MAJOR LEAGUE ALL-STAR COMMENTATOR: When Jimmie Hall provided radio play-by-play for Gaston College basketball games
In Gaston College's infancy as an athletic program in the 1960s, Belmont's WCGC-AM 1270 used to broadcast the school's basketball games at Gastonia's old Groves Gymnasium.
Not only did the radio station broadcast the games but one of the announcers was a major league baseball All-Star, record-holder and local celebrity in Jimmie Hall.
In an era before high-paying free agency in professional sports, Hall spent his 1967-68 offseason as a furniture salesman in Denver, N.C., for then-Charlotte Motor Speedway general manager Richard Howard and as a sports announcer at WCGC.
He did a sports talk show three times a week while also handling play-by-play chores for Gaston College basketball games.
Hall was a part of what proved to be a historic season for a school whose athletic teams were then nicknamed "Rebels."
Under head coach Pete Brooks and led by future coaching stars Leonard Hamilton and Jim Turpin, Gaston College went 19-15 overall against a schedule that included four-year collegiate freshman teams from ACC schools Wake Forest and North Carolina and a nearby junior college, Gardner-Webb, that had a future Basketball Hall of Famer (Artis Gilmore) on its roster.
The Rebels would end that season by advancing to National Junior College Athletic Association postseason play for the first time.
"Kind of keeps me busy," Hall told The Charlotte Observer that printed a story on Hall's offseason "hobby" on Jan. 7, 1968. "But I like it. The radio is fun. And I love the furniture business. It's an opportunity to learn and something I'd like to consider for the future."
Hall was a Mount Holly native who burst onto the local sports scene as a baseball star at Belmont High School and for the Gastonia American Legion Post 23 baseball team that played its games in the Sims Legion Park facility that Gaston College's baseball program now calls home.
In the summer of 1954, the 16-year-old Hall played for Post 23's American Legion World Series runner-up team that was coached by the legendary Lawrence "Crash" Davis and had a star pitcher (Harold Stowe) who eventually led Clemson its first two College World Series appearances before he pitched in the major leagues for the New York Yankees.
Hall played two more years of high school and one more season of Legion baseball before signing a free agent contract with the old Washington Senators in June 1956. The Senators' offer of $4,000 surpassed the offers of five other teams - Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates - who were pursuing Hall nine years before the start of the major league draft.
Originally signed as a second baseman, Hall was later converted into an outfielder.
After spending all or parts of seven seasons in the minor leagues - and serving 10-month and 6-month stints for the U.S. Army - Hall broke into the major leagues in 1963 by setting a long-standing record.
Having moved from Washington, D.C., to Minneapolis in 1960 and becoming the Minnesota Twins, Hall's deliberate progression through that organization's farm system was an indication of how talented the Twins were becoming.
Hall needed fate to intervene to give him a chance in the big leagues as an injured knee to future Baseball Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew created a roster spot for Hall - and a $6,000 major minimum contract in early April.
By the end of Hall's 1963 rookie season, he had slugged an American Legion rookie record 33 home runs to break Hall of Famer Ted Williams' previous record of 31 from 1939; Hall's record would stand until 2014 when Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox hit 36 home runs.
In 1964, Hall played in the first of his two major league All-Star games and was a ninth-inning defensive replacement in centerfield for future Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle.
In 1965, he was one of six Twins named to the All-Star roster of a game played at Minneapolis' Metropolitan Stadium - and later that year Hall and the Twins would lose a heartbreaking seven-game World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Hall would play one more season with the Twins before playing for the California Angels (1967-68), Cleveland Indians (1968-69), New York Yankees (1969), Chicago Cubs (1969-70) and Atlanta Braves (1970).
During that 1967-68 tenure playing for the Angels in which he broadcast Gaston College games, Hall's team owner was legendary Hollywood actor and singer Gene Autry and his average salary was $26,000 a year.
In retirement, Hall worked for Cherryville-based Carolina Freight and also lived in Florence, S.C. and Elm City, N.C.
In 2008, Hall was inducted into the Gaston County Sports Hall of Fame.