Harry Bushkar Jr. (April 9, 1925 – September 1, 2008)[1] was three-sport star at Virginia Tech (known then as Virginia Polytechnic Institute) in the 1940s, who went on to a short stint in minor league baseball. He was well known for officiating college and high school sporting events, and was commissioner of the western Virginia Football Officials Association.[2] He was elected to the Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 1986.[3]
Bushkar was born in Russia in a small town near Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). His family moved to the United States when he was a small child and he grew up in Logan, West Virginia.[4]
In his first season at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI) in 1942–43, Bushkar was promoted to varsity after the Southern Conference ruled that freshmen were eligible.[4] A 5feet guard,[5] he was named Virginia's college basketball player of the year by the Associated Press (AP) in 1945 despite playing on a losing team.[6] Bushkar ended his career by being named Virginia's Player of the Year and making the All-Southern Conference team in 1945–46. He was named to the AP all-state first team for the third straight season.[7] He also made the Southern Conference All-Tournament Team. He was captain of the 1944, 1945 and 1946 Tech teams.[8]
Bushkar played shortstop and pitched on occasion for the Gobblers. He showed great potential on defense as a smooth fielding shortstop. Offensively, he could hit for power.
Bushkar played college football on VPI's freshman team, and scored four touchdowns on the undefeated team.[4] The school did not field a football team in the following two years.[9] In June 1945, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in business administration.[10] Enrolled at VPI as a post-graduate student in fall 1945, the fullback Bushkar was the lone non-freshman on the varsity team.[11]
In March 1946, Bushkar withdrew from his post-graduate work and signed a baseball contract with the New York Yankees to play with the Norfolk Tars in the minor league Class B Piedmont League.[10] [12] He did not play any games for the Tars. His first game was with the Class D Chicago White Sox organization for the Appalachian League member New River Rebels. He played 116 games for the Rebels in 1946, and sported a .336 batting average, hit 13 home runs, and had a .518 slugging percentage for the league champions. In 1947, he moved to the Chicago Cubs organization, and up to the Class C Hutchinson Cubs of the Western Association league. He hit 10 home runs to lead the team, and had a .283 batting average. His performance earned him a promotion to the Class B New England League in 1948, where he played for the Springfield Cubs. In his final full season of minor league ball, he hit .235 with four home runs. He attempted a comeback in 1951 with the Roanoke Ro-Sox of the Class B Piedmont League where he played only 19 games and hit his final professional home run while compiling a .192 average.