Saturday, March 25, 2006
CANFIELD -- Joe Fox, a senior at Canfield High, will be stepping right into American history when he attends Francis Marion University in Florence, S.C., on a partial baseball scholarship next school year.
That's because Fox, a right-handed pitcher and right fielder for the Cardinals baseball team, will be entering a university that is named after an American general in the Revolutionary War and a hero who fought with Fox's great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Thomas Fox.
Nickname
General Francis Marion was nicknamed the "Swamp Fox" by the British because of his war techniques, using the South Carolina terrain to out-fox the British. And Thomas Fox fought under Marion's command in the 2nd South Carolina Regiment from 1775 to 1778.
But Joe Fox wasn't aware of his fifth-great grandfather's ties to the NCAA Division II college last November when he signed a national letter of intent to play baseball there with a 60 percent baseball scholarship.
"I had no idea," said Fox, the son of Donna and Rick Fox. "I didn't find out about that until a long time after I had selected Francis Marion.
"The main thing was that I wanted to go south and play baseball where it is a lot warmer, so that we didn't have to play indoors. I narrowed it down to five schools in South Carolina. I picked Francis Marion because it had a good baseball program and because of its proximity to Myrtle Beach."
Uncle Dan Fox found out
Fox credits his uncle Dan Fox of Struthers for discovering the family connection to Gen. Marion, the Revolutionary War and eventually the university, which was established in 1970 as an outgrowth of the University of South Carolina-Florence campus.
"My uncle, Dan Fox, was doing some research into the family. We have a big document of our family history. We have like a 100-page document that he was looking through," Fox said. "It was information recorded by someone in the family. One of our ancestors in South Carolina did it. It was just passed on from generation to generation."
Fox likes the idea that he will become part of the college's history, even though in an indirect way.
"I thought that it was really neat that I had some history there in South Carolina," said Joe, who has a cousin living in Florence. "I just wanted to go there for the warm weather. I definitely would like to learn more about it. They probably will end up calling me the Swamp Fox."
Francis Marion is coached by Art Inabinet, 40, who is in his sixth season with a 143-107-1 record. As of March 21, the Patriots had a 19-8 record, including 6-3 in the Peach Belt Conference, and were ranked No. 17 in the Collegiate Baseball Magazine NCAA Division II Top 30 poll.
Performances helped him
Fox (6-3, 200), who was recruited as a starting right-handed pitcher, believes two factors helped him to win the Francis Marion scholarship -- his performances last summer in the Class B League and at the Blue-Gray Classic in Wake Forest.
Fox played for R & amp;J Trucking in the Class B League and compiled a 5-0 record and 1.62 ERA with 19 strikeouts in 21.2 innings. He also batted .258 with one homer, 10 RBIs and a .452 slugging percentage.
And he made the All-NABF Regional Tournament team.
"When I didn't pitch, I was always in right [field]," said Fox, who played the previous two years in the Class B League with the Astro Falcons.
"What really helped was the showcase I went to called the Blue-Gray Classic last August in Wake Forest. I went on my own. You have to be invited. There were college scouts there."
Fox said his pitches were humming at the Blue-Gray Classic.
Fox said he didn't pitch enough for the Canfield High baseball team his first two years to build his credentials for college. He was injured last season and was out for a month.
But he did help the Cardinals to a 20-8 record, including a perfect 11-0 in the Metro Athletic Conference -- the team's first unbeaten league record since 1982.
kovach@vindy.com