Memory Of The Week: Post 34 Wins 1967 American Legion National Title

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As of the publication of this story, the American Legion team from Troy is the only other Alabama team to win the American Legion World Series.

Managed by civic leader and longtime director of the Tuscaloosa County Park and Recreation Authority (PARA) Jerry Belk, the 1967 team consisted of an all-star lineup of names many of you may know well.

Belk was also a noted athlete in his day at Tuscaloosa High School and went on to play baseball at Alabama from 1951-54.

To this day, though, Belk’s Post 34’s 1967 squad remains the last from Alabama to make it to the championship game.

In a theme you will notice in this story, Belk was a kind of unlikely hero for this team, telling the Tuscaloosa News in 2012 that he took over the talented squad after its previous coach, James “Pup” Brown, was killed in an airplane crash in 1964 in Cuba, Alabama.

Here’s the team:

It was a season full of memorable games, with none more historic than the season finale at the Memphis Fairgrounds against Northbrook — a talented team from the suburbs of Chicago.

Post 34 had plenty to be proud of on the field, with several players going on to the college ranks like Holt’s Mike Innes and Carl Wright, Glenn Woodruff from Aliceville and Randy Ryan of Moundville, just to name a few.

That month in history, Fleetwood Mac debuted at the National Jazz and Blues Festival as an American bombing campaign ramped up in Vietnam. Deion Sanders was born and the Beatles manager Brian Epstein died.

Earlier in the year, Muhammed Ali refused military service and later in 1967 the Post 34 team was honored at Fenway Park during the 1967 World Series — the year Red Sox slugger Carl Yastrzemski won the Triple Crown.

As the American Legion pointed out of the honor for the team from Tuscaloosa, U.S. senators Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy were both in attendance that day in Boston.

In examining that final game in Memphis, though, the first hero we should mention is Post 34’s No. 4 pitcher, a 17-year-old standout from Tuscaloosa County High School, who logged the performance of a lifetime.

Lefty Johnny Rushing was nothing short of stellar on the big stage, shutting out Northbrook after the team from Illinois had beaten Post 34, 5-0, in the previous matchup.

“It’s the biggest thrill I’ve ever had on a baseball field,” Rushing told the Tuscaloosa News following the win.

“It was a real fine performance and it came when we really needed it,” Belk added of Rushing’s day on the mound for Post 34, where he struck out five and gave up only three hits.

In a pitcher’s duel to decide the national title, Northbrook had Ken Kozil on the mound after he was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 41st round of the June Amateur Draft the year before.

But in a game marked by unlikely heroes, the offense for Post 34 was sparked by Tuscaloosa High’s Bo Baughman — a standout basketball player who later signed a scholarship to continue his hoops career at Alabama College in Montevallo.

It was Baughman who connected on a Kozil pitch, sending it a reported 362 feet before it caromed off the center field fence for a double in the seventh.

Belk then made the decision to pinch-hit for Gordo’s David Elmore in favor of Tuscaloosa High’s Woody Sexton.

Baughman reached third on a wild pitch during the at bat, before Sexton slapped one up the middle to bring him across the plate for the lone run of the title game.

“Coach (Jerry) Belk came up to me in the third inning and told me he would probably let me pinch hit around the seventh inning,” Sexton told the newspaper following the big moment.”And you know, I just knew I was going to hit that ball.”

As a side note: After the lone run was scored by Post 34, Northbrook sent out Henry Hyde Jr., the son of longtime Illinois Congressman Henry Hyde, to close out the game and he did so without surrendering another run. He would go on to be picked in the 9th round of the 1968 amateur draft by the Detroit Tigers.

From that Post 34 team, though, Innes went on to become a two-time All-Southeastern Conference pitcher who set school career records with a 1.98 earned run average and seven shutouts.

Innes also played a key role on the Crimson Tide’s 1968 SEC championship team.

Glenn Woodruff also played football for Bear Bryant but went on to be an All-SEC catcher in 1972 and is credited as becoming the only professional on the 1967 Post 34 team after signing as a free agent with the Cleveland Indians in 1972.

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Over four seasons in the minors, where he got as high as Class AA, Woodruff hit .282 with 22 home runs and 130 RBI.

The team returned to Tuscaloosa as heroes and were greeted at the Leland Shopping Center when they arrived from Memphis the next day.

Still, 40 years would pass before these Tuscaloosa baseball legends received championship rings for the historic accomplishment.

As the Tuscaloosa News reported in 2007, Jerry Belk and others were on hand to be presented their overdue heirlooms. This was thanks to the fundraising efforts of Johnny Rushing’s son John — then the head coach for Post 34.

“When you’ve got good players, that makes you a good coach,” Belk told the newspaper. “I’m very happy for these men. We never expected rings when we were playing. It’s a real honor. These boys appreciate this, and I do, too.”

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