Youth and Collegiate Career
Winfield was born the same day Bobby Thomson hit his pennant-winning home run for the New York Giants, known as "the shot heard 'round the world", and grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. His parents divorced when he was three years old, leaving him and his older brother Stephen to be raised by their mom, Arline, and a huge extended family of aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins and mentors.
The Winfield brothers honed their athletic skills in St. Paul's Oxford playground, where coach Bill Peterson was one of the first to take the young Winfield under his wing. It wasn't until his senior year in high school that Winfield became a formidable 6'6" athlete.
He earned a full baseball scholarship to the University of Minnesota in 1969, where he starred in baseball and basketball for the Golden Gophers. His college baseball coach was former MLB player Dick Siebert, and his basketball coach was Bill Musselman (who went on to serve as a head coach in the American Basketball Association and National Basketball Association) who would later refer to Winfield as the best rebounder he ever coached. Winfield's 1972 Minnesota team won a Big Ten basketball championship, the school's first in 53 years. During the 1972 season, he also was involved in a brawl when Minnesota played Ohio State.
Winfield also played for the Alaska Goldpanners for two seasons (1971–72) and was the MVP in 1972. In 1973, he was named All-American and voted MVP of the College World Series—as a pitcher. Following college, Winfield was drafted by four teams in three different sports. The San Diego Padres selected him as a pitcher with the fourth overall pick in the MLB draft and both the Atlanta Hawks (NBA) and the Utah Stars (ABA) drafted him. And even though he never played college football, the Minnesota Vikings selected Winfield in the 17th round of the NFL draft. He is one of three players ever to be drafted by three professional sports (the others being Mickey McCarty, and Dave Logan), and the only athlete drafted by four leagues.
Read more about this topic: Dave Winfield
Famous quotes containing the words youth and/or career:
“He wears the rose
Of youth upon him, from which the world should note
Something particular.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)