O'NEILL-HARRY

MAJOR  LEAGUE  PLAYER  KILLED  IN  WWII

Historical records report that about 500 major league baseball players entered the U.S. armed forces during World War II and while a number of these athletes remained stateside, others fought bravely overseas and some never came home.

Harry Mike O’Neill was one of the unfortunate men who died in the service of his country.  He was born in Philadelphia on May 8, 1917.  He was a standout athlete at Darby High School and progressed to Malvern Prep School before entering Gettysburg College where he studied history.  At Darby High he played guard on the team that won a Kiwanis basketball tournament and was an all-county center on the football team.  At Gettysburg he was a three-sport star playing center on the basketball and football teams and catcher with the baseball nine.  Upon his graduation in June 1939, O’Neill signed as a catcher with the Philadelphia Athletics at a salary of $200 a month.  On July 23, 1939 he made his only major league appearance as a late-inning defensive replacement while playing against the Detroit Tigers.  In 1940, O’Neill was reassigned to the Interstate League where he played in 16 games while also working as a history teacher and three-sport coach at a Pennsylvania high school.  

In January 1942, O’Neill joined the Marine Corps.  In January 1944 he was promoted to First Lieutenant and assigned to the Fourth Marine Division.  In this assignment he participated in amphibious assaults at Kwajalein, Saipan, and Tinian.  He next participated in the battle for Iwo Jima where he was killed in action on March 6, 1945.  He was survived by his wife and is buried in Arlington Cemetery in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania.

                    

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)