Triton great Kirby Puckett to be enshrined in NJCAA Foundation Hall of Fame
(Story courtesy of Triton College Athletics)
Just one Hall of Fame isn't enough to contain the late Kirby Puckett's contributions to Triton College, national junior-college athletics, the Minnesota Twins and the game of baseball.
"I learned a lot from Kirby Puckett," said former big leaguer Lance Johnson, Puckett's teammate on the fabled 1982 Triton baseball team. "Kirby was a leader, he was never a follower. He was always out-front and the time I got a chance to play with him, he definitely rubbed off on me. When you're a leader like that, you have a chance to lead in your own career."
He was a certified Hall of Famer; Cooperstown Class of '01, five years after glaucoma prematurely ended his storied major league baseball career. "You're put in the Hall of Fame on the first try, you're saying something," said Tom Kelly, his manager with the Twins the majority of his career. Puckett crammed almost 20 years of production into 12 seasons as one of the most beloved players of his era.
But in prepping for his mastery of "The Show," Puckett might have been the greatest athlete in Triton's history under legendary coach Bob Symonds four decades ago. The two are dual Hall of Famer's in the National Junior College Athletic Association and the NJCAA's Region 4.
But the Puckett impact is seemingly forever. Now his memory is enshrined in a quartet of institutions. Puckett will be inducted posthumously into the NJCAA Foundation Hall of Fame June 8 at its awards dinner in Charlotte.
Although like everyone else Puckett had feet of clay in his life, he still was a prime role model as both an amateur and a professional for what the foundation's organization wants.
Established in 2018, the mission of the NJCAA Foundation is to enhance the NJCAA national organization, student-athletes, member colleges and local communities through financial support, scholarships, program initiatives and community service.
Among other functions, the foundation supports the creation, growth and sustainability of two-year college athletic programs; provides funding for scholarships, community programs and national awards, tells the story of the NJCAA, and increases the exposure of two-year collegiate athletics.
If the foundation wants to show the ultimate athletic example of how experience in junior college can be a springboard upward, they can look no further than Puckett's big-league line.
He had 2,304 hits that included four seasons of at least 207 hits and a peak of 234, 207 homers, a .318 lifetime average with 360 on-base percentage and 30 hits, including five homers, and a .309 mark in 24 postseason games. The latter achievement sparked the only two world championships in Twins history in 1987 and 1991.
But Puckett simply enhanced the momentum he established at Triton. In the 1982 season, Puckett hit .472 with 16 home runs and 78 RBIs, along with 28 doubles, eight triples and 42 stolen bases. He was selected as a First-Team NJCAA All-American and was named NJCAA Player of the Year.
At the Junior College World Series, Puckett won the "Big Stick Award," with a record .688 average, a mark which still stands to this day.
A skilled defensive center fielder, Puckett won six big-league Gold Gloves for fielding. But he wasn't even the starting center fielder on the '82 Trojans. The skilled Larry Jackson held the middle of the outfield, with Puckett moving to right and Johnson to left.
"Of all the teams I played on, that was the best outfield I ever played in," said Johnson.
"I never forget this. In a game against Moraine Valley, he almost hit four or five homers in one game. I know he had three homers and on the (possible) fourth got robbed. It was one of the most unbelievable feats in my life."
"Even at the JUCO level, he did what he wanted to do for the team, Johnson added. "Whatever the team needed up at plate or defensively, he could pretty much do what he wanted to do."
Coming from a hard-working Chicago South Side background at Calumet High School, Puckett gave off a glow that enveloped everyone in the Trojans program. He was a dream player for Symonds, who imposed Yankees-style grooming on his players: no beards and moustaches, and long hair trailing out of the back of baseball caps.
"Kirby would come into the office and say 'Good morning, Miss Jo,'" recalled Josephine Prignano, the retired "First Lady of Triton Athletics," who was a campus legend herself as athletic department secretary.
"He was phenomenal. Just a very different ballplayer. He wasn't like 'me, me, me.' He was a real team player."
Players regarded Prignano almost like a motherly figure. In turn, she gave them tender loving care, going above and beyond her athletic department duties.
"They had to have papers typed," Prignano said. "Most kids did not have typewriters, so they give me their papers, and I typed them up on my lunch hour or after work."
Puckett had transferred to Triton from Bradley University in Peoria, where he had won a baseball scholarship. But after his father died, Puckett desired to be close to home. Symonds, who initially wasn't interested in the fledgling player when he had first tried out two years previously, was an attraction as master of the strongest JUCO baseball program in the Chicago area.
Puckett also came into his Triton season already with semi-assured shot at pro baseball. In the 1980s, MLB had a secondary January draft in addition to the main draft in June. The Twins had picked Puckett third in the first round, but their $6,000 bonus was too low. So he increased his marketability with his season for all seasons in River Grove and points beyond.
The fact the Twins knew all about Triton was nearly an accident. During the 1981 strike, Jim Rantz, the assistant farm director, went to watch his son Mike who was at a JUCO in Central Illinois. Suddenly, he noticed the play of Puckett in a Trojans uniform.
"Lo and behold, they had this guy," Rantz told Baseball America in 2016. "He went 3-for-4, hit a home run, threw someone out at the plate and stole a couple of bases. I didn't know it at the time but he was leading the league in hitting, too.
"What impressed me the most was the way (Kirby) carried himself on and off the field. It was like 90 degrees or more and everyone else was dragging around. He was the first one on the field and the first one off. You could see he enjoyed playing, he was having fun."
Rantz triggered the drafting process for Puckett, but he had games to win and memories to make for Triton first.
Booking a JUCO World Series berth, the Puckett-led outfield impressed all observers.
"They run like deer and steal bases with a frequency that amazes the opposition," was the lead paragraph of one wire service story out of Grand Junction, Co. on June 1, 1982.
"They spread out and cover the lines well, which takes away a lot of extra-base hits," said the late Sam Suplizio, whose vision brought the JUCO World Series to the edge of western Colorado where it is still played to this day. "They've got soft hands and good athletic ability when they get to the ball, and they look good catching it. We don't have guys that can run like that on big-league clubs."
For good measure, Puckett's RBI triple was the key hit in a three-run ninth-inning rally that stunned Community College of Baltimore 7-6, enabling Triton to continue in the World Series.
The Trojans would get knocked out in the next game in an 11-10 loss to McLennan (Tex.) with Puckett going 4-for-4 in his Triton finale. The clock was ticking for the Twins to sign Puckett with the June draft looming. They increased their offer to $20,000, and Puckett signed. Symonds projected his superstar as a new-future big-leaguer.
"Kirby's tough enough to play in the major leagues right now," he said right after the tourney. "You should have seen the scouts in Colorado watching every move he made. Puckett was the biggest, hottest player there."
He could not be held back as a 22-year-old in the Twins' instructional league late in 1982, where Kelly, who ran the program, first saw him.
"Rick Stelmaszek (a native of Chicago's Southeast Side and a cup-of-coffee Cubs catcher in 1974) was one of the coaches," Kelly said in a 2019 interview with Triton Athletics. "I remember Rick telling me maybe we should play this guy some more.
Stelly thought Kirby should play more than every other day (when Kelly needed to apportion playing time among 30 players). We had wonderful coaches in the instructional league who helped develop him."
Puckett zoomed up through the minors, making his Twins debut on May 6, 1984 in Anaheim.
"Kirby a took flight to LA," said Kelly. "He got into a cab. The cab ride was quite expensive, and Kirby did not have enough money to pay when he arrived at the ballpark. Had to run in and get our traveling secretary to come out and pay the fare."
In spite of the hassle, Puckett was inserted into the leadoff spot. He went 4-for-5. He could hardly be stopped until his final game in 1995.
"He worked and worked and worked, and outworked everyone," said Kelly. "He had the will. "You can show them how to do this and that, carry themselves, but it comes down to the individual."
The Triton baseball program produced a number of major league players during the Symonds era. A proud moment for Prignano was to be witness of a huge Triton reunion in an early 1990s game at new Comiskey Park at the time, now named Guaranteed Rate Field. Johnson was manning center field for the White Sox, while Puckett and fellow Trojans products Jeff Reboulet and Jarvis Brown were playing for the Twins.
But as much as Puckett could claim credit for his prime talents, he liked to spread out the glory. And perhaps the best example of that talent came when Triton staged a retirement gala for Symonds.
"Kirby got up, and wanted to talk about the lady in the front office," said Prignano. "He talked so much about me I had to stand up."
One of Prignano's most prized possessions at her longtime Melrose Park home is a signed No. 34 Puckett Twins jersey.
"He wrote, 'Dear Jo, thanks for Taking care of me. You're the best. Kirby Puckett HOF,'" she said. "My son Joseph is putting it in a frame."
Appropriately, the two biggest names in Triton baseball history share the billing for the Trojans' home diamond: Symonds-Puckett Field.
Puckett the person provided as many memories as Puckett the multiple Hall of Fame player, the remembrances never dimming after his tragic early death from a stroke just short of his 46th birthday in 2006.
"His smile was golden," Johnson said. "He was an unbelievable person. Every time he accomplished something, a part of you went with him. Sometimes he carried the team on his back."
Click here to watch the WGN-TV feature story on Kirby Puckett's NJCAA Hall of Fame induction with additional thoughts from Lance Johnson.
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(Story by tritonathletics.com contributor George Castle and Triton College Sports Information Specialist Tim McKinney)