Education
Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, Ryan graduated from Holy Cross in 1930, where he established himself as an outstanding two-sport athlete for the Crusaders.
Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, Ryan graduated from Holy Cross in 1930, where he established himself as an outstanding two-sport athlete for the Crusaders.
The team posted a 45-5-1 record in those years. Ryan was inducted into the Holy Cross Varsity Club Hall of Fame posthumously in 1964. After college graduation, Ryan signed with the Chicago White Sox and hit a home run in his first time at bat at Comiskey Park.
In 87 at bats, however, Ryan batted only.207 that year and showed little of the fielding range that later became his hallmark.
In 1932, he was traded to the Giants for Doc Marshall. An Associated Press piece appearing in the New York Herald Journal January 28, 1934, celebrating the signing of Ryan"s contract for that year said, "Ryan, only 26 years old and not long out of Holy Cross, was a sensation in his first full year as a major leaguer.
Typical of this inspiration was the telegram he sent to (Giants’ manager Bill) Terry, at a time when the team was in a bad slump in the West, Ryan out of the game with a spike wound. The telegram said, ‘They cannot beat us.
En route. J.C. Ryan.’"
The next year he was at his best.
Ryan"s fielding range factor was 0.47 above the league average. He had 125 hits, batting.242 in 110 games. But the Giants traded him in a four-player deal to get All-Star shortstop Dick Bartell.
Ryan did not sustain the form he had shown in 1934, however.
After a respectable 1935 season in backup roles for the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees, he did not play in 1936 but spent 1937 and 1938 back with the Giants. After his Major League career ended in 1938, Ryan joined the Navy and served in World World War II with Naval Intelligence.
In 1926, as a member of the football team, Ryan tossed two touchdown passes to Hymie Shanahan against Harvard in a 19-14 The Human Context victory.