Wyandot Sports Hall of Fame

Harvey Don Teal was born Aug. 26, 1878, in Sycamore and graduated from Sycamore High School in 1896. He became a successful educator later in life, but in his early years in Wyandot County and beyond, he was a phenom on the baseball diamond.

A pitcher by trade, Teal started playing semi-professional ball in 1903 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In 1906, he moved onto Tecumseh, Michigan, where in 1907 his team won the state championship as Teal recorded a 21-5 record on the mound.

The next season, Teal signed a contract with the professional team in St. Paul, Minnesota. Unbeknownst to Teal, Connie Mack, who became a Hall of Fame members as a 50-year manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, was recruiting Teal and offered him a contract in the American League, but because Teal already had signed a contract with St. Paul, he had to honor it and missed his chance to play with the A’s. If he had signed with the Athletics, he would have been teammates with another Sycamore native, Pearl Osborn.

Teal went onto to play with Altoona, Syracuse, Atlantic City and Allentown before his baseball career ended with a pitching record of 78-49.

After baseball, Teal turned to being an educator. He taught in Wyandot County, Alvorton in Williams County, Holgate and Napoleon in Henry County, and Canton in Stark County. He then moved to the superintendent’s position in Clairton County, Pennsylvania. It was there his mark on education still has ramifications today. He set salaries for teachers to pay the same in any grade and based on length of service. Another radical change Teal instituted was having students as young as fourth grade taught basic subjects for a half day by the homeroom teacher and then having specialists teaching art, music, physical education and other subjects.

After retirement, Teal golfed into his nineties and often scored his age when he was in his seventies. He died in 1974 and is buried in Pleasantview Cemetery outside of Sycamore with his wife, the former Jessie Case, an Eden Township native. They had two children, both deceased, and is survived by a granddaughter, Janis Teal, of Albuquerque, New Mexico.