2023.10.19 THROW BACK THURSDAY - LOCAL STORIES ABOUT BROOKS!!!!
Brooks went to Woodruff-a year ahead of us, but already looked up to. He was my first crush, and I have discovered through the years, the crush of most all of the girls who knew him.
One day we were watching the sixth graders play baseball against each other at recess. Brooks provided the big plays, of course, and got a lot of attention that day from all the kids.
Cheering and clapping, probably. For some inexplicable reason, Mrs Hall, our 6th grade teacher, said to him,”You may be the star player here, Brooks, but just wait until you get to junior high!”
I do not know why I remember that so clearly. He never seemed like a show off; in fact, just the opposite, but he certainly proved her wrong!
And she lived long enough to know of his success!
Judy Callaway Pickering
Oh, no....he's one of the ones I thought was immortal !! Very sad.
Betty Chandler Ward
ML - Awesome tribute to Brooks, known by his opponents as “Hoover” (named for the vacuum cleaner) and known to the sports world as a “gem” - on the field, in the dugout and locker room across in the MLB community and in Baltimore civic life. He made us all proud and was a universal role model - as an athlete and as a human being.
Gary Frederick
In the summer of 1955 before my Senior year in HS I was sitting next to the field house at Little Rock Central and Brooks came over and sat down next to me. Brooks was a year ahead of me and had been playing in Cuba to get ready to move up to the Orioles. We exchanged pleasantries as I hadn’t seen him in a year and was glad to see him. In all honesty we were not close buddies but rather acquaintances through LRCHS athletics, but Brooks treated everyone like they were his best friend. I asked how he liked playing in Cuba. He said he liked his teammates and he was learning a lot but he was SO lonesome down there not being fluent in Spanish and away from home for the first time. He told me he was so lonesome he had a close friend (Buddy Rotenberry I think) come down to stay with him. The attached article describes the Brooks I knew in High School. He was a magnificent basketball and baseball player but his greater talent was as a person of great quality and compassion who NEVER patted himself on the back. Dad (Bill Harmon)
Memories seem to be more factual when I was growing up vs yesterday. Brooks Robinson and I communicated about once a year. When I went to Woodruff, I remember playing touch football with Brooks. Also, Winklers was across the street from Lamar Porter field - that's where I got my first taste of french fries. When Brooks went to Central, Wilson Matthews wanted him to play football, but he played basketball for Coach Haynie. As everyone knows, Brooks was an all around athlete! I watched the Doughboys at Lamar many times. Not only a great athlete but a GREAT human being. He came to LR several times and participated in Porter Friends meetings on occasion. He donated to help renovate Lamar Porter Field. Willis Callaway continued to carry the torch for the Porter Friends from its inception to his retirement this year. He did a great job and everyone deserve RETIREMENT!
Peter Hartstein
Jim Hefley
2:57 PM (36 minutes ago)
to me
Wonderful video of Orioles “Remembering Brooks”-Thanks again, Jan
A couple of Hefley memories about Brooks I want to share with our 1956 and 1955 LRHS classmates—one early years story and one in his later years.
1. Some of you knew Brooks in junior high and many more of you knew him in high school, especially since he was a sports hero in both football and
basketball. However, I shared Brooks as "best friend” with 3 other boys in our old neighborhood near the School for the Deaf during our grammar school
years. One of the other boys was Leonard Beadle, married to one of our classmates, Agnes Robinson.
When we were about 10 or 11, some organization sponsored a big event at Lamar Porter Field. They announced one of the activities would be a bubble gum blowing
contest, so Brooks and I jumped at the chance and went. Guess who won a brand new bicycle by blowing the largest bubble? You got it, Brooks won!!!
2. After he retired he sometimes came to LR for various events. On several of these occasions he would call my Dad (who was in his 80’s) and ask, “Mr. Hefley, would it be OK if I dropped by to visit?” And he would go see my dad and sit out in front of the house on Fountain St. in Dad’s rickety lawn chairs and visit for several hours.And this when many, many more friends and organizations would be tugging at Brooks to come do something more public and important. o
Thanks for letting me share these personal stories out of the many I have, especially during those early boyhood years.
Jim (Jimmy) Hefley
HI Janis Tell Judy that our old schoolmate at Little Rock Central High -1955 graduate Brooks Robinson - has passed away ----Brooks father knew Daddy-
Brooks was the best 3rd baseman who ever ever played baseball - in the major leagues for Baltimore Orioles ---- went 0n to the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown NY.
-he will be missed as he was a class act. Todd, you have his baseball, signed off on by no one other than Brooks himself. Be sure and hang on to the ball !!!!!
Cya Gaylon Mulkey's email to his sister, Janis Mulkey
HI Mary Lou
just a quick referral to you about Brooks Of course all of us in LRCHS56 were exactly a year behind Brooks at school. My Dad ""Monk"Mulkey ---knew Brooks
Dad so so well. My Dad was a professional baseball player himself--playing in the old Cotton states league under the Cardinals Branch Rickey --My Dad also
played a few years in the same division as the LR travelers in triple AAA baseball in and around Little Rock and North LR. Those were the days . There simply
has never ever been a baseball family---as thorough and as well liked as the Robinson baseball family. They are quite simply the ""best of the best ""
We will all miss Brooks.
Gaylon Mulkey
It is a mystery to me the memorabilia that I have kept and lost. Since a lot is lost, I don't know what I'm missing; however, what has followed me for 85 years through many years of moving has amazed me. No picture or article, birth announcements, weddings, deaths outshines another. But I will say, I'm glad I kept the many letters I got from Brooks Robinson in the summer of 1955. Through the years, I find these letters and read them and they remind me of 'The Barefoot Boy' which is a relatable poem that speaks on universal themes of aging and the beauty and joy of youth. Our innocence jumps out of the pages, neither knowing where life would take us. Brooks and his fame was a far cry from Vernon and Dennison streets of Little Rock and we both, to this day, were we to have that chance again, would not take a million dollars for that summer. "Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."
One of many as he spent the summer wondering where he was and what he was doing, sometimes wishing to start another year with me at LRCHS, although he had graduated in May. Just a reminder of what our "Tigers" as he called them meant to him. Giving me advice on how to pass Miss Ramsey's English Class and how to make it through my Senior Year. He was special!
Jan Nix McFarlane
September 30th, 2023
My husband, Charles Grimmett, and Gaylon Boshears both played with Brooks. Some of the time they played here in Ferndale just past the first bridge going west from 4 way. Usually on Sunday.. There is a huge house on top of the mountain where they played. The fans sat in the bed of a pickup to watch the game. Charles' father owned the property then. I can't remember the leaguers name but someone probably does. It was high school age kids.
Marcella Rowland
My encounter with Brooks was when I was in 6th grade at Woodruff. Our class was playing baseball at Lamar Porterfield and I was on third base.
Brooks just happened to walk by, turned around and said "I sure like third base " and kept walking. Of course my heart about popped out of my chest
and I have never forgotten those few seconds with Brooks and I never saw him after that. A true moment etched in time.
Sandra Snow Garcia
So so sad he was one of my heroes and my family too.....we all love baseball and have a nephew named Brooks.
Judy Stout McCarthy
Dear ML, thanks so much for sending me information about Brook’s death. It breaks my heart to have to say goodbye to such an exceptional person. Since you were good friends for many years I’m certain this is an especially hard loss for you. Every time you and I have been together in the past half century you’ve recounted his accomplishments and commented on changes in his life and his continuing efforts to make life better for others. The attached article by Washington Post Sports Editor Thomas Boswell demonstrates how Brook’s humanity won the highest professional and personal regard of even his closest professional opponents.
Carol Lee Tucker
I just remember how kind he was. He was always just a great guy in high school-no "big guy on campus", or trying to throw his weight around. When I was in the Children's Hospital Auxiliary, I would call Diane, and ask her if he would donate the poster by Norman Rockwell; and signed baseballs. He never hesitated to send those items. And let me tell you, those items he sent, sold for BIG BUCKS! The 50th reunion, everyone was asked to sit down and stop forming a line; because he was being inundated with folks wanting signed baseballs. He would have done that till midnight; if that's what his classmates wanted. Just sayin'; but I have such good memories of "Brooksie'! We'll miss him.
Anne Bone Brantley
“In 1966, the Baltimore Orioles won the American League pennant. Brooks Robinson, a native of Little Rock, was the star third baseman for the Orioles. I had played sandlot baseball with Brooks when we were growing up in Little Rock, and we had both made the Little Rock All-Star Team. We were also in the same Boy Scout troop, but Lana had an even closer relationship with Brooks. She had dated him when they were classmates at Pulaski Heights Junior High School, and they were in the same graduating class at Little Rock Central High School. In late September, Lana heard that the Orioles were playing one of the last games of the regular season at Yankee stadium. They had not clinched the pennant, but they were close, and it was a virtual certainty that they would do it. She picked up the phone, called Yankee stadium, asked for the visitor's dugout, and when someone answered she said, “I want to speak to Brooks Robinson.” The person on the other end said, “Lady, he's getting ready for a game, he can't come to the phone.” Lana replied, “You tell him that Lana Douthit is calling.” In no time at all Brooks was on the phone. Lana said, “Brooks, we are so excited, we have never been to a World Series.” He laughed and said, “Neither have I, Lana.” The next day, the Orioles clinched the pennant and three days after that we got a special delivery letter from Brooks. It contained tickets to games three and four, scheduled for Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks also invited us to his home for a party before and after each game. I was the envy of the Newark FBI office. We attended both games. The Orioles swept four straight games from the National League champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers. For the first time in franchise history, the Orioles were World Series champions. The Dodgers scored only two runs in the entire series and those runs came in the first three innings of the first game, which meant that the Baltimore pitchers shut out Los Angeles for the last thirty-three innings of the World Series. It was a fantastic accomplishment.”
Lana Douthit Bethune
MVP (World Series 1970)
Rich and famous, he is more approachable now
Then when the popular kids called him Brooksie.
We’re miles apart but brought close by the tube and newspaper fame.
I’m neither fan nor friend, really.
But he remembered my name. We used to say hi.
What made him untouchable in high school
Was the same thing that divided most of us.
He didn’t have money, which was one divider
But he had popularity and personality, which I sought
To define then and even now I can’t.
But I have advanced myself, and taken off the braces
And filled in here and there and worked and lived on both coasts.
I still can’t call him Brooksie.
But I’m proud to watch him with other thousands
And hear him humbly explain in untaught English
(My only superiority)
That he just threw the ball.
Karo Kampbell (Carolyn Tillotson)
I wrote this poem when Brooks was named Most Valuable Player in 1970
and I sent it to him
Thanks for notifying everyone about Brooks Robinson. He was one of the best classmates I had at LRCHS. We sat across the isle from each other in senior typing class. I remember him telling me in class that he was going to play ball for the Orioles. and that they gave him $500, but he had to go to a farm team for a short time before playing for Baltimore. He played sandlot ball for some store in Little Rock and was seen by a scout. I did not even know he played baseball.
Larry Nahlen
I am deeply saddened to learn of my old friend! Like everyone who knew Brooks will miss him greatly.
Gilbert Rainey
I've read several tributes to Brooks. We all know what a great athlete he was and if you don't know, just check the record books. But most of all, Brooks was a wonderful person. I told him once that I was glad to use him as a role model for my sons. There are many fine athletes then and now, but very few as good a person as Brooks. We were all blessed to know him.
Jack Stanley
We are all saddened by this loss. Brooks was always the kindest of kind people. Gave so much to everyone, even in the early years. He will be missed!
Betty Weiss Stoker
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GIRLS OF '56 NEWS: Please mark your calendar for Monday, December 4, our Christmas Luncheon
at Mary Lou Hosack Billingsley's, 11:30am
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Here's my funny for this week. My great-granddaughter, Cali, is second from the left in this picture. She plays on a Baltimore soccer team named
NIGHTMARE. I have no idea who thought that up for 6/7 year olds. Anyway, this picture was taken at a recent tournament. I think they
told the girls to look scary, like a NIGHTMARE. I don't think many of those know how to look scary, certainly not Cali.
ML