Charlie Cobb inherited a couple of valuable items from his legendary grandfather.
Ty Cobb’s athletic genes were obvious enablers to Charlie Cobb during Friday nights in the early 1960s.
Ty Cobb’s large trust fund, built through good business sense and good connections — resulting in tons of stock in Coca Cola and General Motors — aided Charlie Cobb in building a local business career after injuries short-circuited his football aspirations.
What Charlie didn’t inherit was Ty Cobb’s reputation, which for many decades was cemented as a fierce competitor whose baseball brilliance was matched only by his white-hot intensity. Charlie’s competitive fire was always doused at the final whistle.
“Absolutely the nicest guy you’ll ever want to meet in your life,” says Dick Sizemore, a fellow early-’60s Seabreeze Sandcrab with Charlie Cobb, who died late last week at 78. Several years of an off-and-on battle with cancer ended the way too many do.
“He really fought a tough battle with that,” Sizemore says.
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Charlie first built his name in the core Daytona Beach area, growing up on Lenox Avenue and dominating every sport he played. It culminated with his recruitment to Georgia Tech by the Yellow Jackets coaching legend, Bobby Dodd.
A knee injury ended the football and sent Charlie onto a business path, which eventually landed him in the south side of Volusia County, in New Smyrna Beach, where the Charlie Cobb State Farm Insurance office became a well-known part of the local business community.
Through the years, many of Charlie’s clients knew nothing of his Ty Cobb ties, or his own past athletic success. But they knew Charlie.
“He built this building,” says Todd Perry, who now operates the State Farm office on U.S. 1.
Charlie’s retirement gave way to another State Farm agent in that office, and Perry was next. Even two agents removed from the original agent in that building, Perry got a visit on his first day behind his new desk.
“I remember the first day I opened,” he says. “You know, another agent had been here between Charlie and me. But Charlie came to visit and he brought me this really nice desk piece that he’d bought at Tom Cook Jewelers. Just out of the blue.
“He didn’t benefit at all from me taking over here, he didn’t need to do anything. It’s just that old-school way he had. They just don’t make ’em like that anymore. Always smiling, always laughing, what a gentleman. If I could have just 2% of that … He will be missed, goodness gracious.”
Like any smart businessman, Charlie got involved with the local community, including membership in the Southeast Volusia Kiwanis.
“He was very generous to the children in our communities, through his financial support and participation in Kiwanis programs,” recalls Fred Baker. “Our lives were enriched by having known and served with him.”
But that Kiwanis involvement also led to an outlet for whatever competitive juices still flowed through Charlie’s veins.
In his youth, contemporaries say, he was like a man among boys.
“He was just so unbelievable,” Sizemore says. “I don’t think I’ve ever been around an athlete that gifted. I can still remember watching him run. It looked like he was just gliding.”
Some 20 years later, he was still standing out. The Kiwanis fielded a basketball team in New Smyrna Beach’s city rec league, but victories were very rare — “To say we struggled would be an understatement,” says Jimmy Pearsall.
Then they talked Charlie into joining the team, and after a couple of practices, the team had five new plays, Pearsall recalls.
“Our five new plays were, Charlie shoot from the key, Charlie shoot from the baseline, Charlie shoot off of a pick, as if we could even set a pick, and Charlie bring the ball down the court and make a layup.”
Yep, that’s only four …
“And since there was no need to guard any of our other four players, sometimes the play had to be Charlie shoot from almost half-court. Charlie was good for about 30 points a game, which was huge in our league, and he was very embarrassed about having to shoot so much. We still didn’t win but at least we scored.”
One of Charlie’s biggest joys in the past several years was the so-called “reclamation project” on his famous grandfather’s legacy. Charles Leerhsen, a former magazine writer and Sports Illustrated editor, wrote a scholarly book — “Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty” — uncovering much evidence to rewrite the darkest pages of the long-held Cobb narrative.
“His reputation had been ruined, really,” Charlie said. But he was thrilled someone with some media stature had taken the time to try recasting the baseball god’s image.
The Charlie Cobb narrative, by contrast, will never need a fix. A longer final chapter would’ve sure been nice, however.
— Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com