Charles Van Sickle

Charles Fowler Van Sickle
(Dixie; Jack)
also known as Charles O'Hearn

• Height 6' 0", Weight 180 lb.
• High School Riverview Academy

• Born August 12, 1876 in Galveston, TX USA
• Died August 30, 1943 in Las Vegas, NV USA

Biographical Information

Charles Van Sickle was an umpire in the Federal League in 1914. His first professional experience came in the American Association in 1911, and he then worked in the Texas League in 1912 and 1913. In 1915 and 1916, he was in the Western League.

His tenure in the Federal league lasted 67 games, during which he ejected 11 players and others. Most of these came in August, and he umpired his final game on August 16th, so there may have been a relationship between these on-field trouble and his leaving the league. Accounts of his work underline that he was both a good umpire and also a showman who liked to call attention to himself, and who would sometimes let on-field disputes degenerate into complete chaos.

After his stint in the Federal League, he became a traveling salesman, but resurfaced as an umpire in the Michigan-Ontario League in 1920 and 1921, and the Texas League in 1922 under the assumed name of "Charles O'Hearn". Both this name and his real name exist under a variety of spelling variations. In the Texas League, he ran into a number of folks who recognized him as Van Sickle, so his alternate identity was quickly blown away, but he continued to work in various minor leagues during the next few seasons.

He was from a well-to-do family and liked to brag about his fortune, but the Great Depression seems to have taken a toll on that. He disappeared from public view in the 1930s, only to resurface when he died of a heart attack in Las Vegas, NV, in 1943, where he was working in a gaming establishment.

Related Sites

• Charles Van Sickle at the SABR Bio Project
• Charles Van Sickle on Retrosheet.org
• Sporting News umpire card