
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 10, 1990                   TAG: 9007100558
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ROANOKE LEGEND `SEABISCUIT' SIMMONS DIES; PITCHED SOFTBALL

Roanoker Robert C. "Seabiscuit" Simmons, a legend in city and Virginia softball, has died at the age of 65.

Simmons, a pitcher and winner of a Virginia Sports Hall of Fame plaque in 1987, won more than 500 games in the 20 years he was in the sport.

Simmons retired in 1962. He said later that he retired early so that he wouldn't be like boxing great Joe Louis.

He said Louis stayed around too long "and some people knew him as he was then and not as he had been."

Simmons said he learned to pitch in Jackson Park when he was a teen-ager.

Simmons, a 1943 Jefferson High School graduate, did not play sports when he was in high school.

by CNB