Drew University Athletics

What St. John's University failed to see in George Toepfer, Drew University's Doc Young recognized. Thus began a stellar Drew career that eventually led to the top of baseball's minor leagues. Toepfer transferred to Drew from St. John's in January 1949 and almost immediately became a starter on the basketball team, averaging 11.4 points per game for the second half of the 1948-49 season. He ranked among the scoring leaders over the next two seasons when Drew went 6-12 and 5-11.  But baseball was the reason Toepfer found Drew. He batted in the mid .300s for three years as a starting outfielder on teams that compiled a 30-17 record, including a 22-game home winning streak. After his sophomore and junior seasons, he spent summers as a top hitter in the New Brunswick Baseball League with the Black's Harbor team.

Immediately after graduating magna cum laude, Toepfer signed with the Boston Red Sox organization. He started out with Scranton of the AA Eastern League and then moved to Roanoke, where he led the team in batting with a .333 average. A draft notice from the Army interrupted his career, but while in the Army, he paced the Fort Lee, VA, team in hitting. He helped lead it into the championship game of the 1953 All-Army Tournament, after facing teams with major leaguers such as Pittsburgh's Dick Groat, the New York Giants' Willie Mays, and St. Louis's Tom Poholsky.