Cadet Howser

By Jim Joanos

When I was at FSU, male students were required to take ROTC or be enrolled in some other form of reserve military program their first two years of college. After the two required two years I had decided to continue ROTC and planned on going on into the Air Force after college. So I became a squad leader my junior year, 1954-55.

Dick Howser

My “squad” consisted of a dozen or so cadets, mostly freshmen. My goal was to teach them how to drill or march. On the first day on the drill field I became aware of one of my cadets who looked like he was about fifteen years old. He was feisty and challenged me every opportunity he got. As time went on I began to enjoy his antics, not knowing what to expect. We got to be friends. I had no idea that this “kid” would become one of Florida State’s most outstanding athletes. I had no idea that upon that drill field itself would be built a stadium named for him. Thus, I met Dick Howser.

A good high school player in West Palm Beach, but believed to be too small to play college ball, Howser got no scholarship offers. Not to be deterred he walked on at FSU. That same season FSU got a new baseball coach, Danny Litwhiler, a former major leaguer. It took very little time for Litwhiler to discover Howser’s talent and selected him as his shortstop. Litwhiler made a number of other changes to the team.

Soon thereafter FSU’s team became very competitive and began to reach post season accomplishments. In 1957 FSU made it to the college world series for the first time. Dick Howser, team leader, became FSU’s first All American. He again was a first team All American in 1958. FSU has been a serious contender in college baseball ever since.

After FSU, Dick signed to play baseball professionally. He was not in the minors long, In 1961 he became the shortstop for the Kansas City Athletics where he made the All Star team his first year. Unfortunately, in the next few years he was plagued by various injuries and was traded about. First it was to the Cleveland Indians and then to the New York Yankees where he played only minor roles. After another injury, he gave up playing and immediately began coaching. He became the third base coach for the Yankees and did spot duty as interim manager. He left major league baseball in 1979 and became FSU’s head coach. That lasted a year where he had a season’s record of 43-15. When Billy Martin got fired by the Yankees they brought Dick back as manager. He coached the Yankees for awhile until he had some conflict with the Yankee’s owner, George Steinbrenner. As a result, he retired as the Yankee manager. Soon thereafter he was hired by the Kansas City Royals as their manager. In time he did well with the Royals, winning the World Series in 1985 and sat on the top of the baseball world.

All this time Dick had been spending lots of his off seasons in Tallahassee where he was a regular attender at FSU’s football games and other events. During that time my wife and I got to know Dick and his wife, Nancy pretty well. One night at a party we mentioned that we would be in Kansas City for one of her vocational education meetings. The Howsers said that they would get tickets for us at the Royals games while we were in Kansas City. Little did we know what a treat that would be.

When we got to Kansas City because of the conference meetings we decided that I would attend a game alone and that Betty Lou and I would both go to a second one.

I got a city bus and made my way to the stadium where I picked up the ticket at will call. Then I reached the aisle of my ticket. I started down the rows and they kept going until I reached the first row and there on the first row was my seat, much to my surprise right next to Nancy. Finally, it dawned on me, I was to sit on the first row with the manager’s wife watching the defending world champions Kansas City Royals play a game. ”Baseball heaven”!

When the game ended, Nancy said that when I brought Betty Lou the next day we should come earlier as we would be having dinner in “the club” before the game. Consequently, the next day we met Nancy at the club at the top of the stadium, had dinner and then went back down to Nancy’s favorite seats on the front row.

A day or two later when the Royals were not playing, Dick and Nancy met us for brunch at a favorite restaurant of theirs and gave us a short tour of the nearby area. We said good bye and thus ended an unbelievable time of fun with some really special people.

Our ecstasy over our visit to Kansas City lasted but a short time. After some unusual behavior by Dick while coaching the American League team at the annual All-Star game we were stunned by the news he was diagnosed with brain cancer. What happened after that is something of a blur. Dick made attempts to continue coaching but to no avail. He fought the disease hard but in the end died in 1987 at the age of 51.

At Dick’s funeral in Tallahassee, there was a plethora of Baseball higher-ups who came from all over the country as well as lots of common folk, testimony to how much he was loved by so many. The rich and the poor, the executives, the blue collars. They were all there.

In 1988, with the Kansas City team and numerous other officials present along with a stadium full of folks from all walks of life, FSU’s stadium was named and dedicated as “Dick Howser Stadium”. It was my honor to have been chairman of the dedication committee, an experience that I am proud of because of the man it honored.

That is my story of the scrawny young cadet that I watched grow up and become one of FSU’s most important athletes. A special friend.

About the author:

Jim Joanos

Memories of Garnet and Gold

Jim Joanos and his wife Betty Lou have deep roots at Florida State University. Avid sports fans, they have literally seen, and done, it all. Fortunately for us, Jim loves telling first-hand accounts dating back to FSU’s first football game, a 1947 clash with the Stetson Hatters on Centennial Field, where Cascades Park is today.

The Osceola will run a series of these colorful stories written by the former Tallahassee lawyer and judge, which we feel our readers will find enlightening and/or nostalgic.

Jim and Betty Lou, who was Associate Director of the FSU Alumni Association (1991-2003), have been married 65 years and are each listed as one of FSU’s 100 Distinguished Graduates. The couple were enshrined in the FSU Hall of Fame in 2015 as Moore-Stone Award Recipients. Ironically, both Deans Moore and Stone were instrumental in the Joanoses career development.

“Both Jim and Betty Lou Joanos have been exemplary fans and supporters of Florida State University, both academically and athletically,” said Andy Miller, retired President and CEO of Seminole Boosters, Inc. “You can’t go to an athletic event of any kind that you don’t see both Jim and Betty Lou Joanos together. They love their university as much as they love each other.”