Hall of Honor
Merle (Doc) Adkins was an outstanding collegiate and professional baseball pitcher whose “love affair” with athletics continued until his death in 1935 at age 61. He played for six years on teams representing the former Beloit Academy and College and was the top hurler and leading hitter on the 1901 club that posted four victories over Wisconsin and two each over Northwestern and Notre Dame on the way to a 16-3 season. After brief appearances with Boston and New York of the American League, Adkins spent the decade through 1914 with the Baltimore Orioles of the Old Eastern League, winning as many as 29 games in a season with them. Notably, at the same time he attended medical school at Johns Hopkins University and coached at Trinity College (now Duke University). He practiced medicine for the last 20 years of his life in Durham, North Carolina, where he not only served as a county coroner, church deacon and Sunday school teacher, Rotarian and Shriner, but also acted as team physician for all Durham High School sports, umpire for prep and college baseball games and unofficial professional baseball scout.
