2002 Male Player: Don Cox
/Don Cox
It was only one year ago that Don Cox was honored by the Illinois USSSA Hall of Fame for his participation on the 1976 World B Champion Forest Hills Lanes team. Now, Don will stand at the podium along to be honored for the whole of his remarkable career as an infielder and pitcher with teams such as RMA, Forest Hills, Bullard’s, the Stars, Schlichting Excavating and Miller Transportation.
He joins fellow Forest Hills Lanes teammates Clancy Horn (1996) and Rod Shives (1999) in the Illinois USSSA Hall of Fame Male Player category.
Don Cox became playing softball back in 1961, following an exceptional high school career as a pole vaulter, as well as baseball and basketball player back in Dupo, Illinois, just across the river from St. Louis. AT that time, the Rockford area had few facilities and Cox had to be satisfied with a 14 to 16 game season. By 1969, however, he had hooked up with manager Paul Bell, who was putting together a future power house squad. From 1970 through 1972, the team compiled a 233-41 record.
“If you love the game, you can kinda teach yourself to do anything.”
Then, starting with RMA in 1974 and ending with Little Caesar’s in 1988, Cox compiled an 867-207 pitching record competing against top tournament teams in Class A and B. Over that same 15-year period, he was 48-26 in USSSA Divisional Play. Offensively, he compiled lifetime .485 average.
Cox’s hurling feats include a no-hitter in 1986 against the Wisconsin state champs. He came close on many other occasions, throwing at least a dozen one-hitters, including the first one hitter ever hurled at Forest Hills Diamonds.
“I’m a little embarrassed because I consider myself a team player,” Cox said of his selection. “Any [individual] accolades are from being part of a team.”
Some of Cox’s favorite memories are of playing in front of packed stands of cheering fans in the 70s. But most of all, he enjoyed being part of a team. He is especially proud of the many people he competed with over the years, nothing that they played as teams.
“In all my years, I don’t recall hearing more than a handful of cross words,” Cox recalled.
As talented as he was physically, Cox was just as mentally tough. When he was 25, he suffered serious injuries, including damage to his throwing arm in a motorcycle wreck that threatened his softball career. Undaunted, he practiced throwing with his other arm all winter against a box in the basement, and played the entire 1966 season left-handed as an outfielder.
As usual, Cox was rather unimpressed with that accomplishment saying, “If you love the game, you can kinda teach yourself to do anything.”
In 1976, Cox helped lead Forest Hills Lanes to the USSSA B World Title, giving up only three extra base hits. That same year, he was MVP of the Miller Lite Open in Milwaukee, named All-State and All-World. In 1982, he was All-Tournament at the USSSA A Divisional.
From 1989 through 1994, Don wrapped up a 21-year USSSA career, and 33 years in all, with the Jungle Jims team in the Rockford Park District league, pitching all their games and going 63-7.
Even as he stands for induction into the Illinois USSSA Hall of Fame, Cox prefers to direct the praise elsewhere saying, “I want to pay tribute to our sponsors. We never really get to tell them how much they meant to our teams. Our sponsor, Jim Kelley, went above and beyond anything I’ve ever seen a sponsor do.”