‘Bogey’ Horrell succumbs at age 74

DON CANTRELL

Boyd (Bogey) Horrell, the leading hitter in 1948 for the only

championship baseball team Newport Harbor High ever had, died of a

respiratory illness, following a long illness, at 2:30 p.m. Friday.

His wife Dana and family members were present when he passed away at

his home in Huntington Beach. He was 74.

Horrell, who averaged around .340 in batting during the ’48

season, had been farming and ranching near Yuma, Ariz. For many years

before shifting back to Orange County in recent times.

Horrell was a popular personality in the harbor area for many

years and excelled in athletics at both Newport High and Orange Coast

College.

A Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Famer, Horrell was highly valued as a

sportsman and team player by the late Wendell Pickens, the ’48 Tar

baseball coach, and Ray Rosso, his grid coach at OCC in 1948-49.

The stout outfielder also figures into the sports history book on

several other counts. He scored some of the first points in pirate

grid history with his conversion booting in the first-ever game

against Riverside, a 14-6 win for Coast.

To date, he is the only prep baseballer ever to hit a home run out

of a CIF playoff game at Lions Field in Costa Mesa. He also helped

Pickens construct the first baseball diamond for OCC in 1949.

Horrell was a four-year letterman in basketball at Harbor High and

performed in outstanding style for the football and baseball teams.

He played center and linebacker for four grid teams.

Rosso always had words of excellence for Horrell when he served as

a sterling center and linebacker for the Buc gridders.

He and the legendary fullback Hal Sheflin were among the only four

former athletes invited to a 50-year wedding anniversary on a boat

cruise by Mr. and Mrs. Wendell Pickens.

Although there were fans who heaped praise on him for the great

‘48 Newport baseball season, Horrell was always the first to extend

the primary credit to a dazzling left-handed, 6-foot-4 pitcher named

Frank Hamilton. Hamilton was offered a $50,000 signing bonus by the

New York Yankees, but turned it down in favor of a college education.

Horrell also issued lofty words for an ace catcher named Bill

Weatherwax and a fine infield comprised of Bill Skiles, Don Ward,

Carleton Mears and George Reeves.

The noted athlete was ready for combat duty when the Korean War

broke out in June of ’50. He became a BAR sergeant along the front

lines in South Korea.

His old friends loved his talent for bringing humor and good cheer

to any circle.

He once called on a ’48 classmate named Don McCallum, who lived in

special quarters at the Balboa Bay Club, and surprised him over

breakfast in the patio.

McCallum looked up with astonishment and exclaimed, “How did you

get in here past the guards?”

Horrell laughed, then said, “I told them I owned the place.”

He was once asked how he came by the nickname of “Bogey.” He said

he and his dad once worked for the famed movie star Humphrey Bogart

around his yacht near Balboa Island. Eventually, his classmates would

rib him if he was ever stubborn. He said, “They would turn to me and

say, ‘Who do you think you are, Bogey?’ ”