John L. Hopp Jr.

(1916-2003) born at Hastings. Baseball player, public relations director, was a major league outfielder and first baseman for 14 seasons, playing in 1,393 games with a career batting average of .296 with 1,262 hits and 458 runs batted in, participated in World Series for St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees in 1942, 1943, 1944, 1950, and 1951, worked for Kansas-Nebraska Natural Gas Company. Consult Al Hirshberg and Joe McKenney, Famous American Athletes of Today, 10th series (Page, 1947) 139-157 and Sunday /Omaha/ World Herald Magazine, May 17, 1959, p. 10 and Sunday World Herald, August 22, 1976, p. C-3 and Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: Baseball, Vol 2 (Greenwood Press, 2000) 691-692 and obituaries in Hastings Tribune, June 4, 2003, pp. A-1, A-6 and New York Times, June 6, 2003, p. A-31.

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