Kevin Joseph "Chuck" Connors (April 10, 1921 – November 10, 1992) was an American actor and professional basketball and baseball player. He is one of only 13 athletes in the history of American professional sports to have played in both the National Basketball Association (Boston Celtics 1946–1948) and Major League Baseball (Brooklyn Dodgers 1949, Chicago Cubs, 1951). With a 40-year film and television career, he is best known for his role as Lucas McCain on the ABC series The Rifleman (1958–1963).
Connors was born on April 10, 1921, in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, to Marcella (née Lundrigan; 1894–1971) and Alban Francis "Allan" Connors (1891–1966), immigrants of Irish descent from Newfoundland. He had one sibling, a younger sister named Gloria Marie Connors Cole (1923–2020). Raised as a Catholic, Connors served as an altar boy at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Brooklyn.
His father became a citizen of the United States in 1914 and was working in Brooklyn in 1930 as a longshoreman, and in 1917 his mother also attained her U.S. citizenship.
Connors was a devoted fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers despite their losing record during the 1930s, and hoped to join the team one day. A talented athlete, he earned a scholarship to the Adelphi Academy, a preparatory school in Brooklyn, where he graduated in 1939. He received offers for athletic scholarships from more than two dozen colleges and universities. He attended Seton Hall University and played both basketball and baseball at the school.
Since childhood, Connors had disliked his first name, Kevin, and sought another name. He tried using "Lefty" and "Stretch" before finally settling on "Chuck". The name derived from his time as a player on Seton Hall's baseball team. He would repeatedly yell to the pitcher from his position on first base, "Chuck it to me, baby! Chuck it to me!" The rest of his teammates and spectators at the university's games soon caught on, and the nickname stuck.
Connors left Seton Hall after two years to accept a contract to play professional baseball. He played on two minor league teams (see below) in 1940 and 1942, then joined the United States Army following America's entrance into World War II. During most of the war, he served as a tank-warfare instructor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and later at West Point in New York.
Minor League Baseball (1940–1952)
In 1940, following his departure from college, Connors played four baseball games with the Brooklyn Dodgers' minor league team, the Newport Dodgers (Northeast Arkansas League). Released, he sat out the 1941 season, then signed with the New York Yankees farm team, the Norfolk Tars (Piedmont League), where he played 72 games before enlisting in the Army at Fort Knox, Kentucky, at the end of the season, on October 10, 1942.
Following his time in the Army, Connors played for the Newport News Dodgers (Piedmont League) in 1946, the Mobile Bears (Southern Association) in 1947, the Montreal Royals (International League) from 1948 through 1950, and the Los Angeles Angels (Pacific Coast League) in 1951 and 1952.
Professional basketball (1946–1948)
Following his military discharge in 1946, the 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) Connors joined the Rochester Royals (now the Sacramento Kings) of the National Basketball League for their 1945–1946 championship season. For the 1946–1947 season, he joined the newly formed Boston Celtics of the Basketball Association of America. During his tenure with the Celtics in 1946, Connors became the first professional basketball player to break a backboard. He did so during pregame practice before the Celtics' first home game of their inaugural season with a shot and not a slam dunk, which is what typically breaks a backboard in modern basketball. He played 53 games for Boston before leaving the team early in the 1947–48 season.
Connors is among the 13 athletes to have played in both the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball; the others are: Danny Ainge, Frank Baumholtz, Hank Biasatti, Gene Conley, Dave DeBusschere, Dick Groat, Steve Hamilton, Mark Hendrickson, Cotton Nash, Ron Reed, Dick Ricketts, and Howie Schultz.
Connors attended spring training in 1948 with Major League Baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers, but did not make the squad. He played two seasons for the Dodgers' AAA team, the Montreal Royals, before playing one game with the Dodgers in 1949. After two more seasons with Montreal, Connors joined the Chicago Cubs in 1951, playing in 66 games as a first baseman and occasional pinch hitter. In 1952, he was sent to the minor leagues again to play for the Cubs' top farm team, the Los Angeles Angels.
In 1966, Connors played an off-field role by helping to end the celebrated holdout (see reserve clause) by Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax when he acted as an intermediary during negotiations between management and the players. Connors can be seen in the Associated Press photo with Drysdale, Koufax, and Dodgers general manager Buzzie Bavasi announcing the pitchers' new contracts.
Contrary to erroneous reports, Connors was not drafted by the Chicago Bears of the National Football League.
Connors realized that he would not make a career in professional sports, so he decided to pursue an acting career. Playing baseball near Hollywood proved fortunate, as he was spotted by an MGM casting director and subsequently signed for the 1952 Tracy-Hepburn film Pat and Mike, performing the role of a police captain. In 1953, he starred opposite Burt Lancaster as a rebellious Marine private in South Sea Woman and then as an American football coach opposite John Wayne in Trouble Along the Way.
Connors had a rare comedic role in a 1955 episode ("Flight to the North") of Adventures of Superman. He portrayed Sylvester J. Superman, a lanky rustic yokel who shared the same name as the title character of the series.
Connors was cast as Lou Brissie, a former professional baseball player wounded during World War II, in the 1956 episode "The Comeback" of the religion anthology series Crossroads. Don DeFore portrayed the Reverend C. E. "Stoney" Jackson, who offered the spiritual insight to assist Brissie's recovery so that he could return to the game. Grant Withers was cast as Coach Whitey Martin; Crossroads regular Robert Carson also played a coach in this episode. Edd Byrnes, Rhys Williams, and Robert Fuller played former soldiers. X Brands is cast as a baseball player.