In 1966, Connors played an off-field role by helping to end the celebrated holdout (see reserve clause) by Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax when he acted as an intermediary during negotiations between management and the players. In 1952, he was sent to the minor leagues again to play for the Cubs' top farm team, the Los Angeles Angels.
After two more seasons with Montreal, Connors joined the Chicago Cubs in 1951, playing in 66 games as a first baseman and occasional pinch hitter. Ĭonnors attended spring training in 1948 with Major League Baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers but did not make the squad He played two seasons for the Dodgers' AAA team, the Montreal Royals before playing one game with the Dodgers in 1949. The twelve others to have played are: Danny Ainge, Frank Baumholtz, Hank Biasatti, Gene Conley, Dave DeBusschere, Dick Groat, Steve Hamilton, Mark Hendrickson, Cotton Nash, Ron Reed, Dick Ricketts, and Howie Schultz. Ĭonnors is one of 13 athletes to have played in both the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball. He played 53 games for Boston before leaving the team early in the 1947–48 season. He did so during pre-game practice before the Celtics' first home game of their inaugural season with a shot and not a slam dunk, which is what typically breaks a backboard in modern basketball.
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During his tenure with Celtics in 1946, Connors became the first professional basketball player to break a backboard. For the 1946-1947 season he joined the newly formed Boston Celtics of the Basketball Association of America. Professional basketball (1946–1948) įollowing his military discharge in 1946, the 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) Connors joined the Rochester Royals (now the Sacramento Kings) of the National Basketball League for their 1945-1946 championship season. Released, he sat out the 1941 season, then signed with the New York Yankees farm team, the Norfolk Tars ( Piedmont League), where he played 72 games before enlisting in the Army at Fort Knox, Kentucky, at the end of the season, on October 10, 1942. In 1940, following his departure from college, Connors played four baseball games with the Brooklyn Dodgers' minor league team, the Newport Dodgers ( Northeast Arkansas League). Sports career Minor League Baseball (1940–1942) During most of the war, he served as a tank-warfare instructor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and later at West Point in New York. He played on two minor league teams (see below) in 19, then joined the United States Army following America's entrance into World War II. Ĭonnors left Seton Hall after two years to accept a contract to play professional baseball. He would repeatedly yell to the pitcher from his position on first base, "Chuck it to me, baby! Chuck it to me!" The rest of his teammates and spectators at the university's games soon caught on, and the nickname stuck. The name derived from his time as a player on Seton Hall's baseball team. He tried using "Lefty" and "Stretch" before finally settling on "Chuck". Since childhood, Connors had disliked his first name, Kevin, and he had sought another name.
There, he played both basketball and baseball for the school, and it was there, too, where he changed his name. įrom those offers, he chose to attend Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. He received additional offers for athletic scholarships from more than two dozen colleges and universities. A talented athlete, he earned a scholarship to the Adelphi Academy, a preparatory school in Brooklyn, where he graduated in 1939. Ĭonnors was a devoted fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers despite their losing record during the 1930s, and he hoped to join the team one day. His father became a citizen of the United States in 1914 and was working in Brooklyn in 1930 as a longshoreman and his mother had also attained her U.S. He had one sibling, a sister, Gloria, who was two years his junior. 2.2 Professional basketball (1946–1948)Ĭonnors was born on April 10, 1921, in Brooklyn, New York City, the elder of two children born to Marcella ( née Londrigan) and Alban Francis "Allan" Connors, immigrants of Irish descent from Newfoundland and Labrador.
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