Baseball is the longest standing sport at Yavapai College and the program carries national recognition as a powerhouse to this day. This reputation is present, because of people like Jim McKaskle. He started his Yavapai College career as a member of the English Department in 1972, rising all the way up to Department Chair before departing YC in 1977.
His YC coaching career began as a volunteer coach for the hall of fame Coach Ward. Coach Mac played a big role in the recruiting as he convinced Ward to allow him to recruit his hometown of Tucson resulting in those student-athletes becoming the nucleus of a team that won Roughriders’ first National Championship in 1975. During Coach Mac’s time from 1972-77 the Roughriders compiled over 200 wins and captured two National Championships in 1975 and 1977.
Read more about the YC Hall of Fame members here.
Story written by Jim McKaskle:
George Hawley, Bitter or Better? A life of Inspiration
George Hawley wasn’t supposed to play at Yavapai. We really did not think he was good enough. However, we kept him because I had made a promise to the Prescott High School coach that if any player from his program had been a starter and wanted to come to Yavapai, we would honor that by giving him a scholarship of tuition, books, and fees. I felt we needed more support from the community, and this would be a way to do that. George and four other players came, and none were expected to play. One became our regular bullpen catcher, one became our second game of a doubleheader catcher, one ended up being our starting second baseman, one became our left-hand batting practice pitcher and George became our reliever on our 1975 National Championship Team.
George did not have a fastball. At best it was good batting practice speed. He did come to us with a big curve ball, too big for the Arizona JUCO League. I worked with George during the fall to tighten the spin and the arc and we were able to also develop command of the pitch to the point where he could throw it any time. I also taught George the changeup, simply because we felt he needed a third pitch. We brought him into games when we were facing very aggressive hitters and we needed strikeouts. Once in a game during Spring Break we were facing ASU JV’s and they had sent down several of their younger varsity players who were also starters. I think five of those players ended up playing Major League Baseball. They had just humiliated our starter with several line drives in a row over our center fielder’s head. After we finally got them out, our center fielder, John Emmett, jokingly suggested that we go with the “I” formation with our outfielders next inning. Down about ten runs, we brought in Hawley. He ate them up with curveballs and changeups. After going through their lineup once, George struck out five and two hit weak ground balls to the infield and the other two hit pop ups. We pulled him and put in another hard thrower. We ended up losing the game by a score of 11-10, but it was George Hawley that took their momentum away and allowed our offense to get us back in it. This game made George Hawley. He had progressed to the point where we now had confidence in him in crucial situations against very aggressive hitters. We used him exclusively in relief and he rewarded us by pitching successfully every time.
However, this wasn’t George Hawley at his best. His best performance came in the state tournament against Central Arizona College when we brought him in to the game with the bases loaded and Central’s best hitter, Gary Fichtman, at the plate. We were up by one run at the time, and they had come back on us and had momentum on their side. Loud and mouthy, they let us know they were back in the game. Hawley had beaten them in relief the day before and now they were sure they had him and us. George threw two straight curveballs, both low and on the outside corner and called balls by the umpire. Now with the count 2-0, Fichtman dug in. He and everyone in the ballpark were confident that since George had missed with two curveballs and didn’t want to take a chance on walking him, the next pitch had to be a fastball. I sent a signal for a changeup to Bill Whittington, our catcher. George shook it off twice; and then Bill pointed with his thumb to me, all the while Fichtman continued digging in. Hawley then threw the changeup low and outside, Fichtman aggressively swung at it and popped it up to our second baseman for the third out and killed their rally. They did not recover, and we won the ball game. Coach Gary Ward later said, “that pitch in that situation defined us and defined our program.”
George Hawley’s story doesn’t end there. Sitting in the stands that day and the day before was an Assistant Coach from the University of Louisville. Afterwards, he talked to Coach Ward and said, “That kid, has more guts than anyone I have seen, I want him in our program.” George ended up at the next year at University of Louisville in the Fall of 1975 on a full ride baseball scholarship. During that Fall, the velocity that had been missing in George’s baseball career up to that point suddenly made its way into his pitching repertoire. “I don’t know why Coach Mac, it was nothing they did, it was just that my legs got stronger, my Drop and Drive got better, and the ball seemed to come out of my hand better.” By the end of the fall. he emerged as Louisville’s Number One pitcher. After celebrating Christmas in Prescott with his mother, George looked forward to the next year. In fact, he left right after Christmas so he could get an early start on workouts in the fieldhouse and the upcoming season. Unfortunately, when he got back, he was greeted by a snowstorm.
While walking on campus George stepped off a curb and hit a patch of ice. His feet went out from under him, and he landed on the curb on his right arm, his pitching arm. Right away it hurt terribly and was horribly misshapen, so George knew immediately something was wrong, really wrong! Friends took him to the Emergency Room where it was X-Rayed and confirmation of what he already knew, his arm was broken. The doctor came and they re-set the bones and put the arm in a cast. George was given a bottle of pain pills and told to go home for the weekend, New Year’s Eve. His instructions were to take one of the pills every six hours if the pain got severe. The pain did get severe, and George took the pills until they were gone and then a couple of days later noticed that his fingers had changed colors. Somewhat frightened, he went back to the E.R. It was then that he was told that swelling had caused the cast to be too tight, had cut off circulation in his arm and they would now have to amputate it.
Recently I had a conversation with George when he called to inquire about Danny Rees, a teammate of his in both high school and at Yavapai College, who died this past summer. He knew that I had spoken at Danny’s memorial and wanted to know more about the circumstances. I shared those and I also shared how I had used George’s inspirational story several times in talks I have given. I mentioned that he never expressed bitterness or resentment over what happened.
“Coach Mac, I didn’t have the time nor the reason to be bitter. I had a wonderful baseball career. Not many kids who play baseball can be a National Champion, but I was with you, and Yavapai in 1975. I had the privilege of playing for you and Coach Ward, the best coaches I have ever had, and learned more about baseball, how to pitch, and how to carry myself on the field than anyone else I played with. Even though the Louisville coaches told me pro scouts were really impressed with me, I knew I wasn’t a John Denny. (A former Prescott High School pitcher who pitched in the Major Leagues for the St. Louis Cardinals.) The University of Louisville told me that they would honor my scholarship if my grades warranted it, I had a girl that I loved and wanted to marry, and she told me that she didn’t care, if I was Louisville’s Number One pitcher or just George Hawley, she was in love with the George Hawley. The coach told me I had learned so much about pitching from you, that he wanted me to stay around and help the rest of the pitchers with things I had learned from you. I did that for that year and the fall of the next year, but my class loads were heavy, and the need to keep my grades up kept me from going further. I did feel like I really helped some of them with “Drop and Drive” and “Pitching in Sets”, throwing on the side between starts, and throwing the curveball with a stiff wrist like you taught me in order maximize spin and throw it for strikes more often.”
“What happened to me just happened. Who is to say, I wouldn’t have blown out my arm the first game. I was already starting to experience some tightness when I pitched. Who knows? I decided right away there was no use in letting it eat at me and becoming bitter. I needed to move on to the next thing in life. I was young, I had lots of my life ahead of me and I wanted to be happy and enjoy it. I could never have enjoyed life if I became a bitter person. I wanted to be excited about life! I wanted to become a better person, so I could get married, have a family, and be a good father. I have tried to spend all my life to be better at work, to do things that others aren’t willing to do to improve at my job. I have won lots of sales awards from my company because I spend every sales call trying to do better than the last one. My wife and I have been married over forty years. I have always wanted to be a better husband. I have worked to be better at golf and have sealed a lot of sales deals on the golf course. I am babysitting twin grandchildren right now so my daughter can get her degree, so I think I am now working on being a better grandfather. I have had a wonderful life because I played baseball, and also, because baseball hasn’t been a part of it. I have no regrets or sorrow. Life has been good to me.”
After graduating from the University of Louisville, George Hawley went into Sales and Marketing for a large company. He was successful and retired from that last year. He became an excellent golfer as well. When we had a thirty-year reunion of our National Championship team in 2005, one of the activities was a golf tournament. George won it handily.
George told me he has never felt like he was handicapped. “Shoot Coach, I can tie my shoes with one hand faster than you can yours with two.” He is a great person, one who chose to be better rather than bitter when life handed him a tragedy. I am grateful that I got to be his coach. I am even more grateful that I have been able to see the inspiration he has been to me and others who are a part of his life. George did not let his tragedy define him, rather he chose to let his life define his tragedy. The same work ethic that transformed him from a player that we were positive could not pitch at our level to a force to be reckoned with on the mound in crucial game situations, became the same work ethic that defined his life. Seeing that first-hand from both perspectives has been rewarding and something that I treasure greatly. Ultimately, when tragedy strikes, we all have that same opportunity, it can embitter us, or it can embolden us to make us stronger individuals. Ultimately, in most cases we are the one who makes the choice.
George Hawley is third from right kneeling in the middle row,
Coach Jim McKaskle is standing on the right in the back row.
