By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Tyree Newton, a slick-fielding infielder from Rison, Ark., had never played organized baseball until the summer between his junior and senior year in high school when he played for an American Legion team 50 miles away in Camden.
"(Rison) was a very small town, a very small school," Newton said. "Believe it or not, we didn't even have a baseball team. We would just play out in the field during the summers."
After graduating from high school in 1949, Tyree was playing for a semi-pro baseball team in Louisiana that summer when a New York Yankees scout named Atley Donald asked if he was interested in playing professional baseball. The 18-year-old prospect replied, "No, I want to go to college."
Donald put a call into a good friend, Baylor baseball coach A.E. "Pete" Jones, who scouted Newton in the playoffs and offered him a scholarship about a month before the start of the 1949 fall semester.
"I couldn't believe it," Tyree said. "I was thrilled to death."
That opened the door for an association with Baylor University that has included All-Southwest Conference baseball honors in 1953, two degrees and a devoted baseball and football fan who has kept "the trail pretty hot going back and forth" between Waco and his home in College Station.
Nearly 70 years after his playing days, retired U.S. Air Force Col. Tyree H. Newton will be added to the "B" Association Wall of Honor at the 2022 Hall of Fame Banquet on Nov. 18, along with the late Col. Wilbur Mehaffey.
"I was stunned," the 91-year-old Newton said of his election to the Wall of Honor, which annually recognizes Baylor letterwinners and graduates whose meritorious accomplishments in public or private life have brought positive public recognition, credit and honor to Baylor and the athletics department.
"I had no idea, whatsoever, that that was coming. I was thrilled to death that it happened, but I certainly was not expecting it and had not even given it any thought, because I didn't know whether I was even in the running for something like that. I feel very honored, because so many of my good friends are in the Hall of Fame and on the Wall of Honor."
While Newton calls it a "great experience" being the Bears' starting second baseman for three years (1951-53), he played for three different head coaches and "we didn't have outstanding teams during that time." Tyree earned All-SWC honors as a senior in 1953 for a team that finished third in the league behind co-champions Texas and SMU and included an All-American outfielder named Mickey Sullivan.
"It was the people that were involved that made it so enjoyable," Newton said. "Some of those guys have been friends for life."
That includes Baylor Hall of Famer and former football assistant coach Cotton Davidson, Ty's college roommate.
"I met Cotton my first day at Baylor, and we clicked. Our chemistry was just right, and we became lifelong friends," Newton said. "He and I have been buddies for all these years. After we retired, my wife (Ruth) and I traveled together with him and Carolyn every summer. And we still communicate at least once a week."
Newton had more success with the semi-pro Alpine Cowboys in Alpine, Texas, winning three state championships in his four seasons (1950-52, 1954).
Although he was involved with the Baylor ROTC program, Newton said he just joined to "keep from getting drafted during the Korean War. I had no idea of making a military career. That was the last thing in my mind."
Signing with the Chicago Cubs after graduating, Tyree played one season at Class A Macon, Ga., hitting .217 with 10 doubles, two triples, one homer and 23 RBI with a .973 fielding percentage. Two weeks after getting his contract for the Cubs' Double-A team in Beaumont, Texas, he got a letter from the U.S. Air Force.
"I didn't think I'd ever go in, because the Korean War ended in 1953, and that was when I graduated," Newton said. "I didn't think they'd be needing pilots. I was back at Baylor working on my master's after playing that first year of baseball with the Cubs' organization. And then, when I found out I was going to have to go in, I had to complete my ROTC, which I was way behind on. I had to go to summer camp to complete my ROTC training."
While finishing a master's degree in education, Tyree was also the freshman baseball coach at Baylor before being commissioned into the Air Force in 1955.
After graduating at the top of his class in flight school, Newton was stationed at James Connally Air Force Base in Waco and spent four years as an instructor pilot, "getting to watch all the (Baylor) football, basketball and baseball games during that time."
Toward the end of his first hitch, Newton opted to stay in when he was offered a chance to teach at the relatively new U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. "We made the decision then, in about 1959, to stay in the military," he said. "And I certainly have never regretted that decision."
As the Vietnam War began escalating in 1965, Newton volunteered for combat flight support missions, "and we ended up having the best of all worlds, because we were assigned to the island of Okinawa," Tyree said.
In addition to flying for the USAF missions in Vietnam, Tyree also flew over Laos on classified missions for the CIA, "because the military was not supposed to be in Laos during the Vietnam War," he said.
"I would fly back and forth," Newton said. "Some of the time, I was flying missions in Vietnam. And some of the times, I was in civilian clothes flying in Laos. So, I spent a total of 4 ½ years flying combat missions over in Vietnam."
Tyree said his wife, Ruth, supported his decision to be in the military "100%, and our kids enjoyed it, too."
"They got to have experiences that they would not have had any other time," Newton said. "While we were in Okinawa, when I would take leave, we got to jump on a military plane and go just about anywhere we wanted to go. So, the kids and my wife and I got to go to Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, Bangkok and Thailand. My wife was very good at kind of keeping the war away from them. They got to live pretty much a normal life."
Returning from the Vietnam War, Newton taught five more years at the Air Force Academy, went back to a flying assignment and then finished his military career with four years as Mission Commander for the U.S/European Airborne Command Post and one year as Vice Commander of Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio.
As the Mission Commander, Newton said, "we carried the same codes that the President carries. So, in case of a nuclear attack, the President would transmit those codes to our plane, and we would transmit them to the troops on the ground and to the Air Force, who would be hitting the targets in Russia and various places."
In a 30-year career as a pilot and instructor in the Air Force, Newton flew over 400 combat missions and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroic and extraordinary achievement as an Aircraft Commander, as well as the Legion of Merit and Meritorious Service Medal.
Back in the U.S. as a civilian, Newton was the Director of Student Financial Aid for the Texas A&M Medical School for eight years and then Interim Assistant Dean of Student Affairs & Admissions for two years before retiring in 1996.
"We've lived here for 37 years now," he said, "so I've been retired for many, many years."
Col. Newton said he expects to fill up two full tables at the Hall of Fame banquet with a family that includes three children, six grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
"When this was first announced, I figured maybe a few of them would go," he said. "Every one of them have said they're coming. We plan to make a weekend of it and really enjoy it, seeing some of our friends back there during that weekend."
The 2022 Hall of Fame class includes Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Robert Griffin III and Doak Field (football), Gary Kafer and Quentin Iglehart-Summers (track and field), Jeremy Alcorn (men's golf), Taylor Barnes Fallon (volleyball), Tweety Carter (men's basketball) and Josh Ludy (baseball).
The Hall of Fame banquet is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18, in the Cashion Building Banquet Room on the Baylor University campus. Tickets are $50 per person, with table sponsorships also available at the green ($600) and gold ($800) levels and can be purchased by contacting the "B" Association at 254-710-3045 or by email at tammy_hardin@baylor.edu.
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