Bass Was A Unique Multi-Sport Athlete

Norm Bass fashioned one of the more unique resumes in the history of multi-sport participation. From Laurel, Mississippi, Bass would make the grade as an elite-level athlete in three sports - Major League Baseball, professional football and table tennis. And he was a world-class star in all three-disciplines.

Bass would make it to MLB first, debuting as a right-handed starting pitcher with the Kansas City Athletics on April 23, 1961 at the age of 22. He would go 11-11 in his rookie season. Among his highlights was striking out Mickey Mantle at Yankee Stadium and surrendering home run number 27 to Roger Maris as the New York Yankees slugger was en route to what was then an MLB-record of 61 homers in 1961. He also hit a home run that season.

Bass would play three seasons with the Athletics from 1961-63. A safety in college football at Pacific University, he would make the unique switch to the gridiron. In 1964, Bass signed with the Denver Broncos of the American Football League. There are less than 70 athletes like Bass who combined to play both pro baseball and football at the big-league level.

That alone would make him a unique athlete, but there was more left for Bass to accomplish. Afflicted with meningitis at the age of 10 which left him deaf and blind for three months, in his mid-20s Bass was also stricken with rheumatoid arthritis. This illness would bring an end to both his baseball and football careers, but Bass was determined to still find a way to compete.

He discovered his answer in table tennis. Bass became one of the top-ranked players in the USA. However, as his disease worsened, locking his wrists and making it impossible for him to straighten his arms, Bass made the switch to Paralympic competition in 1999.

At the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia, Bass would team with Joshua Bartel to win a bronze medal in doubles competition. At the age of 61, he was the oldest American competitor in those Paralympics. 

Bass was inducted into the US Table Tennis Hall of Fame in 2018. Thirteen years earlier, his son Norman Delaney Bass III would capture his father’s unique sporting legacy in the book "Color Him Father: An American Journey of Hope and Redemption."

Norm Bass died in 2024 at the age of 85.