Roger Maris Biography

Fast Facts

• In 1984, the New York Yankees retired his No․ 9 jersey
• The Associated Press named him its Male Athlete of the Year in 1961
• The United States Postal Service issued a "Roger Maris, 61 in 61" stamp in 1999
• Played football and basketball in high school, limited to playing baseball during the summers in the American Legion program, as his high school did not have a baseball program
• Bud Wilkinson recruited him to play football for the University of Oklahoma, but he gave up his scholarship to sign a professional baseball contract with the Cleveland Indians organization
• Spent four years in the minor leagues with Fargo-Moorhead, Keokuk, Tulsa, Reading and Indianapolis
• Primarily remembered as a New York Yankee, he also played major league baseball for the Cleveland Indians, the Kansas City Athletics and the St․ Louis Cardinals
• Best known for hitting 61 home runs in 1961, which broke Babe Ruth's previous record of 60 set in 1927
• In 2011, the New York Yankees celebrated the 50th anniversary of his American League Home Run record
• The story of his home run race with fellow New York Yankee Mickey Mantle was immortalized in the film "61*․"
• He and his brother Rudy founded Maris Distributing Company, an Anheuser-Busch distributorship, in 1967