Early Life
Connors was born Kevin Joseph Connors in Brooklyn, New York, second of two children and only son of Allan and Marcella Connors, emigrants from the Dominion of Newfoundland, a Canadian province as of 1949. He was raised Roman Catholic and served as an altar boy at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Brooklyn.
His sister found out Connors didn't like his first name and was looking at a number of possible first-name changes: he tried out "Lefty" and "Stretch" before settling on "Chuck", because while playing first base, he would always yell, "Chuck it to me, baby, chuck it to me!" to the pitcher. The rest of his teammates and fans soon caught on and the name stuck. He loved the Dodgers despite their losing record during the 1930s. Connors knew that he too would be a Dodger, like: Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese, Carl Furillo, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Billy Cox, Ralph Branca, Preacher Roe and Carl Erskine, the participants of the great championship team that Connors was part of, the Brooklyn Dodgers of 1949.
Connors's athletic abilities earned him a scholarship to both the elite Adelphi Academy (where he graduated in 1939) and Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. He left college after two years. During World War II he enlisted in the Army at Fort Knox. He spent most of the war as a tank-warfare instructor, stationed at Camp Campbell, Kentucky, and later at West Point, New York.
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