Dick Hurley

William H. Hurley

• Bats Unknown, Throws Unknown
• Height 5' 7", Weight 160 lb.

• Debut April 18, 1872
• Final Game April 23, 1872
• Born 1847 in Honesdale, PA USA

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Biographical Information

Dick Hurley played two games in right field for the Washington Olympics in 1872 in the National Association, but is more famous as having been part of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings.

Hurley was born in Honesdale, PA, in the far northeastern part of Pennsylvania to a family of ten children. He played amateur ball in Cincinnati, OH for the Buckeyes and then moved with several of the Buckeye players over to the Red Stockings in 1869, where he was the lowest-paid player and served as a back-up on the legendary undefeated team. In 1870 he joined the Olympics.

An article states that he attended Columbia University, playing baseball there, and many years later in 1916 managed in the minors with the Great Falls Electrics. [1]

It is still unclear what had happened to him after his baseball career. He was married in February 1870 and had a son at the end of that year. His wife Ophelia is listed as widowed in the 1880 census, but she then filed for divorce in 1884. She claimed she had been mistreated by her husband, who had deserted the family home around 1876. Hurley does not appear in any census in 1880 or thereafter, and is not mentioned in his son's obituary, published in 1902. But when his father died a year later, he is said to be living in Lestershire, NY, however no trace of him has been found in that town, making it a distinct possibility that his father's obituary was wrong. So the mystery persists.

Further Reading

• "William Hurley", in Bill Carle, ed.: Biographical Research Committee Report, SABR, January/February 2024, p. 1.