| Overall UK Wins: 1 | Overall UK Losses: 5 | Win % 16.6 |
Date of Birth: January 11, 1897
Date of Death: November 30, 1960
Hometown: Indianapolis, IN

For a generalized listing of officials, please consult this page.

Obituary - Indianapolis Star (December 1, 1960)

Stanley Feezle Dies: Pro Baseball Scout

Funeral services for Indianapolis baseball scout Stanley S. Feezle will be held at 1:30 p.m. Friday in Kirby Mortuary with burial in Holy Cross Cemetery.

Mr. Feezle, 63 years old, 3909 North Meridian Street, died early yesterday in his home.

A MAJOR LEAGUE baseball scout for the last 29 years, he discovered such outstanding stars as Bob Friend, pitcher for the world champion Pittsburgh Pirates; Gil Hodges, outstanding Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman, and right-handed pitcher Carl Erskine, formerly of the Dodgers.

He signed more than 100 Hoosiers to professional baseball contracts during his tenure as a scout.

He never played professional baseball. After he was discharged from the Army following World War I, Mr. Feezle played semi-pro ball at Connersville, Fort Wayne, Noblesville, Muncie and Lafayette.

HE ALWAYS encouraged his players to continue their educations and was responsible for Bob Friend's continuing his schooling after signing a Pirate contract. Friend graduated from Purdue University in 1957.

Mr. Feezle's biggest surprise was Erskine. The fire-ball righthander from Anderson was frail and the scout was afraid he wasn't big and strong enough to play professional ball. But Mr. Feezle was so impressed by Erskine's style that he signed him up for the Dodgers.

"I GUESS HIS record shows my fears were unjustified," Mr. Feezle once said. Erskine recorded no-hit games in 1952 and 1956 for the Dodgers.

Mr. Feezle heard often from players he started on their careers. "A scout can be a lot of help to a player," he once said, "because he is someone the player can confide in, and will help him."

Other players he signed include Ernie Andres, Indiana University baseball coach and former star third baseman for the Boston Red Sox; Bob Dro, assistant athletic director at Indiana University; Billy Hardy, former Butler University shortstop, and Bill Phillips, top-flight catcher from Evansville Central High School.

Mr. Feezle said recently, "I'd be lost if it weren't for baseball. It's been a part of my life for a long time . . . and it's been a good life."

HE ALSO WAS a widely known Big Ten basketball official from 1920 to 1941.

Born at St. Elmo, Ill., he lived in Indianapolis for 57 years.

He owned the Feezle Sporting Goods Store at 36 East Washington Street for 18 years before he sold the store in 1945.

Mr. Feezle and three associates, William H. Warren, Johnny Hutchings and Buddy Carter, had planned to open an Indianapolis Baseball School and Clinic April 1 at German Church Road and 10th Street.

Survivors include the widow, Mrs. Ann Louise Feezle; three daughters, Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Landias and Mrs. Ann Lee of Indianapolis, and Mrs. Jane Hullinger of Bradenton, Fla.; four sons, Robert S., James J., Richard and Stanley Feezle, all of Indianapolis; a sister, Mrs. Georgia Rose of Batavia, O., and 11 grandchildren.

"It's Murder - On Go All the Game," Says Stan Feezle Who Has Handled 2,000 Court Games

by Foster Hailey (Associated Press Staff Writer)

INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 13 (AP) - Stan Feezle, who has been blowing the whistle on midwest basketball for 24 years, says it's the world's toughest job of officiating and he ought to know with a record of some 2,000 games at a rate of 80 a year.

"Man, it's murder," said Stan, as he, Coach Adolph Rupp of Kentucky's basketball Wildcats, Bill Fox, the Indiana hardwood sage, and a new convert to the midwest winter madness, munched this and that around a luncheon table.

"We're on the go all the time," Stan said, frowning in recollection, "working in a hall that generally is too hot and making decisions on plays every few seconds with our vision constantly being crossed by some player."

Game Time Extended

"The new rules eliminating the center jump after a foul goal is scored and making it time out for all fouls have added about six or eight minutes to the actual playing time and that hasn't made it any easier on us old guys."

"As I was saying," interrupted Mr. Rupp, "the main trouble with basketball is the officiating. In the Southeastern conference now --."

"Yes, sir, 24 years of taking abuse from losing coaches," continued Feezle, "making sleeper hops all over the country. It make a man old before his time. You get plenty of abuse from the bleachers, too, but the kids themselves are swell. I've only known one mean player in the Big Ten in my time. But the fans sometimes are hard to get along with.

"There's one Big Ten school where I'm supposed to be one of the favorite officials, and if I'm a favorite, the Lord help those they don't like."

Plenty of Abuse

"I called six straight fouls on their team one night, everyone deserved, and I thought the ceiling was falling in. There must have been a thousand programs on the floor. The fellow who was working the game with me started to help pick them up but I told him: 'Don't you touch one of them.' I sat right down in the middle of the floor and waited until it was cleared. And don't think that I didn't make sure the next foul I called was on the same team."

"See," boomed Mr. Rupp, "as I was saying --"

"Listen, you mug," said Stan. "If you've got a hard game coming up Saturday night with Tennessee I'd advise you to send your first team home and play your subs tonight. You've got two of the meanest officials in the business working this game."

"Who?" asked the Kentucky Colonel.

"Both of them are Feezle," said the big, bad fox.

"Heaven help us," moaned Mr. Rupp and beat a hasty retreat.

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