University of Alabama football star Grant Gillis of Grove Hill once played on Camden's baseball team

Grant Gillis of Grove Hill, Alabama.

Last week in this space, I recounted a nearly 100-year-old news item that mentioned former Alabama football star, Grant Gillis.

In the Nov. 29, 1923 edition of The Wilcox Progressive Era, it was reported that “Camden was well represented in Montgomery Saturday to see Alabama win the victory over Georgia in the football game. They enjoyed seeing Grant Gillis do some star playing, Gillis having been on the Camden ball team here last season. Among them were Messrs. J.M. McLeod, Cecil Skinner, Eugene Watts, G.L. Wilkinson, John and Jesse McLeod, Robert Lee Hawthorne, Jim Bell, S.J. Ervin and Clarence Smith.”

After last week’s paper hit the streets, several readers emailed wanting to know more about Grant Gillis and his connection to Wilcox County. Based on the news item above, some thought that Gillis might have played football for Wilcox County High School prior to going to the University of Alabama. However, this wasn’t quite the case.

Gillis was born on Jan. 24, 1901 in Grove Hill. According to the Nov. 15, 1923 edition of The Progressive Era, he actually played on Camden’s baseball team (not Wilcox County High’s football team) in 1922. From the local baseball diamond, he went on to play football and baseball at Alabama.

The 1923 Alabama-Georgia game that so many fans from Camden attended was played on Nov. 24 at Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, and Alabama won, 36-0. Gillis was one of the stars of this game, which clinched the Southern Conference championship for Alabama. In the second quarter, Gillis scored the first touchdown of the game, when he caught a 50-yard pass from left halfback Allen McCartee. It was all down hill for Georgia after that.

In what was probably his finest moment as a football player, Gillis, who played quarterback threw a 59-yard touchdown pass to Johnny Mack Brown, who later starred in a number of old cowboy movies, to help win Alabama’s first post-season bowl appearance in 1926. In that game, Alabama beat Washington, 20-19, in the Rose Bowl.

Gillis must have been a better baseball player than football player because Major League Baseball’s Washington Senators (now known as the Minnesota Twins) signed him right out of college. He made his Major League debut with the Senators on Sept. 19, 1927 and he continued to play for the Senators throughout the 1928 season. Gillis eventually ended up with the Boston Red Sox and made his final Major League appearance with the Red Sox on June 25, 1929.

Gillis was what we would now call a utility infielder. At various times during his three-season Major League career, he played second base, short stop and third base. In a total of 62 Major League games, he recorded 48 hits, including 12 doubles and two triples, but no home runs.  

After his professional baseball career, Gillis went on to coach at the Georgia Military Academy for 30 years, retiring in 1967. Gillis passed away at the age of 80 on Feb. 4, 1981 in Thomasville, and he is buried in the Gosport Cemetery in Clarke County.

In the end, let me hear from you if you know of any additional ties between Grant Gillis and Wilcox County. No doubt he was a great player for Camden’s local baseball team, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he still has relatives in the area.