Former 89er Walton dies
Danny Walton had a one big summer for the Oklahoma City 89ers. So big that he was named The Sporting News’ Minor League Player of the Year for the 1969 season. The Oklahoman salutes Walton and others with state ties who enjoyed the game day experience.
A farewell to people with Oklahoma ties who enjoyed the game day experience:
•Danny Walton, 70, of Morgan, Utah, was a Houston Astros prospect who played parts of the 1968 and 1969 seasons with the Oklahoma City 89ers. In ‘69, Walton had 25 home runs and batted .332 with 119 RBI for OKC. The Sporting News named Walton its Minor League Player of the Year; he remains the only player in Oklahoma City’s extensive pro baseball history to earn that honor.
The outfielder/first baseman spent 16 years in pro ball, most of that in the minors, where he hit 238 career homers. He played in 297 major league games with either Houston, the old Seattle Pilots, Brewers, Yankees, Twins, Dodgers or Rangers.
Walton was a welder after baseball.
•Marvin Seal, 87, of Oklahoma City. He played basketball and played in the band at Northeast High School. The Korean War veteran was a bricklayer by trade.
•Doris Hutson Raines, 82, of Flower Mound, Texas. She was a former cheerleader at Bristow High School.
•Maynard Peterson, 84, of Norman played football and basketball at Bethany College (Kan.). He was a court reporter after serving in the Army. Peterson won several national awards for speed on a shorthand machine.
•Richard Rule, 56, of Loveland, Colorado., attended Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, where he was the 1982 collegiate bull riding champion. He continued to ride bulls for 15 years after college, competing on the PRCA and Bull Riders Only circuits.
Rule was the Mountain States Circuit champion in 1985 and 1990. In 1988, he was hired as a stunt double for the movie “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys.” He was a fence contractor and worked for the Larimer County Fairgrounds after retiring from competition.
•Jack Hodges, 85, of Oklahoma City was a golfer who twice won the Bob Hope Tournament. He and his brothers owned the Hodges Trucking Co.
•Don Gross, 86, Mount Pleasant, Michigan., was a Cincinnati Reds prospect who played for the Tulsa Oilers for parts of the 1952 and 1954 seasons. No stats were available for those years, but Gross did win 20 games with 230 strikeouts over six years in the majors with the Reds or Pirates.
Gross originally attended Michigan State University on a basketball scholarship but signed with the Reds after his freshman year.
•Cecil Shipp, 82, of Lutz, Florida. He starred in football and basketball at Sequoyah Vocational Training School in Tahlequah in the 1950s. He went to Northeastern State College with the intention of playing both sports but focused on football, earning four letters and second team All-Oklahoma Collegiate Conference honors.
After his senior season, Shipp received a letter from the Baltimore Colts about a tryout.
“(He) just laughed about it,” said a friend.
Shipp instead went into education. He coached football and basketball and served as principal at Sequoyah. He also taught in Ganado, Arizona, on the Navajo reservation. Shipp was inducted into the Sequoyah High School Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Northeastern State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009.
•Tim Baxter, 56, of Indian Springs, Nevada. The former Oklahoma City resident was an all-conference football player at Mount St. Mary High School. Baxter spent 20 years in the Air Force, retiring in 2008 as a master sergeant.
•Ron Merhib Sr., 79, of Warr Acres was an avid fisherman. He taught the sport as a volunteer for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife. He also loved OU football and the New York Yankees.
•Dr. Michael Lonergan, 70, of Midwest City. The Midwest City High School graduate was an AAU champion swimmer. He earned an athletic scholarship to OU, but he moved on to finish school at the University of Dallas and the University of Texas Medical School.
•Harold Westermier, 79, of Arcadia. He captained the Moore High School basketball team.
•Trevor Navratil, 17, of Covington. He played football at Covington-Douglas High School. A family obituary said the wide receiver “played with his whole heart on the football field, which lead to many trips to the local urgent care.”
•Richard Gardner, 73, of Tulsa. The entrepreneur was an avid runner. He was in training for his 40th Tulsa Run.
•Ray Ardray, 65, of Bakersfield, Calif. The Oklahoma native played catcher for the Del City High School baseball team. He also played American Legion ball during the summers. A fan of the OU Sooners and Los Angeles Dodgers. Ardray sold oil field drilling equipment.
•Anna Qualls Powers, 74, of Oklahoma City played high school basketball at Panama.