Dutch Fehring

William Paul "Dutch" Fehring (May 31, 1912 – April 13, 2006) was an American football and baseball player, coach, and administrator. Fehring was president of the United States Baseball Federation, and oversaw the return of the U.S. national team to international baseball competition. He also briefly led the World Amateur Baseball Federation, better known as FEMBA, during its split from the International Baseball Federation (FIBA) in the early 1970s.

A longtime college baseball coach, he served as the head baseball coach at Purdue University from 1936 to 1942 and at Stanford University from 1956 to 1967, compiling a career record of 374–248–9. He was a cup of coffee player with the Chicago White Sox of Major League Baseball, appearing in a single game during the 1934 season.

Early life Born in Columbus, Indiana, Fehring attended Purdue University, where he starred in football, basketball, and baseball, one of only two Purdue athletes to letter nine times. Fehring helped the Boilermakers win two Big Ten Conference titles in football and a retroactive Helms national championship in basketball in 1932, and was the traveling roommate of John Wooden. Fehring was inducted into the inaugural class of the Purdue University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994.

Baseball career After graduating from Purdue, Fehring chose to play his favorite sport, baseball, where he excelled as a catcher. He was signed by the Chicago White Sox and made a single major league appearance, in a road game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on June 25, 1934. Fehring entered the game in the bottom of the seventh inning to catch, with the Yankees leading 10–2. During that inning, Lou Gehrig attempted an inside-the-park home run on a ball hit to center field; the ball was relayed to Fehring, who tagged Gehrig out at the plate.

International baseball U.S. national team Fehring was an assistant coach on the United States national baseball team that participated in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, under manager and USC coach Rod Dedeaux. On the 1964 Olympic team was catcher Jim Hibbs, who played under Fehring at Stanford.

Fehring was named president of the United States Baseball Federation (USBF) on April 6, 1966, replacing Eppie Barnes. As president, Fehring saw the United States national team return to international stage; its appearance at the 1969 Amateur World Series in the Dominican Republic was the first time the U.S. participated in the tournament since 1942.

FEMBA Fehring was highly critical of the International Baseball Federation (FIBA) and its president, Juan Isa. He, like many others, believed that the Caribbean baseball federations had too much control over FIBA's proceedings. "If FIBA is an international federation," he said, "the leadership positions must belong to different countries."

After the 1973 FIBA Congress ended in confusion and chaos, Italy and Nicaragua withdrew from FIBA to organize their own international federation; the USBF soon followed, along with 24 other national federations.

As head of FEMBA, a major priority for Fehring was the inclusion of baseball at the Summer Olympics. This had been a factor in the FEMBA split, as critics of FIBA felt that the federation was too chaotic to pursue Olympic status. Fehring, with the backing of MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, met with International Olympic Committee head Lord Killanin, but was told that would not occur as long as baseball was represented by two different organizations. Fehring died in Palo Alto, California, in 2006 at the age of 93.

Fehring is an inductee of the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame, the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, the Purdue University Athletic Hall of Fame, and the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame.

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