By Stan Cole
 
Nearly a century ago, on April 2, 1927, Jefferson Woodrow Upchurch took the mound in the first baseball game in which Campbell competed at the junior college level.
 
Toeing the pitcher's rubber with his left foot, wearing the grey flannel uniform with block letters CAMPBELL sewn across the chest, rather than the BCA displayed one year earlier by the Buies Creek Academy team, the hometown left-hander came out of the bullpen in the fifth inning during a 28-0 season-opening win over Raleigh High School.
 
He was not yet even 15 years old.
 
Just over eight years later, that same left-handed pitcher became the first Campbell baseball player to reach the major leagues.
 
On Sept. 14, 1935, he again toed the slab, but this time it wasn't in a small North Carolina hamlet, but rather he donned the home uniform of the Philadelphia Athletics.  Instead of performing before dozens of classmates and neighbors in his hometown, he stood in the middle of 33,000-seat Shibe Park to face the Chicago White Sox.
 
Just over ninety years ago, on Sept. 14, 1935, "Woody" Upchurch pitched a complete game for the Philadelphia Athletics in his major league debut against the White Sox at Shibe Park.  He was the first baseball player associated with Campbell to reach the big leagues.
 
Nine decades later, a record six Fighting Camel Baseball alumni – Thomas Harrington, Seth Johnson, Cedric Mullins, Zach Neto and Ryan Thompson – appeared in at least one MLB game during the 2025 season.  Their careers have been recorded extensively through all modern media methods, both on and off the field.
 
But what about "Woody" Upchurch?  He was a farm boy from a large Buie's Creek family, whose ties to Campbell are as old as the school itself.
 
Watching televised sports might have been a regular way to pass the time for Baby Boomers and all generations to follow, including Campbell's six current MLB performers.
 
For Upchurch and those of his generation, the only way of following sports in the 1920s and '30s would have been in newspapers or through radio broadcasts.  Imagine what might have been going through his mind when he took the mound at 33,000-seat Shibe Park against the Chicago White Sox when he was just 23 years old.
 
A Buies Creek family
The son of Jefferson Davis (J.D.) and Virginia Upchurch, Jefferson Woodrow Upchurch was born in Buies Creek on Apr. 13, 1912 – or 1911 or 1913.  Woody's wife, Agnes, who was the likely source for the information on his grave marker at Buies Creek Cemetery, maintained that he was born in 1912.
 
Some baseball historians stated his year of birth as 1911, while the 1936 Philadelphia Athletics roster, published before his birthday that season, listed his age as 22.
 
Woodrow's grandfather, Benjamin J. Upchurch and his wife Arabella, settled in Harnett County in the mid-1800s and had four sons, the youngest of which was J.D., and 28 grandchildren.  Woodrow was the youngest by 36 years.
 
Scottish minister James Archibald Campbell founded Buie's Creek Academy in 1887, the same year that Benjamin's oldest son, James, enrolled his daughters, Lenora and Lilly, in the school.  That began an incredible 40-year span in which Benjamin Upchurch's children and later grandchildren were among the student body.
 
Woodrow's parents owned the only store in town and provided livery service to and from town.  Jefferson was affectionately known as "Uncle Jeff" to Buies Creek Academy students throughout the years.
 
Benjamin, Woodrow's older brother who was born in 1891, was a standout left-handed pitcher for Buies Creek Academy and later served as assistant baseball, basketball and football coach.  His regular catcher on the BCA baseball team was Leslie Hartwell Campbell, J.A.'s eldest son, who followed in his father's footsteps as the college's president.
 
During the 1914 season, the regular left fielder on Ben's team was future Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Paul Green, author of "The Lost Colony."
 
For the 1926-27 academic year, Buies Creek Academy added two years of college courses to its curriculum and was renamed Campbell College during the 1927 spring semester.
 
Teenage years
Take a moment and try to remember what you were doing in the springtime when you were in seventh grade.  How about when you were 15 years old?
 
Did your after-school routine include grabbing a snack and watching "General Hospital" or "Gilligan's Island" re-runs on television?  Depending on your age, you might have rode your bicycle or skateboard to a friend's house, played pickup basketball, or took piano lessons.
 
On Apr. 2, 1927, just 11 days shy of his 15th birthday, Jefferson Woodrow "Woody" Upchurch made his pitching debut in relief during the season opener of Campbell's first-ever baseball game played as a junior college.  Ironically, he was not a college student, nor close to one.  He was in the seventh grade.
 
In addition to earning a reputation as a standout hurler for BCA, Woody also played semi-professional baseball for the Buies Creek community team.
 
He continued to pitch for Campbell in the 1928 and 1929 seasons and even played center on the 1929 Campbell football team.
 
In October 1929, the Great Crash on Wall Street began and signaled the start of the Great Depression, which lasted for 10 years.  Hard economic times could have been a deciding factor when young Woodrow decided to pursue a professional baseball career.
 
A baseball odyssey
Just over three years after making his first junior college start, Woodrow was signed by Muskogee (Okla.) Chiefs manager Don Smith, who was a minor leaguer originally from nearby Angier, N.C.  From there, he began a minor league pitching tour of the United States that carried him from North Carolina to Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee, West Virginia, South Carolina and back home.
 
Along the way, Woodrow's journey took him through significant events in baseball history, including the first professional regular season game played at night, and ultimately led him to face some of the game's legendary players like Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson.
 
On Apr. 28, 1930, 18-year-old "Woody" tossed a complete game shutout in his regular season professional debut for the Chiefs against the Independence (Kan.) Producers of the Class C Western Association.  That evening, in the second game of the doubleheader, Woodrow was on the bench for what is recognized as the first night game in organized baseball history at Shulthis Stadium in Independence, Kan.  He was originally scheduled to pitch that night, but his start was pushed to the front end of the double dip due to a rain out the previous day.
 
 
In one 20-day stretch, Woodrow tossed six complete games, and he was recognized by local sportswriters as the top rookie in the league.
 
At the conclusion of his first professional season, Upchurch was sold by the Chiefs to the Memphis Chickasaws of the Class A Southern Association.  He divided the 1931 season between Memphis, Muskogee and the Vicksburg (Miss.) Hill Billies of the Cotton States League.
 
The 1932 season was indeed one to remember for the well-traveled Upchurch, who not only pitched for the Beckley (W.Va.) Black Knights of the Class C Middle Atlantic League and the Durham (N.C.) Bulls in the Class B Piedmont League, but also for the industrial league Dr. Pepper Bottlers and semi-pro outfits from Buie's Creek, Godwin and Ayden in his home state.
 
Suffering from untreated appendicitis, Upchurch's overall performance was not significant, but he was sensational when he returned home.
 
In early August, he married Agnes Avery of Erwin and later that month, on Aug. 14, pitched the Dr. Pepper team to a 6-3 victory over the Fort Bragg 17th Artillery in what was recognized as the first semi-pro baseball game ever played at night in Raleigh, N.C.  That night he struck out 10, while also delivering at the plate with a hit, RBI and run scored.
 
He played for five different teams in 1933, including the Bulls, as well as the semi-pro Buies Creek, Angier, Erwin and Wendell clubs.  Overall, he recorded 19 wins and just three losses, hurled four shutouts, including one in which he fanned 18 batters.  In one span, he tossed at least 33 scoreless innings.
 
Textile Leagues and a legend
In 1934, Woodrow was signed to the Lancaster (S.C.) Red Roses of the Catawba League, which was comprised of teams sponsored by textile mills in the piedmont region of the Carolinas.  Mill teams not only provided recreation and entertainment for their employees and surrounding communities, but also featured current and former professional players, some of whom were hired primarily for their baseball skills.
 
Upchurch faced "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, banned from organized baseball since the end of the 1920 season, who was player/manager of the Winnsboro (S.C.) Royal Cords.  Jackson, who was more than 40 years old at the time, had batted .356 in his 12-year major league career, but was banished by MLB commissioner Kenesaw "Mountain" Landis for his role in the 1919 Black Sox scandal. 
 
Woodrow, who posted a 2-1 record against Shoeless Joe and the Royal Cords, was named to the South Carolina All-Star team and tossed the first three innings of the all-star game win over North Carolina.
 
Like the previous season, Upchurch divided his time between teams in North and South Carolina and twice pitched games on successive days in different states.  In July, Agnes gave birth to a son, Jefferson Woodrow "Woody" Upchurch, Jr. 
 
On Aug. 6, one day after tossing the entire contest for Lancaster, he hurled a complete game for Angier in a 6-1 win over Benson.
 
Woodrow began the 1935 season with Angier in the Tobacco State League, then moved to Ayden of the Coastal Plain League, where he won 19 games and helped the Aces reach the CPL finals against the Kinston Eagles.  That performance prompted scout Ira Thomas to sign Upchurch to a late season call up with the Philadelphia Athletics.
 
The Big Time
Connie Mack, whose given name was Cornelius McGillicuddy, served as manager of the Philadelphia Athletics for their first 50 seasons (1901-50) and at least partially owned the American League franchise from 1901-54.  He guided his teams to five World Series titles between 1910 and 1930 and managed future Hall of Fame members like Home Run Baker, Ty Cobb, Eddie Collins, Jimmie Foxx and Lefty Grove.
 
Throughout his tenure, Mack built teams that won back-to-back World Series titles twice (1910-11, 1929-30), then sold off or traded his talent for financial reasons.  The team that won the pennant three-straight years from 1929-31 never finished better than fourth in the eight-team AL standings after 1933.
 
It was during this time that Mack signed a promising young lefthander from Buies Creek, North Carolina.
 
On Sept. 14, 1935 – at the age of 23 – Woodrow Upchurch made his major league debut for the Athletics.
 
While his major league career lasted only 10 pitching appearances (including five starts) over parts of two seasons, Upchurch had the remarkable fortune of playing with (Foxx) or lining up against some of the game's greatest stars.
 
Mack gave Upchurch the start in his initial outing against future Hall of Fame pitcher Ted Lyons of the Chicago White Sox at Philadelphia's Shibe Park, which upon its opening in 1909 was the first brick-and-concrete stadium in Major League Baseball. 
 
When he took the mound in the top of the first inning, Upchurch could look over to first base and see Foxx, who would conclude his career in 1945 with 534 home runs, second at the time in big league history only to Babe Ruth's 714.
 
Upchurch tossed a complete game in his debut but suffered the loss in a 4-2 Sox win.  He surrendered a home run to future Hall of Famer Al Simmons but also recorded his first big league strikeout – against the same former Athletics standout.
 
Woodrow also made starts – both at home – against the Cleveland Indians (Sept. 18) and Washington Senators (Sept. 28) and was invited to major league spring training with the Athletics in 1936 at Fort Myers, Fla. 
 
However, when Upchurch arrived at Fort Myers, Fla., Foxx was no longer on the Philadelphia roster since Mack sold him to the Boston Red Sox along with Johnny Marcum for $150,000 – which equates to more than $3.3 million today.
 
Among Upchurch's spring training outings was a win over the renowned House of David barnstorming team, but by the end of April, the Camden (N.J.) Post reported that he was sidelined by an infected foot.
 
Woodrow made his first appearance of the 1936 season on May 6 out of the bullpen in a 7-1 loss to Cleveland.
 
Four days later, Upchurch witnessed – but did not allow – the first career home run of future Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio in front of 32,000 spectators at Yankee Stadium.  "Joltin Joe" launched his shot in the bottom of the first inning.  Upchurch relieved in the eighth inning and retired the Yankees in order in what eventually ended in a 7-2 loss.
 
DiMaggio batted third in the lineup that day, followed by Lou Gehrig and Bill Dickey, for a Yankee team that went on to win the next four World Series championships.
 
Two weeks later, Mack tabbed Upchurch to face the defending World Series champion Detroit Tigers at Navin Field.  Locked in a pitcher's duel against fellow North Carolina native Vic Sorrell, Woodrow tossed a complete game, but he and the Athletics came up short in a one-run decision.
 
Two decades later, Sorrell, who was then the baseball coach at NC State, sat with Woodrow's son, Woody, the Raleigh Times sports editor, and recalled that game as a thriller.
 
On May 24 at Shibe Park, the Yankees defeated the Athletics 25-2.  Upchurch entered the game in the sixth with his team trailing 17-2 and struck out Gehrig but surrendered three homers over four innings.  More notable than the final score was the fact that Tony Lazzeri hit two grand slam home runs (neither off Upchurch) and set an American League record that still stands with 11 RBI.
 
In late May, Upchurch was optioned to the Albany (N.Y.) Senators of the Class AA International League but did not report. Instead, he returned home once again to play for Angier and later for the Ayden Aces, who won the Coastal Plain League pennant.
 
During that summer, Upchurch's home in Buies Creek burned to the ground.  Then, just over one month after the Aces defeated Kinston to win the CPL title, Jefferson Woodrow Upchurch's playing career was tragically ended when on Oct. 10 his left side was crushed, lung punctured, and left arm mangled in a collision with a truck loaded with bricks.
 
Upchurch's final major league pitching statistics included a 0-4 won-lost record, 7.42 earned run average and two complete games in 10 appearances (five starts) over 43 2/3 innings.  At the plate, he went 3-of-14 with one double and RBI.  Even if those numbers were not remarkable, his experiences at baseball's highest stage were truly exceptional.
 
Just 24 years of age, Woodrow was forced to turn in his glove and spikes for a plow.  His workplace moved from the diamond to the tobacco field.
 
Back to the Tobacco State League
The following June, the Angier Bulls hired Upchurch as the team's manager.  He made a few mound appearances, including one on Sept. 5 against Erwin in the league championship series, but after those outings he never pitched again in organized ball.
 
In late September of 1938 – two years after Woodrow's playing career ended – his older brother Ben died in an automobile accident at the age of 47.
 
A curious mind
Two-time Campbell graduate Brian Upchurch '81, '84 JD, was just 11 years old when his grandfather died on October 23, 1971.  He vividly remembers sitting on the stoop, drinking a Coca Cola with his granddad, but they never talked about Woodrow's baseball career.
 
Brian also recalls that upon entering his grandfather's home during baseball season, a visitor would usually discover two things – unopened toys that were included in boxes of Cracker Jack (but never the popcorn and peanut delicacy that Woodrow loved) and his old television tuned to a baseball game.
 
Growing up in the '60s, Brian often tagged along when his sportswriter dad – "Woody" Upchurch Jr. – covered Carolina League and high school football games at Devereux Meadow for the Raleigh News & Observer and Raleigh Times.
 
"Dad took me up to Devereux Meadow, long after Carl Yastrzemski and the Raleigh Caps had played there, to cover the high school events that were going on there, Friday night football," Brian recalls.  "Then we'd go back to the N&O to put the story in that night. Friday night at Devereux Meadow was important.  Yaz played there, so that made me a Red Sox fan right then. I should have been an Athletics fan, even though they were at Oakland at the time."

Over cups of coffee, just down the street from the barber shop in Garner where he went for haircuts as a kid, Brian admitted that his father and grandfather were not close.
 
"As a matter of fact, I was a grown man practicing law, when I read an article Carroll Leggett, who grew up in Buies Creek, had written about (Woodrow)," said Brian.
 
Leggett's 2002 column in Metro Magazine provided what little backstory there exists on Woodrow in his post-playing days, including the fact that he shared pecans with Carroll's widowed mother at Christmastime and took a bunch of Buies Creek boys to meet Connie Mack at an exhibition game in Raleigh.  Leggett's recollections also include Woodrow helping teach his brother the proper pitching motion and his involvement in semi-pro baseball but mainly centers on the kindness a former big league pitcher demonstrated to his family.
 
Brian moved with his family back to Harnett County before his senior year of high school, and he graduated from Buies Creek in 1977.  He enrolled at Campbell that fall, then started law school at CU in 1981.
 
It was during his college days that he actually first read about his grandfather's major league pitching career.
 
"I knew – had been told – that granddad played ball, but nothing else," says Brian.  "I decided to look at the Baseball Encyclopedia.  I saw it by happenstance at a bookstore, pulled it out, sure enough, there he is, with all the others, every major leaguer that ever played ball at the time of that edition."
 
In the pre-internet age, printed materials provided the only major league baseball records, which stretch to 1876 and the formation of the National League.  Brian's training as an attorney provided him with plenty of research skills, but not enough material from which to draw.
 
"I knew conceptually that he had spent time with the Athletics in the mid-30s and I might have known from the encyclopedia that it was 1935 and the beginning of '36. No details. No box scores," said Brian. "But when I began to understand the importance of digitized information and what was available, I immediately started looking. Bam. (I found an) autographed index card, which was fascinating."
 
Brian Upchurch's online research of newspapers, old yearbooks and other materials provided nearly all of the facts that are included in this story.  Carroll Leggett's column provided anecdotal evidence of Woodrow's later years.
 
First Ebay, then online auctions allowed Brian to assemble a great collection of old photographs and scorecards – including one from Woodrow's major league debut and one from when DiMaggio hit his first big league home run against the Athletics.  Brian was able to acquire other treasures over the past 30 years such as the scouting notes compiled when Woodrow signed his first professional contract and various post cards of Shibe Park plus a 1936 Philadelphia As roster booklet.
 
Thirty years into the project, Brian's search continues, but many questions in his mind will remain unanswered.
 
"I think about what he must have thought when he got off the train in Philadelphia; he's a kid, practically," said Brian.  "You walk into Yankee Stadium for the first time, what in the world he must have been thinking.  He'd never seen a television, much less a televised baseball game. His whole experience absorbing baseball would have been in a small town."

Even for a lifelong Red Sox fan, Brian's first trip to Yankee Stadium was nearly indescribable.
 
"I went into old Yankee Stadium for the first time and walked up the ramps," he recalled.  "It's dark, and you come out into the sunlight. If there's ever an experience of power and real magic, that's it right there, and of course, I'm a Red Sox fan.  I've never felt anything like it."
 
Brian shakes his head in wonder at what Woodrow's response might have been in the spring of 1936 when he first visited "The House that Ruth Built."
 
What started out as a passing interest soon became an obsession for Brian, who poured through the Buies Creek Academy and Campbell roll lists to identify the family members that attended the school in the first half century of its existence.
 
His research is so thorough, and citations so complete that it would make Miss Mabel Powell, longtime Campbell College English teacher, proud if she were still around to read the documents.
 
And it's not over.  Brian continues to browse the internet for more nuggets of information relating to his grandfather.  Maybe he learned his research skills in law school, or from an earlier time from this journalist father, but the more Brian Upchurch discovers, he will always have unanswered questions.
 
Brian cannot name a favorite fact or story that his research uncovered but rather shakes his head in wonder at the baseball life his grandfather lived.
 
"Each time I would read something… Holy cow!  He was scheduled to pitch in the first game to be played under lights in baseball history, but there was a delay and he pitched in the (afternoon) game of the doubleheader.  That was pretty wild," Brian exclaimed.  "When I got into the Buies Creek Academy and junior college roster of students, and I realized that here he is on the team pitching, starting he's 14-15 years old! Learning how he became a starting pitcher at that age because I knew what I was like at that age. I cannot imagine!"
 
Buies Creek today
The baseball field at Campbell University sits at nearly the same location where Woodrow Upchurch pitched almost a century ago.  The pecan trees from which Woodrow gathered nuts to deliver to Carroll Leggett's mother still stand across Main Street from the ballpark.
 
After visiting Jim Perry Stadium, where eight future big leaguers have competed for the Camels since 2011, fans can take a short five minute walk through the heart of the campus, down Judge Taylor Road and into Buies Creek cemetery, where in the northeast corner the grave marker lies of Campbell's first student to reach the major leagues, Woodrow Upchurch, along with those of his wife Agnes and son Woody.
 
Camels in Major League Baseball
Woodrow (Woody) Upchurch (1935-36) Philadelphia Athletics
Reuben (Rube) Melton (1941-47) Philadelphia Phillies, Brooklyn Dodgers
Jim Perry (1959-75) Cleveland Indians, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, Oakland Athletics
Gaylord Perry* (1962-83) San Francisco Giants, Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres, New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves, Seattle Mariners, Kansas City Royals
Cal Koonce (1962-71) Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox
Don Prince (1962) Chicago Cubs
Earl Stephenson (1971-78) Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers, Baltimore Orioles
Matt Marksberry (2015-16) Atlanta Braves
Jake Smith (2016) San Diego Padres
Cedric Mullins (2018-present) Baltimore Orioles, New York Mets
Ryan Thompson (2020-present) Tampa Bay Rays, Arizona Diamondbacks
Zach Neto (2023-present) Los Angeles Angels
Allan Winans (2023-present) Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees
Seth Johnson (2024-present) Philadelphia Phillies
Thomas Harrington (2025-present) Pittsburgh Pirates
 
*Gaylord Perry signed with the Giants out of high school. Although he attended Campbell, he never played on the baseball team.