Some Reporters, Editors Led Interesting Lives Before Going Into Newspapering

Close play at third, Fenway Park, Red Sox vs. Yankees, Boston Public Library

One of the things that made working at The Mobile Press Register exciting in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s was that many of the reporters and editors had led interesting lives outside of journalism before going into newspapering.

One such staffer was Mobile native and sports editor Pat Moulton. He starred in football and baseball at Auburn University before signing with the Boston Red Sox in 1927.

He later played with Atlanta in the Southern Association, Selma and Montgomery in the Southeastern League and Shreveport and Fort Worth in the Texas League. He managed the Henderson team in 1934 and 1935 before retiring to become a sports writer.

Moulton was a popular character in the Press Register newsroom. A steady stream of sports personalities Moulton had met during his professional baseball days visited the newsroom and many of them became the subject of his column, “Heard in the Showers.”

Moulton also liked to play practical jokes. One of the objects of his humor was Sam Willingham, the religion editor.

In the bottom drawer of his desk Willingham kept the “cuts,” or photographic engravings, of the community’s religious leaders. One day, as a prominent minster stood by Willingham’s desk with an article for the religion page, Willingham opened the drawer to pull out the minister’s cut. To his great embarrassment, the drawer was full of whiskey bottles.