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Those Who Died That Others Might Be Free

 

Frank Haggerty

 

Date and Place of Birth: 1919 Nassau County, New York
Date and Place of Death: September 23, 1943 Charlotte, North Carolina
Baseball Experience: College
Position: Shortstop
Rank: Second Lieutenant
Military Unit: USAAF
Area Served: United States

 

Frank C Haggerty was born in Nassau County, New York in 1919. He attended Chaminade High School in Mineola, New York, where he was a baseball and basketball standout.

 

Haggerty graduated from Chaminade in 1936 and went on to captain both the baseball and basketball teams at St John's University in Queens, New York. The young shortstop, who was being compared to Phil Rizzuto at the time, signed a professional baseball contract after graduating from St John's in 1942 but joined the Army Air Force before he had a chance to play.

 

Haggerty trained as a fighter pilot and was commissioned a second lieutenant. On September 23, 1943, he took off from Morris Field in North Carolina in a Curtiss P-40F Warhawk. A short time later the fighter plane crashed ten miles southwest of Charlotte Airport killing Frank Haggerty.

 

 

The Lt Frank Haggerty Award is given to New York's outstanding basketball player each year. Its first recipient was Andrew "Fuzzy" Levane of St John's in 1943, and every year high school basketball teams in the New York metropolitan area compete in the Lt Frank Haggerty Tournament.

 

Added December 23, 2006.

 

Copyright © 2007 Gary Bedingfield (Baseball in Wartime). All Rights Reserved.