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Maurice “Toby” Atwell, Jr.

Maurice “Toby” Atwell, Jr. (1924-2004) was an outstanding athlete in the Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) system in the 1930s and early . He attended Leesburg High School, where he played on the varsity , , and football teams and graduated in 1942.

Atwell started his freshman year at Virginia Tech in the fall of 1942 and played on the freshman football team. Within six months of starting college, he was drafted into the military. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps between February 1943 and February 1946.

Shortly after he left the military, the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team drafted Atwell. He played on their Triple A Minor League team, the Royals. Atwell’s rookie year in 1946, in Montreal, happened to be the same year that played for the team. That year, Montreal won the Minor League’s “Little World Series” against the Louisville Colonels.

Atwell continued to play with the Royals until December 1951 when the Dodgers traded him to the Chicago Cubs. Finally breaking into (MLB), Atwell started his first major league game with the Cubs on April 15, 1952, playing as a right-handed catcher who hit left-handed. During his 1952 season at Chicago, he was the leading hitter in the up until the All- Star break in July. He was chosen to play back-up catcher in the 1952 All Star game only to witness the game be cancelled due to rain. He finished the 1952 season with a .290 batting average and 105 hits.

Over the next five years, Atwell played for the Cubs, the , and the Milwaukee Braves. He played his last MLB game with the Braves on September 28, 1956.

After his Major League career ended, Atwell retired to Loudoun County and volunteered as the assistant baseball coach at Loudoun Valley High School just after it opened in the early 1960s. In 2004, at the age of 78, Atwell passed away at his home in Purcellville in western Loudoun County.

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