Sometimes, a little piece of historical flotsam drifts your way and it’s hard to let it escape the constant stream of fascinating stories collected in the brain.
That was the case with a former NC State multi-sport star named Dick Burrus, a member of the 1918 football team that was humiliated 128-0 by Georgia Tech in Atlanta who managed to make a big name for himself in another sport nearly 100 years ago.
A native of Hatteras, North Carolina, Burrus became the first—and so far only—person born on the Outer Banks to make it to the major leagues.
It was a not an easy journey.
He was both the son and the son-in-law of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse keeper. His father, Ethelbert D. Burrus, was the main lighthouse keeper from 1876-78, just after the new version of the lighthouse received its famous black-and-white stripes. His father-in-law, Bateman Williams, was the assistant lighthouse keeper at the old 1803 version of the lighthouse for the duration of the Civil War from 1860-65, when the main keeper scurried off to the mainland, taking the lighthouse’s Fresnel lens with him, an act of treason on behalf of the Confederacy.
Maurice “Dick” Burrus and his family left the island in 1909, moving to Elizabeth City so he could continue his education. He spent his final two years of secondary education at Oak Ridge Military Academy near Greensboro, where he excelled in athletics, particularly.
When he enrolled at NC State in 1916, he intended to study textile engineering, but his academic career was derailed by World War I. He was drafted into the U.S. Army and stationed the duration of the war at Camp Gordon near Atlanta.
Having survived both the war and the devastating Spanish flu pandemic, Burrus returned to NC State in 1918 in time to participate in the final three football games of the season and the entire 1919 baseball season.
However, he was signed when school let out in May by the Columbia (S.C.) Comers of the South Atlantic League, but Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack, who had signed State star Dave Robertson eight years earlier, traded a pitcher and two fielders to get the rights to Burrus.
Burrus quickly rose through the ranks and made his major league debut as a pinch hitter on June 23, 1919, against the New York Yankees. It took him a week to get his first career hit, but he appeared in 70 games that season for the hapless Athletics, who finished 36-104 for their fifth consecutive losing season.
Still, Burrus managed to play in 70 of the team’s 140 games during the war-shortened schedule, hitting .258 with seven extra-base hits and eight RBIs.
Mercifully, he played only two seasons for the decimated A’s, getting sent down to the minors to work on his fielding. He was eventually traded to the Atlanta Crackers, helping them win the 1922 Southern League pennant.
He returned to the majors again in 1925 and had the greatest single season ever recorded by a former NC State baseball player. Playing in all 152 games, Burrus rapped out 200 hits in 588 at-bats for a .340 average that ranked ninth in the National League. He had 50 extra-base hits, including five home runs, and drove in a career-high 87 runs.
The big first baseman played three more seasons for the Braves, but he was hampered each year by a hernia that eventually ended his career. He hit .318 in 1927, but played in less than half the Braves’ games. He played two more seasons of minor league baseball, but was eventually released in 1930.
He returned to the shifting sands of the Outer Banks after baseball ended, going back to the place where his family lived for generations dating back to the Tuscarora Indian War. He lost most of his baseball money in the 1929 stock market crash and started over as a Texaco oil distributor, a fish buyer and Dare County Commissioner.
In 1930, the oldest of his four children was born.
Sisters Dixie Burrus Browning and Mary Burrus Williams are two of the most prolific writers and artists in North Carolina history. Dixie Browning has written more than 100 romance and historical novels, mostly about life on the Outer Banks. They have collaborated on several works of fiction under the pen name Bronwyn Williams, a combination of their married names.
Dixie Browning still lives in the Outer Banks community of Friscoe, where she is a noted water-color artist.
Burrus had lung cancer in his final years, returning to Elizabeth City for treatment. He died on Feb. 2, 1972, at the age of 74.
But his ties to NC State are still strong: his great-granddaughter recently graduated from the school and lives in Durham.
Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu.
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