|
Non-player & Front
Office Personnel |
|
Clarence « Shovel » Hodge (standing in picture on the left), former major leaguer,
one of the original AFL managers and the league’s 6th president. Sitting next to Hodge is Joe Gerlach, secretary-treasurer of the Fort Walton Beach Jets. |
|
George Grant, the first president of the Alabama-Florida League, and a United States
Congressman, takes in the Montgomery Rebels opener in 1958. |
|
Charles T. Laney followed Grant as the second league president after the 1938 post-season
controversy which drove Grant from office. |
|
Maurice Bloch, was the man who ran the Cloverleafs in Selma for many years. Bloch
was responsible for bringing and keeping baseball in Selma and Bloch Park, Selma’s stadium, stands as a tribute to his contributions. |
|
Billy Moore, the 8th and final president, took over the position in 1959 after
then president, Sam Smith, left to become the Sally League chief. |
|
The League Presidents
|
|
When Selma joined the AFL in the late fifties, these two men ran things: Earl
Goodwin, vice president, and Earl Ezzly, president. |
|
Troy President in the early 1940’s: T. Grady O’Neill
|
|
Rip Hewes – Dothan’s team President in the 1950’s and the city’s greatest promoter
of sports. The city’s football stadium still bares his name. |
|
Joe Panaccione, owner of the Pensacola Senators in to 1960’s
|
|
Art Decatur was president of the rival Georgia – Alabama League in the late forties.
|
|
1962 Montgomery Manager Johnny Groth, General Manager Ray Wilson, Danny Long and
Rebel’s President, Ernest O’Connor |
|
Left to Right: Dothan sports legend and team President, W. D. « Rip » Hewes, player-manager
J.C. Dunn, and Dothan team Director O.B. Pittman |
|
Montgomery manager Frank Carswell, center, and Rebels player personnel director,
Ralph Snyder, right |
|
Happy Campbell, who briefly managed Troy in 1938, and was the manager at Troy in
1935, the final season of the Dixie Amateur League |
|
Windy Bivings, Owner of the Donalsonville franchise
|
|
George Wallace tosses out the first pitch at Paterson Field in Montgomery
|
|
Dothan Batboy Ernie Hudson
|
|
Prior to leaving for Rochester, (Montgomery President Ernest) O’Connor said
that he had hopes of securing a working agreement with either the Boston Red Sox or Los Angeles Dodgers. « ‘Both have indicated that they would like to have Montgomery as a farm club », said O’Connor, « There’s also a chance », said O’Conner, « that Columbus, Ga, and Birmingham may join our league this year. Both are interested » – The Montgomery Advertiser, November, 1962, |
|
Adele Bloch, daughter of Maurice Bloch and secretary of the Selma Cloverleafs, Adele
was much more of a general manager than secretary. |
|
Team Owners, Presidents, & Staff
|
|
‘Hooker’ Powell – Graceville Oilers batboy from 1956-58.
|