Drew University Athletics

When Esau Mishkin arrived at Drew, he couldn't have guessed that he would still be known, seven decades later, for his prowess as a baseball catcher.

Not that Esau was a stranger to baseball, but his home in rural Mt. Freedom, New Jersey, was too far from Dover High School to allow him to join the school team. He had developed a "good country-boy arm," though, so he tried out for pitcher at Drew. But what Drew's now-legendary baseball coach, Sherman Plato (Doc) Young, needed was a catcher. The position was new to Esau, but he succeeded brilliantly as both a catcher and a hitter. His 1938 hitting streak (with a .364 batting average) was celebrated in the Acorn by John Cunningham C'38. He was an important part of a four-year stretch of winning seasons, when Drew went 10-2 in 1936, 10-3 in 1937, 7-5 in 1938, and 11-4 in 1939.

Esau's talents did not go unnoticed. At College Day in February 1940, he was named by a committee (Doc Young, coach Harry Simester, and John Cunningham) to the Brothers College All-Star Baseball Team, "consisting of the outstanding player for each position, during the first decade of Brothers College athletic history." Time did not diminish his reputation as a player: 14 years later, the retiring Doc Young named Esau to his "dream team" of outstanding players from all his coaching years. He still ranks among Drew's memorable athletes.

Although he cites Doc Young as a major influence, Esau was also on the fencing team and was associate editor of both The Acorn and Oak Leaves. After emerging from Drew with a major in French, he entered Brooklyn Law School, then took a leave before his final year to serve in the Navy in World War II. He spent five years as a flight instructor and naval aviation squadron leader, returning to his studies in Brooklyn at the end of the war.