In today’s sports market, Lee Carey would’ve left Tucson High School with a $2 million signing bonus from the Cleveland Indians instead of the $19,000 he received in 1947.
Or he would’ve had to choose from football scholarship offers by Arizona and ASU, or certainly some Top 25 programs.
But in 1947, one of the most remarkable athletes and coaches in Tucson history — Carey was a starter on nine state championship teams as a THS football/basketball/baseball player — went all-in as a third baseman.
Incredibly, his greatest achievement in sports might have come later: he coached his alma mater, THS, to a pair of state championships and Rincon High to another in baseball. His first, in 1955, came when Carey was just 26.
“My grandmother had a scrapbook about my dad’s career that was 4 inches thick,” says Brian Carey, Lee’s only son and one of four children. “He had nine varsity letters. He once ran against an Olympic sprinter and beat him. He was just a natural.”
Carey died in Tucson last week, at 85, and his legacy is going strong.
In 1947, when the Cleveland Indians began the first spring training camp in Tucson history, they signed Carey and put him on the field. Imagine the pressure. He signed with the Indians instead of St. Louis because Cleveland stipulated it would pay for his education.
Carey had a 4.0 GPA at Tucson High and competed in spring training with a big-league club while taking UA classes. He got his degree in 4½ years and it came in handy: When he chose to leave baseball after 672 minor-league games in 1952, he became a career educator.
He was the Dean of Boys at Rincon and later assistant principal. His athletic prowess continued for decades; he rode the full 112 miles of El Tour de Tucson when he was 60.
“My dad was a jokester, a kind, generous man who did so much for kids,” Brian Carey says. “He was the type of man who did the right thing.”
