retired from college coaching in 1989, but not before mentoring the likes of future Atlanta Braves hero Sid Bream and several other future big leaguers.

At age 93, Worthington still lives in Shelby County, Alabama.

But it was left-handed Fayette native Jesse Ayres who started the game for the Tide against the Barons, in what expectedly turned out to be a 23-5 drumming at Rickwood Field in Birmingham. In examining the lineup card for that day, it's clear that Happy Campbell was conservative with his stars and played all 21 players he took to the ballpark that day, likely as a final tune-up before conference play began against LSU the following week.

If there were any doubts concerning the Tide going into March, they were quickly dashed as Alabama posted a 5-2 mark over the month and maintained that momentum to a 9-2 record in April to clinch a spot in the SEC playoff against Kentucky.

Alabama took the best-of-five series in four games, with Frank Lary getting the win over the Wildcats in game one. The Tide followed the series-opening victory with a 13-0 win in game two that included two of the marquee individual performances of the entire season.

In a game that featured Worthington tossing a shutout for his fifth straight win, it was first baseman and Ramsay High product "Big" Mike Mizerany who stole the spotlight with two homers and a triple in the winning effort.

Mizerany, who was also a Crimson Tide football offensive lineman drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers, was just one of several who tried their hand in the ranks of professional baseball, but played only 80 games in the Alabama-Florida League in 1951 before hanging it up for good.

He went on to operate Big Mike's Cafe in Birmingham's Southside for three decades with his brother and passed away in 2013.

For all of his heroics in that game, though, it bears mentioning that while Mizerany indeed added power to a talented lineup, he was outshined in the regular season by a collegiate Murderer's Row of hitters, six of whom topped the .300 mark during the 1950 season.

The Tide was led at the plate by star left fielder Ed White — an Anniston native who hit .448 in 1950 and made it to the big leagues, only to play a total of three games with the Chicago White Sox in 1955.

As an obscure side note: White was struck out by the Kansas City Athletics' Alex Kellner in his first career at bat on Sept. 17, 1955, but went on to go 2-for-3 in his remaining plate appearances, slapping two singles and reaching on a walk against the A's in a game on Sept. 25.

Alabama's lineup also featured the bat of infielder, World War II veteran and Fairfield native George Howell, who hit .360 on the year. Howell, like Mizerany, had a short-lived career in the semi-pro Alabama-Florida League, before going on to become a corporate attorney for firms like U.S. Steel and Ingalls Shipbuilding.

It's also worth mentioning the name of Jim Huffstutler — a .311 hitter in 1950 — who graduated from Sidney Lanier High School in 1946 and served in the Pacific theater of World War II. In the midst of the success from the 1950 season, he was recalled into service in Korea and eventually returned to Alabama, where he started his own insurance adjusting firm in Mobile — Huffstutler & Associates.

Tuscaloosa High product Leon Adair was another noted offensive producer who served his country overseas, batting .316 that year before his military service in the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict, followed by a long career as an attorney.

In one of the more interesting side stories of the 1950 team, though, Adair was joined on the Crimson Tide roster by his high school teammate — the infamous Guy Morton Jr.

The son of Vernon's Moose Morton, a former big leaguer with the Cleveland Indians, the younger Morton was a solid ballplayer at the Capstone but not a major contributor on the 1950 team. However, he was good enough to advance through the minor league ranks, only to see his one major league at-bat end in a strikeout for a Boston Red Sox team that had Ted Williams sitting in the dugout.

Of all of the names on the roster, though, none would go down in baseball history quite like Frank Lary, who posted a 7-1 mark on the mound during the 1950 regular season, before going 3-1 during the postseason. This was also on a staff where Worthington finished the regular season with a perfect 5-0, while Frank's brother Al also went 4-2 on the mound during the campaign.

During his major league career from 1955 to 1965, Lary posted a 27-10 record against the New York Yankees, during an era when the Bronx Bombers featured names like Berra, Mantle, Maris, Rizzuto and Slaughter.

Over his 12 years in the league, he finished two seasons with more than 20 wins, which included his league-leading 21 victories in 1956. An MLB All-Star and a Gold Glove winner, he also logged more than 1,000 career strikeouts to rank 456th on the all-time strikeouts list.

But headed into the NCAA District 3 playoffs, he was the ace the Tide later counted on for its first trip to Omaha.

In game one, however, a 6-1 win over Clemson, it was Worthington who carried a no-hitter through four innings before giving up a run in the fifth for the Tigers to get on the board first, 1-0.

Frank Lary came on to pinch-hit in the bottom frame of the inning, knocking a triple and then scoring the tying run on a sacrifice fly. The Bama bats then poured it on even more as Worthington and Al Lary shut down the Tigers.

In the championship round against Wake Forest, Lary notched two wins, with the first coming in an 11-inning thriller. The second win, which clinched the Third District title, saw Lary come on in relief for his brother, Al, in a 5-4 win made possible by an eighth inning homer from Ed White to give Alabama the lead.

During his performance in the final game, Lary sat down six consecutive batters to close out the game and grab his second win over the Deacons in four days. The stretch made him the easy selection for District 3 Tournament MVP honors.

And to make it even sweeter, the Tide was headed to Omaha for the very first time.

THE BIG SHOW

The 1950 College World Series featured the normal bracket of eight teams, including: Alabama, Bradley, Colorado A&M, Rutgers, Texas, Tufts, Washington State and Wisconsin.

As authors W.C. Madden and Patrick Stewart documented in their impressive book "The College World Series: A Baseball History 1947-2003," the series was also attended by legendary Brooklyn Dodgers President Branch Rickey.

It came as a surprise to no one when Frank Lary was penciled in as the starter to open the 1950 College World Series against a scrappy, but thin Bradley University squad. Upsets were in the air, as well, with the defending national champion Texas Longhorns losing in the opening round to a Rutgers squad they had reportedly never heard of.

Lary surrendered only two runs in the affair against Bradley, as the Tide put up nine in what would be its best offensive performance of the College World Series. Following the win, one newspaper wire account speculated whether the talented Alabama sophomore pitcher planned to return to the Capstone or try his hand in the major leagues at season's end.

"We understand Omaha is loaded with big league scouts," the reporter wrote, unaware of the $6,000 contract from the Detroit Tigers that awaited Lary after the College World Series.

Worthington took the mound two days later for the Tide against Washington State, who had topped Tufts University 3-1 in the first round. Control issues proved the story of that day for the big, hard-throwing Crimson Tide pitcher, who surrendered nine runs on only three hits, thanks to seven walks on the day.

As one newspaper account reported, the rain-shortened game was played before a thin crowd of 955 fans.

Worthington's Washington State counterpart, a little-known 18-year-old named Gene Conley, rode his "newfound curveball" to a dominant performance against the Tide, even striking out the side in the sixth inning.

Standing at an imposing 6-8, Conley became a rare two-sport star in the professional ranks, winning the 1957 World Series as a member of the Milwaukee Braves and also securing three NBA titles with the Boston Celtics — becoming the only athlete in professional sports history to accomplish such a feat.

With the historic mound performance from Conley, the Tide managed its only run in the first inning, thanks to back-to-back triples by Ed White and Ned Folmar.

The Tide fell to the Cougars 9-1, however, and headed into an elimination contest against Wisconsin.

It's worth noting that over this time, Texas pitcher Jim Ehler — who headed up the Longhorns' pitching staff — tossed the first no-hitter in College World Series history in game nine against Tufts University on June 19.

Unfortunately for Alabama, its elimination round game proved even less eventful at the plate than the previous outing, with the UA yearbook from 1950 stating the "Only bright spot in an otherwise heart-breaking contest was Ed White's ringing double scoring the Tide's only run and giving the home nine a short lived lead."

Wisconsin then rallied back with three unanswered runs to send the boys from Tuscaloosa back to Alabama, but came up short in the final round to eventual champion Texas, as the Longhorns secured their second straight NCAA baseball title.

And, as time has a way of doing, it marches on.

Fast-forward nearly 60 years later and it would be former Tide catcher and Tuscaloosa native Gene Rickles who took the field as Alabama's oldest living baseball letterman in 2010 to throw out the first pitch of a Friday game at Sewell-Thomas Stadium against Mississippi State.

The memories were fading, but there was still time to honor one of the last remaining legends from that era.

Those young men are all gone now for the most part, relegated mainly to black and white images and frayed tidbits of their accomplishments.

Tilden Campbell continued coaching baseball and football at the Capstone, sticking to the baseball diamond well into the 1960s. Sadly, he was a longtime cigarette smoker who had battled previous health problems and died after suffering a sudden heart attack at his Tuscaloosa home following practice on a Saturday afternoon in February 1963.

The news came as a shock to the entire Crimson Tide community, as one account written in the Tuscaloosa News referred to Campbell as the "dean of Southeastern Conference baseball coaches."

He was 54 years old.

Other names, like former Tide and Phillips High School pitcher Clarence Fleck, lived the rest of their lives mostly away from the headlines. Fleck suffered a shoulder injury in college that halted his playing days, but went on to a successful career that included 15 years with Hayes Aircraft and another 22 with Southern Company.

Fleck passed away in April of this year at the age of 93, representing one of the last living reminders of that historic 1950 season. Still, it's worth noting that he was one of the lucky few to witness the evolution of a program that first garnered national attention when he was one of the kids in the lineup ... not to mention getting to see the Tide's four other College World Series appearances since.

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