Donald K. McPhail - Basketball, Softball

Year Inducted: 1991

Donald K. McPhail was born in Port Huron in 1930.  He attended Jefferson Intermediate, Garfield Junior High, and finished a solid local scholastic athletic career with the January, 1949 Port Huron High School graduating class.

He was a dedicated athlete throughout his schooling, but was outstanding in the sports of basketball and softball.  He played grade school and church league basketball and softball, and his buggy-whip pitching arm developed at an early age.  At Port Huron High School, he developed into a fine power forward on Coach Laughlin’s great teams of 1947-48 and 1948-49.  The 1947-48 club battled to the MHSAA final in Jenison Field House, losing to Jackson High.  McPhail continued the following season as a starter, until graduation.

He had developed his pitching skills from an early age, played with many area teams, and later played at Ontario fields for strong Michigan teams.  He played for Sulphite Paper in the local Industrial League.  He enlisted in the US Army in the early 1950’s, continuing his pitching feats with his Army ball club throughout the Midwest.  He pitched in the World Softball Tournaments in Florida in 1955.  At age 15, he held the touring Zollner Pistons hitless in three exhibition innings he pitched.  After high school, McPhail was a pitcher for the Windsor, Ontario Jets in the National Fastball League.

Severe illness knocked him out of the box in 1956, and after a long pull including surgeries in Veterans Hospitals, he was able to resume playing ball in 1963.

McPhail has been named to Softball Hall of Fame in Illinois and Indiana.  He now resides in Bloomington, Illinois, and his athletic activities are centered around his golf game.  McPhail is President of the Illinois Biscuit Company, and his son, Danny, is his backup pitcher.