Coach Hearn
Following a fine* record in pro¬
fessional baseball. Ibe I'nivor-
siiy of !\orlli Carolina's baseball
eoaeli has c'onfinneil liis good
tvork al Chapel Hill.
By JIM KLITTZ
T\V EXTV-TWO years experience
in professional ha-chaH and ten
years of collegiate coaching is the
record that stands behind Bunn
Hearn, who is beginning his eleventh
season as head conch of the Pni-
versity of North Carolina baseball
team.
Coach Hearn was born and raised
in Chapel Hill, but when he was
ready for college he left to go to M is-
sissippi A. & M. where he starred in
football and baseball. He played full¬
back on the grid team and was a
Citcher in baseball. After graduation
e returned to the ("Diversity of North
Carolina in the fall of 1909 in order
to take n year of graduate work.
The following summer he east his
lot with the Wilson team in the Old
Carolina League, lie did well from
the very start, and by mid-season was
purchased by the St. Louis Cardinals
and suddenly found himself in Major
League baseball.
Some Record Games
He remained with the Cardinal- for
l ho greater part of two years when lie
was sent to Louisville, of the Ameri¬
can Avsociation, the latter part of the
1912 season. In 1913 he moved over
to Toronto in tho International
League. On August 13 of that year he
hurled in the longest scoreless game on
record, the contest going 20 innings
l»efore it was halted by darkness. The
opposing team was Jersey City. Hearn
pitched the entire contest, while he
was opposed on the mound hv two
men, Thompson and Brandon. lie
hurled hit less ball for the first nine
innings, and allowed only seven safe
blow* in the remaining 11 frames.
That performance caught the eyes
of scouts for tho New York Giants,
who immediately bought his contract
from the Toronto club. The Tar Heel
mentor then remained with the Giants
through the 1914 season, when he was
sold to the Pittsburgh club in the old
Federal League.
I hiring bis stay with the New York
club, a group of Major league All-
Star-. -elected from the New York
Giants and Chicago White Sox, made
a tour of the world during the winter
and spring of 1913-1 I. nnd he was one
of the group. This tour took them to
Japan, China, Italy. France, England,
and many other countries that were
interested in the diamond sport.
One of the highlights of the trip
was a visit t<> .Monte Carlo. Everyone
had n big time and, he said: "It was
very exciting for me as long as my
money lasted !*’
The biggest thrill of his entire pro¬
fessional career came during this
round-the-world tour when tho All-
Stars played before King George V. of
England. The king asked Coach
Hearn to show him how he held the
ball to throw various kinds of curves.
When he did this he was so nervous
that ho could hardly grip the ball!
After being sold by the Giant- to
Pittsburgh at the end of the 1914 M a¬
son. he spent a year with the Federal»
and then was returned to the minors
for the next two seasons. He jumped
back to the majors with the Boston
Brave- in 1918. staying with them un¬
til the end of that
м-ачш.
He dropped
out of professional baseball the next
year, but came back with the Braves
in 1920, which was his last season
in tho big time.
A 26-Inning Game
It was during his Inst year with
Boston that the Bravos and Brooklyn
Dodgers played 26 innings to n one-
all tie — the longest baseball game on
record. Coach Hearn didn't get into
that contest, but for 26 innings he sat
on the bench and fidgeted as the
Braves’ chances of winning rose and
fell. That contest lacked only one in¬
ning of going the regulation length of
three games. That year, he said, these
two teams played three extra-inning
ties of 16, 21, and 26 innings each.
In the latter contest Leon Cadoro
went tho entire route for Brooklyn,
emuw
while Bill Oescbger twirled all the
way for Boston. Cadoro ruined hi-
arm in that game and was never able
to pitch well again. The strain didn’t
seem to affect Oeschger’s pitching arm.
Returning again to the minors in
1921, Coach Hearn managed Wilson
in the Old Carolina league; Winston-
Salem nnd Henderson in the Piedmont
loop; Tarboro and Kinston in the
Coastal Plains circuit. He ended In¬
active playing career by twirling for
the Norfolk. Va., team in the Eastern
league in 1931.
Manager in Coastal Plains
Since lie has quit playing the sport,
he has managed Kinston and several
other teams in the Coastal Plain*
league. In 1935 he Lad Charlie Keller,
now of the New York Yankees,
Johnny Humphries, now of the Cleve¬
land Indians, and Ham Strayhorn,
