Howard Fox - Baseball

Born in Coburg, Howard Fox played his way through the University of Oregon and into a lengthy Major League career as a right-handed pitcher. He spent nine seasons and played for three different teams from 1944 to ’54 before moving to the minor leagues, where his career ended tragically at the age of 34.

Fox attended Oregon on a basketball scholarship after a standout career at Springfield’s Thurston High, whose teams were known as the Pansies in those days. Thurston played into the 1938 state tournament under coach Genevieve Beaman.

 Fox attended Oregon for only a short time and did not earn a letter in any sport. The Cincinnati Reds signed him in 1943 and he reached the Major Leagues as a reliever in two games the following year at age 23. He played for the Reds through 1951 before being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies, who released him after a 2-7 season as a starter. He appeared in 38 games as a reliever for the Baltimore Orioles in 1954, but was released at age 33.

In 248 Major League games he went 43-72 with six saves and a 4.33 ERA. He led the National League in losses with 19 in 1949. In his best season, Fox went 11-8 as the No. 4 starter for the Reds in 1950, finishing with a 4.33 ERA. The Reds finished sixth in the league that season and last in attendance with an average of 7,000 fans per game.

As a minor league pitcher, he compiled a record of 74-55, including 19-9 with a 2.68 ERA in 1947 for the Reds’ Triple-A farm club in Syracuse, N.Y. In his final season, he went 3-8 in San Antonio of the Texas League. He also pitched for teams in Venezuela during the winter in 1953, ‘54 and ‘55.

Shortly after the 1955 season, he was stabbed to death while bouncing three young men from the tavern he owned near San Antonio.

He was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1981.