The Warren and Barrington Gazette had these things to say about Norm Urban, the baseball player: “the best flychaser Warren has had in recent years”; and “now stands as one of a group of three who are conceded a chance of going places in the baseball world, Duke Abbruzzi and Donat Brochu completing the trio.”

While still a student at Warren High School, Norm was the Warren Twilight Baseball League’s third leading hitter at .414 and was named the All Star center fielder.  In his senior year of 1935 he was the captain of the Warren High nine that reached the finals of the Class B playoffs before losing to St. Raphael.

He played in the Warren/Bristol Little World Series from 1933 to 1940.  In the third and final game of the 1935 Series, he came to the pitcher’s mound in the ninth inning with Warren leading 8-7, but with Bristol having the bases loaded and no outs.  He proceeded to put down the Bristolians without any further scoring, thus ending the Series in Warren’s favor.  In 1936 he batted .300 while hitting safely in four of the five Series games.

After high school Norm played for Providence College, compiling a career batting average of over .300.  In 1939 he hit leadoff and completed the season without making an error in center field for the Eastern Runner-Up 15-3 Friars.  (If fellow Hall of Famer Donat Brochu hadn’t been injured late in this season, the Friars could well have gone 17-1 and won the Eastern Championship.)

He returned to Warren High as a teacher and coached football, basketball, and baseball, during the 1940s.   He was the coach of the school’s Class C Eastern Baseball Champions of 1944 and an assistant baseball coach of its 1947 Class C Champions and State Runners-Up.

Norm managed the Providence Amateur League Standard Pharmacy teams of 1948 and 1949, organized Red Feather men’s volleyball and boys baseball leagues, was president and umpire in the Knights of Columbus Junior Sunset Baseball League, and served the Babe Ruth/Firemen’s Baseball League in a variety of roles, including supervisor, player agent, umpire-in-chief, and assistant coach.

He was both Treasurer and President of the Warren Alumni and Booster Club (ABC) and was the Warren High School Athletic Department photographer and cameraman for more than twenty years.

Norm was honored by the Warren High School Athletic Department for his service to both the department and the ABC.

Pictures from Hall of Fame archives