Blast from the Past: Gene Conley

I'm usually pretty good at sports trivia questions, but I learned something new this last week.

Q: Who is the only athlete to win championships in 2 of the 4 major U.S. sports?

A: Gene Conley.

I guess I had vaguely heard of Conley before, but I have to admit this was a completely new one to me. I knew Dave DeBusschere, who starred with the New York Knicks had also played MLB baseball. Of course, I knew about Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson more recently, but none of them won championships in baseball.

Gene was born in Muskogee, OK(Yes, there actually is a Muskogee, OK) in 1930, but grew up in eastern Washington state. He was a big kid at 6'8", 225 lbs, and starred in both baseball and basketball for Washington State University where the baseball team achieved a #2 national ranking, and he scored 20 points/game in basketball where he made honorable mention to the All-American team twice.

He signed a professional baseball contract with the Boston Braves organization for $3000 in 1950 and was in the majors by 1952. The Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee, and Conley's first full season was 1954 about the time Hank Aaron was breaking in with the Braves. Conley went on to pitch successfully in the majors until 1963. He compiled an overall record of 91-96. During this time he made 4 All-Star game appearances and was the winning pitcher in the 1954 MLB All-Star game. He played on the 1957 Milwaukee Braves team that won the World Series. He only appeared in 1 WS game giving up 2 runs in 1.2 IP. He regularly finished in the top 25 pitchers in the NL in multiple categories and in some years in the top 10. Gene pitched for Milwaukee through the 1958 season and then finished his career with the Phillies and Red Sox.

His baseball teams did not want him to play basketball and sometimes gave him extra pay to agree not to play basketball. The lure was always there, though and he played a total of 6 seasons in the NBA with the Celtics(1953, 1959-61) and the New York Knicks(1963-64). He was mostly a reserve power forward and rebounding specialist who averaged 6.3 rebounds in just 16.5 minutes played per game. He played on 3 championship teams with the Boston Celtics in 1959-61, playing with the likes of Bill Russell.

Conley loved the Boston area and settled there after retirement from professional sports. He and his wife Kathryn owned their own company, the Foxboro Paper Company for 36 years until they retired from the business. They moved to Florida and currently live in New Hampshire at their long time vacation home. His wife Kathryn wrote a book about his career and life that was published in 2004 entitled One of a Kind. It is about his life in both baseball and basketball and how the family dealt with him being away so much. Kathryn worked on the book for about 10 years. Gene did not look at it until it was published.

Gene Conley is the answer to one more sports trivia question: Who is the only professional athlete to play for 3 major league teams in one city? (Boston Braves, Boston Celtics and Boston Red Sox). Gene Conley was truly one of a kind!