After 50 years, Southeast Missouri State baseball's original All-American reminisces

It's been more than 50 years since Keith Newcomb played baseball at Southeast Missouri State, but the memories haven't faded much.

The 74-year-old recalled transferring to Southeast, then Division II and the Indians, and starting out his sophomore season 0-for-22.

By the time that 1963 season was over, he had a team-best batting average of .400 and an on-base percentage of .400 en route to becoming the program's first All-American.

Half a century later, the Southeast baseball program has built consistent success under coach Steve Bieser. Much as Bieser has left his imprint all over Redhawks baseball, Newcomb gives all the credit for his success to his coach, the late Joe Uhls.

"He just stuck with me, and I can't thank him enough," Newcomb said.

He admits he was "only" a second-team selection, but he's still the first on a list that's grown to 32 All-American selections since.

Bob Swift, who played with Newcomb at Southeast in 1963 and 1964, said Newcomb was extremely deserving of the accolade. Swift, a Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer, was a high school baseball coach for 37 years at Lafayette and called him "the best shortstop I've ever been on a field with."

"He was one of those guys that was pesky, and as a pitcher, you don't want to pitch to him because he was a pain in the butt," Swift said. "He was hard to get out. He fouled pitches off and just battled. He never gave up on an at-bat. He just did not give up on an at-bat. He always made you work to get him out."

The latest to join the club is pitcher Joey Lucchesi, who became the program's first first-team Louisville Slugger All-American this year and also was a second-team selection by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and a third-team pick by Baseball America.

Newcomb, a graduate of Affton High School in St. Louis, went to Millington out of high school on a partial academic and baseball scholarship but only played one half inning to use up a year of eligibility. He laughed when he realized he batted 1.000 that year after getting a hit in his only at-bat.

He decided to move south to Cape Girardeau and told Uhls that he planned to try out for the baseball team.

He felt fortunate that Uhls gave him the opportunity to play despite already having a senior shortstop on the team and Newcomb's slow offensive start that season.

The team went 11-9 that year for the program's first winning season. In the 53 years since, there have only been 12 losing seasons.

Newcomb remembers hitting around .400 his junior season and batted .375 his senior year, during which he played with a torn leg muscle.

"Super teammate and just a really good player," Swift said. "That's two of the best things you could say about him. As good a player, he was probably a better guy. Just one of those kind of guys you enjoy being with every day."

Spending time with the guys -- "the fellowship and the kids we played with," which included Southeast Hall of Famer and Indians' ace Dale Meier, Bob and Dick Swift and Gary Wadlington -- was one of Newcomb's favorite parts of his time in the program.

"It was just fun," Newcomb said. "We played St. Louis University and beat them in a doubleheader in Cape, I think it was the second year I was there. ... They were one of the teams at that time that were going to the College World Series a lot. Of course we played SIU. I just enjoyed it. Coach Uhls was our coach -- very, very nice guy. Loved him to death."

Newcomb went on to coach football at Lindbergh High School in St. Louis before moving to southwest Missouri to start his own business in 1973.

Six years later, he started to miss coaching, so he talked to the staff at Evangel College in Springfield, Missouri, about helping out. Instead, he became the linebackers coach. He took a defensive coordinator position at Langston University in Oklahoma in 1990 after serving as a scout for the Kansas City Royals for the previous five years.

"I just love sports," Newcomb said. "But baseball was my sport to play, and I loved coaching football."

He started out as a pre-law student at Southeast, but when his father died during his second year there, he knew his family wasn't going to be able to afford for him to go to law school. So he started focusing on coaching classes, some of which Uhls happened to teach.

"He put the players out there [and let us play]. In fact he had me teach his class on baseball," Newcomb said. "I had him for a teacher, but he had me teach a class on infield play and stuff. He was just easy-going, and he and I always would sit down and try to do the lineups -- that's why I've always loved coaching. He just treated me very, very, very well."

Sports remain a mainstay in his family. His son, Guy, was a teacher and coach and now provides score updates across Missouri online as "Scoreboard Guy" and also works on multiple sports radio shows in southwest Missouri.

Newcomb's daughter, Ginger McCullough, is an assistant football coach at Hillcrest High School. She was originally added to the staff of John Beckham, who is the adopted father of former Missouri receiver and current Tennessee Titan Dorial Green-Beckham, to serve as an academic adviser but has since taken over special teams assignments on game day.

His grandson, Devin McCullough, who will be a junior at Hillcrest, was an Academic All-State baseball and football player.

Devin, a pitcher and third baseman, plans to travel to Cape Girardeau on Monday for the Redhawks' High School Prospect Camp -- an opportunity to play on Capaha Field, the same place his grandfather played five decades ago.

"I loved the community down there," Newcomb said. "I just had a good time."