Ulysses 'Tony' Lupien Jr., played for Red Sox in '40s
NORWICH, Vt. -- Ulysses J. ''Tony" Lupien Jr., a major league baseball player in the 1940s and baseball coach at Dartmouth College, has died after several years of declining health. He was 87 and died Friday at his home.
A first baseman, he played for the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers, and Chicago White Sox. He then was a minor league player-manager into the early 1950s before becoming a college coach.
In 1980 he collaborated with writer Lee Lowenfish to write ''The Imperfect Diamond," a book about baseball labor from the introduction of the reserve clause in 1879 to the litigation in the 1970s that led to free agency.
Mr. Lupien was born in Chelmsford, Mass., on April 23, 1917. He grew up in Manchester, Conn., graduated from Loomis School in Windsor, Conn., in 1935 and from Harvard College in 1939.
At Harvard, he was captain of the baseball team as a junior and of the basketball team as a senior. He was the Eastern Intercollegiate League batting champion in 1938 and 1939. He also quarterbacked his freshman football team at Harvard.
Upon graduation from Harvard, Mr. Lupien signed a professional baseball contract with the Red Sox and played the 1939 season with Scranton's Eastern League championship team.
He played with Little Rock (Southern Association) and Louisville (American Association) in 1940 and 1941.
He also played 10 games with the Red Sox in 1940 and became Boston's regular first baseman in 1942 and 1943. He was traded to the Phillies where he played in 1944 and early in 1945 before serving in the Navy during World War II.
In 1946-47, he played with the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League. In 1947 he was the league's most valuable player as he led the league in hits (237) and runs scored (147) and had a batting average of .341.
He completed his major league career in 1948 with the White Sox. He had a major league career batting average of .268.
Mr. Lupien played with Toledo (American Association) in 1949. He concluded his professional career from 1951 to 53 and in 1955 when he was a player as well as field and general manager with Jamestown and
From 1951 to 1956 he was head basketball coach at Middlebury College, compiling a record of 60-49. In 1956, Mr. Lupien was hired by Dartmouth College to be its baseball coach. He was also Dartmouth's freshman basketball coach from 1956 to 68.
During 21 seasons as Dartmouth's baseball coach, Mr. Lupien guided his teams to 313 wins, 305 losses and three ties. His teams won the Eastern Intercollegiate League championship four times (1963, 1967, 1969, 1970).
Dartmouth's 1970 team also won the NCAA District One (New England) championship and finished fifth in the College World Series at Omaha, Neb.
Mr. Lupien retired in 1977.
