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Those Who Died That Others Might Be Free
Frank Haggerty
Date and Place of Birth:
June 19, 1918 Rockville Center, New York
Date and Place of Death: September 23, 1943 Charlotte, North
Carolina
Baseball Experience: Minor League
Position: Shortstop
Rank: Second Lieutenant
Military Unit: USAAF
Area Served: United States
Frank
C.
Haggerty was born on June 19, 1918,
in Rockville Center,
a village located in New York's
Nassau County
on Long Island.
He attended St. Agnes Parochial School, then Chaminade
High School on Long Island, where he
was a standout in baseball, basketball and tennis, as well as
becoming the champion ping pong player of
Nassau
County.
Graduating from high school in
1936, Haggerty entered St. John’s University in
Queens,
New York, in September. He played
freshman basketball that winter and was the shortstop on the
freshman baseball squad the following spring, batting .279 in 16
games. Under the guidance of coach Joe Lapchick, who went on to
coach the New York Knicks, Haggerty scored 73 points with the
varsity basketball team in 1937-1938, and batted .315 with the
varsity baseball team. He helped both the 1938-1939 court team and
1939 baseball team clinch city titles (he batted .335 that year),
and co-captained the 1939-1940 basketball team, scoring 121 points
and helping them win 15 out of 19 games.
In his senior year – 1940 –
Haggerty was voted Best Athlete at
St. John’s and batted .339 as the baseball
team’s lead-off hitter. His teammates that season included team
captain Sal Ferrara, and Al Pecora, who played for the Jersey City
Giants. Immediately following graduation from the Arts department,
Haggerty and Ferrara
signed with the Atlanta Crackers of the Class A1 Southern
Association, and reported on June 2. The Crackers sent both players
to the Selma Cloverleafs of the Class B Southeastern League where
Haggerty played 95 games and batted .201.
He was due to report to the Crackers for spring training when
military service beckoned on February 21, 1941. Haggerty trained as
a pilot at Kelly Field, Texas, and was commissioned a second
lieutenant. He married Miss Virginia Langley at St. Mary’s
Cathedral, San Antonio, on August 15, 1942, and was granted a
furlough shortly afterwards. Haggerty was on his way home with his
young bride when orders reached him at Charlotte, North
Carolina, transferring him to active
service. Those orders were then changed to remain in
Charlotte
for pursuit training.
Stationed at Morris Field in Charlotte, Second
Lieutenant Haggerty took off in a Curtiss P-40F Warhawk fighter
plane on September 23, 1942. A short time later the plane crashed
into the Catawba River, ten miles southwest of
Charlotte
Airport. Haggerty was
killed instantly.
Haggerty was
the first St. John’s
alumnus to lose his life in service in World War II and his death
came as a great shock. In his honor, the Metropolitan Basketball
Writer’s Association decided to annually present the Lieutenant
Frank Haggerty Award to “the outstanding college player in the
metropolitan New York district.” Andrew "Fuzzy" Levane of
St. John's was the award’s first recipient in 1943, and the award
continues to be given more than 60 years after his death.
Furthermore, high school basketball teams in the
New York metropolitan area annually compete
in the Lieutenant Frank Haggerty Tournament.
| Year |
Team |
League |
Class |
G |
AB |
R |
H |
2B |
3B |
HR |
RBI |
AVG |
| 1940 |
Selma |
Southeastern |
B |
95 |
333 |
33 |
67 |
12 |
2 |
0 |
23 |
.201 |
Thanks to Blythe E. Roveland-Brenton, Ph.D, University Archivist at
St. John's University for help with this biography.
Added December 23,
2006. Updated May 9, 2009.
Copyright © 2009 Gary Bedingfield (Baseball
in Wartime). All Rights Reserved.
