Hoppy Gardner
Ballplayers Wounded in Combat
| Date and Place of Birth: | January 18, 1911 Salt Lake City, UT |
| Date and Place of Death: | January 14, 1993 Boise, ID |
| Baseball Experience: | Minor League |
| Position: | Outfield |
| Rank: | Captain |
| Military Unit: | US Army |
| Area Served: | European Theater of Operations |
Armand W. “Hoppy” Gardner, son of Oran “Lynn” and Ruby Gardner,
was born on January 18, 1911 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He attended West
High School where he excelled in sports and completed two years of
higher education at the University of California at Los Angeles. While
in California he played amateur and semi-professional baseball and had a
tryout with the Pacific Coast League’s Los Angeles team in 1933.
Back in Salt Lake City he played amateur baseball with the Wasatch Oil
team and was selected for the all-amateur teams in 1934, 1936 and 1937,
batting .391 in 1936. In 1938, as a centerfielder, he joined the Provo
Timps of the highly-competitive semi-pro Utah Industrial League and
batted .307. Aged 28, he attracted interest from the Coast League San
Diego team and was signed by the Lewiston Indians of the Class C Pioneer
League in 1939. He played with the team until June, returning to the
Provo Timps for the remainder of the year where he batted .322.
Gardner was employed at Deer Creek Dam near Provo, Utah, when he entered
military service in March 1941. In October 1941, Corporal Gardner
enrolled in the Armored Force Officer Candidate School at Fort Knox,
Kentucky. The schooling required 564 hours of study and instruction with
emphasis on tactics, gunnery, wheeled vehicles, motorcycles,
communications and administrative duties. He attained the rank of first
lieutenant in April 1942, and married Mildred “Middie” Abraham in
November of that year.
In February 1943, Gardner was assigned to duty overseas and served in
Europe where he commanded a tank battalion with an armored division.
Captain Gardner was wounded in action in the leg, arm and hip on
December 11, 1944, in Germany when he was hit by the fragments of an
exploding artillery shell. He spent considerable time in a hospital in
England before returning to the United States for further treatment in
February 1945. “It’s really not very serious when you consider what some
of the other boys have gone through,” he told the Salt Lake Tribune in
March 1945.
Gardner operated Gardner Distributing as the Idaho distributor for the
Wynn’s car care products. He passed away at his home, aged 81, on
January 14, 1993 in Boise, Idaho, and is buried at Kanosh Cemetery in
Kanosh, Utah.
The Wasatch Oil team with Hoppy Gardner (back row, furthest right)
Armand and Middie Gardner
Date Added May 18, 2020
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