Less than a year ago, Charles Kinlaw sat in his home and talked to this scribe at length. His then-93-year-old brain didn’t show its age, and it didn’t matter that the memories he was recalling happened nearly three quarters of a century earlier; all the details were still there, down to who said what, which inning a play happened in and even whether he threw a fastball or a changeup in a key moment. Those memories were of a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Kinlaw that happened way back in 1949.
As a young man, he was part of the Wake Forest baseball team that advanced to the championship game of the College World Series, just the third one contested. He reminisced with me for a story about his experience , written on the occasion of Wake Forest’s trip back to the CWS last year. We spent about an hour together, and I can truly say it is one of the favorite hours I have ever spent in this profession.
Kinlaw’s incredible life came to an end last Wednesday when he passed at age 94. While we didn’t necessarily have a relationship beyond that interview and a couple of other brief interactions since I came to The Robesonian, I felt a genuine sadness when I heard of Kinlaw’s passing. Lumberton, and Robeson County, has lost not just one of its greatest athletes, but one of its greatest sportsmen.
The depth of that statement goes far beyond his baseball career, even as pitching in the College World Series is the most noteworthy thing he achieved in the athletic realm. His.