Drew University Athletics

At a time when basketball teams seldom scored more than 40 points in a game and when baseball occupied nearly half of Drew's student body, Joe Hough set records in both sports and earned a chance at a professional career. After transferring from Manhattan University's Staten Island Division, Hough became a star for his two years at Drew and eventually played a season with the New York Yankees' AA minor-league team in the Eastern Shore League before World War II intervened.

At Drew Hough played first base and pitched in the 1938 and 1939 seasons. An honor student, he paced the team with a .455 batting average that included five doubles and three triples. He added 15 stolen based in 15 games. Hough pitched his way to a 3-1 record in 30 innings of work, striking out 36 and throwing a one-hitter against Towson Teachers (now Towson State). Later that season he added a fie-hitter against Wagner and also batted 4-for-4 with five stolen bases, including a steal of home. That was the second time he had performed that feat; early in 1939 he stole home at Loyola (MD) to win an 11-inning game. The team's 11-4 mark established a school record for wins.

Hough did much the same in basketball. During the 1938-39 basketball season the Staten Island native set a single-season scoring record of 203 points (with Milt Winch) and helped the Circuit Riders (as Drew was then known) produce two of the program's first three winning seasons. At a time when most teams scored fewer than 40 points a game, Hough contributed 20 points against Rutgers Pharmacy, 19 against rival Moravian, and 23 against nationally ranked Johns Hopkins. His performance at forward contributed to a new record for victories with a 13-2 season mark.