Chicago Cubs: Kobe Bryant demise recalls Cub Ken Hubbs death

Chicago Cubs fans grieve with Los Angeles fans over the loss of superstar Kobe Bryant. The tragic death reminds us, especially this month, of Cubs Ken Hubbs.

On January 26, people across the nation turned on the news to learn that former Los Angeles Laker, Kobe Bryant, and several others to include his daughter were killed in a helicopter accident in Calabasas, California. While Bryant had retired from professional basketball for several years, he was actively involved in coaching and several business ventures.

One of Bryant’s business ventures included a sports brand company called, ‘Art of Sport.’ Chicago Cubs shortstop Javier Baez worked with Bryant on one of the company’s advertisements.  Baez was featured as one of the young up and coming talents in baseball.

Just as Bryant is hailed a superstar around the world, so it was 56 years ago this month on February 15, 1964, when Chicago Cubs second baseman, Ken Hubbs, died in an air accident as well.  Hubbs and a friend were trying to return to his home in California from Utah when the plane Hubbs was piloting at the time crashed in a snowstorm, killing Hubbs and his friend.

There are many eerie similarities between the life and death of Hubbs and Bryant.

• Both were superstars; Bryant from his basketball career and Hubbs from winning the 1962 NL Rookie of the Year award with the Chicago Cubs and becoming the first rookie in baseball to win a Golden Glove.
• Both died in air accidents. Bryant died in a Sikorsky S-76B helicopter crash while Hubbs died in a red and white Cessna 172 plane crash in a snowstorm.
• Both deaths were caused in the air under supposedly low visibility.
• Both died among friends in their respective accidents. Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, six family friends, and the pilot all killed in the helicopter accident.  Hubbs and close friend Denny Doyle both died in Hubbs Cessna.
• Both Hubbs and Bryant were from California at the time of their deaths.
• Both Bryant and Hubbs were basketball players; Hubbs played in high school and was even recruited to play college basketball.  The last sport Hubbs played was a game of basketball the night before his death.

Fifty-six years ago, the news that 22-year-old Ken Hubbs had died in a plane crash was as devastating for fans of the Chicago Cubs around the nation, as the recent news of Bryant’s unexpected demise. The difference, of course, was that Bryant had already had a great, full career while Hubbs was beginning to show the world how great he could be. The biggest question left to time is if Hubbs had lived, would the Chicago Cubs had won in 1969?

Chicago Cubs: Hubbs shatters records as a rookie

Baseball fans are quite familiar with the movie starring Robert Redford called “The Natural.”  The lead character’s name in the film is Roy Hobbs, who was rumored to have come from Chicago Cubs second baseman and legend, Ken Hubbs.

In September of 1961, Hubbs was called up to the majors to see his first action. Hubbs played in ten games in September 1961, earning five hits in 28 at-bats and one home run all at the tender age of 19. So in 1962, after several moves within the Cubs organization, it was clear that second base was going to be all Hubbs going forward.

Hubbs was in good company those days with Ernie Banks at shortstop, Ron Santo at third base with Billy Williams and Lou Brock in the outfield and Don Elston pitching.  Hubbs would play in 160 games in 1962 hitting .260, with 172 hits with five home runs and 49 runs batted in. Hubbs led all National League rookies in games, hits, doubles, triples, runs and batting average that year.

In 1961, Cubs outfielder Billy Williams won the Rookie of the Year honor, and Hubbs was named the very next year in 1962. That goes to show how good these guys and the Cubs were at the time with two Cubs players being honored two years in a row.   Since that time, no other Cub has won the award until Jerome Walton came along and took the honors for the Cubs in 1989.

One of Hubbs’ most significant accomplishments in his short career was becoming the first rookie ever to win the Gold Glove Award, which came as no surprise as Hubbs set a major league record as a rookie playing 78 consecutive games with 418 total chances without an error. Hubbs glove from that 1962 Rookie of the Year season, is on display in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.

Chicago Cubs:  The death of Chicago Cubs, second baseman, Ken Hubbs

No one was more scared of flying than Hubbs. In true fashion, Hubbs took on his fear by getting a pilot’s license and bought himself a four-seat Cessna 172 airplane. He had only recorded about 71 hours of flight time up to his death.

On February 12, 1964, Hubbs and his friend Denny Doyle flew from California to Provo, Utah, to surprise Doyle’s wife, who had recently given birth to the couple’s child. While Doyle visited with his new baby that evening, Hubbs played in a charity basketball game sponsored by Brigham Young University.  It was not unusual for Hubbs to dedicate his time to charity coaching, playing, or helping using his celebrity, which Hubbs was becoming accustomed. However, the last sport Hubbs would ever play, was that basketball game, the night before his death.

Early the next morning, a snowstorm developed in the Utah Valley area where Hubbs was staying with Doyle. Hubbs and Doyle discussed the weather and the reports claiming that the inclement weather was to turn worse as the day progressed. Hubbs and Doyle thought they could beat the rough oncoming storm by departing right away February 13, Thursday morning.

Hubbs and Doyle took off in Hubbs Cessna 172 from Provo Airport. Provo Airport sits on the edge of Utah Lake, which borders to the west of the airport. Utah Lake is the state’s largest freshwater lake at roughly 148 square miles. Hubbs was in such a hurry to beat the weather that he didn’t file a flight plan but instead told airport staff that he and Doyle’s destination was Morrow Field, near Colton, California.

The friends never made it to Colton as Hubbs plane crashed into the ice-cold Utah Lake some five miles from where they took off.  Rumors say that Hubbs tried to turn back to Provo after takeoff and was making his turn around Utah Lake when the weather overcame his plane.

The next day, Friday the 14th, Hubbs’ father, Euliss Hubbs, called to report that the two friends had not arrived in Colton, California.  It was not until the morning of Saturday, February 15, that a search began in areas of Utah, Nevada and California for any sign of the Cessna 172.  Finally, rescuers found the wreckage of the Cessna 172, a quarter-mile south of Bird Island in Utah Lake. Bird Island sits in the southern central portion of Utah Lake, just north of Lincoln Point.

Both Hubbs and Doyle died in the crash, which was blamed on the weather more than Hubbs’s skills.  The air temperature at the time of the accident was estimated as -1 °F, and it had been snowing heavily during the Cessna’s return flight to Colton, Califonia.

Chicago Cubs: Saying goodbye and wondering what could have been

Several days after the wreckage was located, Hubbs’s funeral was held in his hometown of Colton. In Colton High School, where Hubbs was a four-sport athlete just four years prior, services were held in the school’s auditorium because of the enormous crowds that wanted to view Hubbs’s casket and pay their final respects to their hometown star athlete.

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The procession to Hubbs burial site at Montecito Memorial Park in Colton was over two miles long at the end of which were fellow Chicago Cubs Ron Santo, Ernie Banks, Glen Hobbie and Don Elston serving as pallbearers, said goodbye to their friend and teammate.

Hubbs’s death left a hole in the Chicago Cubs lineup that was never fully filled through the Cubs run in 1969 when they were in first place for 155 days until losing 17 out of 25 games in mid-September, finishing 92-70, just eight games behind the New York Mets.

Many fans believe Hubbs would have had an All-Star performance that season, and the Cubs would’ve finished in front of the New York “Miracle Mets” and won the World Series had Hubbs lived. The curse of the black cat would never have meant anything, except a loose cat on the field.

But there are a lot of ‘ifs’ in Cubs history.

Kobe Bryant was a legend to his fans in Los Angeles and around the world for the magic he brought to the court and people’s lives outside of basketball. He was a statesman of the game of basketball and the NBA, but never gave up who he was as an individual. The lives he touched not only in Los Angeles but around the world are too many to be known.

Both Bryant and Hubbs will always be known for their athletic deeds and their tragic, untimely deaths, taken away before all their dreams and ours, could be recognized. Somewhere out there, Hubbs is still 22 years-old, running and hitting balls, throwing touchdowns, and shooting baskets at the buzzer. I know when Bryant gets there, there will be one helluva game of one-on-one.