John "Duck" McKee
| Date and Place of Birth: | July 7, 1910 Ellenwood, GA |
| Date and Place of Death: | March 6, 1945 Belgium |
| Baseball Experience: | Minor League |
| Position: | Outfield |
| Rank: | First Lieutenant |
| Military Unit: | 109th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division US Army |
| Area Served: | European Theater of Operations |
John W. "Duck" McKee, the son of Mamie McKee, was a star athlete at Georgia Tech University,
playing football and baseball for four years. The man with the "shy,
quet smile" remains in the Georgia
Tech baseball record books for hitting the most triples in a game with
two, a feat he achieved on three occasions.
In 1932, McKee and Georgia Tech catcher Ike Farmer signed with the
hometown Atlanta Crackers of the Class A Southern Association. McKee was
assigned to the Colum bus Foxes of the Class B Southeastern League and
after batting .310 in 33 games he was recalled by the Crackers. Playing
right field at spacious Ponce de Leon Park, and with 45-year-old future
Hall of Famer Rube Marquard as a teammate, McKee appeared in 86 games
and batted .314. In 1933, he batted .316 in 149 games with the Crackers,
leading the team with 184 hits. Despite having former Brooklyn manager
Wilbert Robinson at the helm, the Crackers could only manage a
seventh-place finish.
Back for a third season with Atlanta in 1934, McKee enjoyed possibly the
highlight of his career in early April when the Crackers faced the New
York Yankees in two exhibition games featuring Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
Having beaten the International League's Toronto Maple Leafs in four
straight exhibition contests, the Crackers were steam-rollered, 18-9, by
the Yankees on April 3, with two singles from Ruth and two home runs
from Gehrig. The following day, the Crackers went down, 10-5, to the
American Leaguers with Gehrig contributing another home run. During the
regular season, McKee continued to be a consistent hitter, batting .306
in 141 games and leading the Crackers with 167 hits, 34 doubles and 15
triples, as the club sauntered into fourth place.
At the beginning of 1935, McKee was part of a deal that brought
big-hitting veteran outfielder Paul Easterling to Atlanta from the Tulsa
Oilers of the Class A Texas League. But McKee wanted to stay close to
home and refused to report to the Oklahoma club, choosing instead to
voluntarily retire from the game. That year, the Crackers won their
first Southern Association championship since 1925, while McKee was
working as a salesman for Firestone Auto Supplies and Services in
Atlanta.
Leaving behind his wife, Mary Holcomb McKee, he entered military service in 1942, and having attended ROTC training
at Fort McClellan, Alabama, while still at Georgia Tech in 1931, he
quickly attained the rank of first lieutenant. McKee served with the
109th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Infantry Division, carrying the
letters he received from his wife, Mary, in his shirt pocket at all
times. He arrived in Wales in October 1943 and landed at Normandy in
July 1944. Lieutenant McKee and his men fought through Normandy,
northern France and into Germany. At one point he was offered the chance
to pull out of the front line and return to headquarters with the rank
of captain, but McKee chose to remain with his men. He was seriously wounded in action
in Germany on March 5, 1945, when he was hit in the stomach by a stray
enemy large caliber shell while driving a jeep at night. He was rushed
to a hospital in Belgium but died the following day.
On September 8, 1946, a special service was held between games of a double header between the Atlanta Crackers and the Mobile Bears, with a plaque unveilled at the rear of the grandstand of Ponce de Leon Park to honor the five Cracker players who made the ultimate sacrifice in World War II - Duck McKee, Troy Furr, Frank Haggerty, James Stewart and Milton Rosenstein.
John McKee is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Atlanta.
|
Team |
League |
Class |
G |
AB |
R |
H |
2B |
3B |
HR |
RBI |
AVG |
|
| 1932 |
Columbus |
Southeastern | B | 33 | 129 | 24 | 40 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 39 | .310 |
| 1932 | Atlanta | Southern Assoc | A | 86 | 261 | 36 | 82 | 12 | 2 | 4 | 34 | .314 |
| 1933 | Atlanta | Southern Assoc | A | 149 | 583 | 72 | 184 | 34 | 14 | 3 | 75 | .316 |
| 1934 | Atlanta | Southern Assoc | A | 141 | 546 | 86 | 167 | 34 | 15 | 4 | 75 | .306 |
Sources
Corsicana Daily Sun - March 21, 1945
Georgia Tech Alumnus, The - May-June 1945
Thanks to the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library and John L. Cochrane, son of Joseph D. Cochrane, for help with this biography.
Date Added February 1, 2012 Updated March 14, 2020
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