11/12/2025
Happy Heavenly Birthday to Tar Heel Archibald "Moonlight" Graham (also known as "Doc Graham") November 12th, 1876 - August 25th, 1965. Archibald played baseball for the Tar Heels and his brother, Frank Porter Graham, became president of the University of North Carolina and later became a US Senator. You may recognize the name "Moonlight Graham" from the movie Field of Dreams. Author "W.P. Kinsella" was reading about Archibald's very short career in Major League Baseball and incorporated his story into his book "Shoeless Joe Jackson", which was later made into the movie Field of Dreams with Kevin Kostner. W.P. Kinsella's book was fiction, but it did tell the story of Archibald Graham fairly accurately. After college Archibald played in the minor leagues for seven years. On June 29th, 1905, Archibald made his only appearance in a major league game playing for the NY Giants. The Coach put Archibald in the game at the top of the ninth inning, and Archibald was on deck next to bat. Claude Elliott flied out for the third out of the inning. Archibald played in right field in the bottom of the ninth, but he never got a chance to bat again in the major leagues, although he did play a few more years in the minors. Archibald graduated from Medical School at the University of Maryland and moved to Chisholm, Minnesota where he became known as "Doc Graham" from 1909 to 1959. Photo Credit: Public Domain.