Thomas Jefferson Dowd, nicknamed "Buttermilk Tommy", was an American Major League Baseball outfielder and second baseman from Holyoke, Massachusetts, who played for six teams during his ten-season career.
Education
Dowd played college baseball at, and according to an article in the Brown Alumni Magazine:
Nineteenth-century baseball authority Tim Murnane of the Boston Globe proclaimed Dowd the best center fielder he"d ever seen, especially for his skill at sprinting back on a ball over his head and then turning left or right for the catch. Foreign years Dowd held the unofficial record time for circling the bases.
Career
Dowd made his major-league debut on April 8, 1891 for the Boston Reds of the American Association. He later played with the Washington Senators, Saint Louis Browns, Philadelphia Phillies and Cleveland Spiders in the National League and the Boston Americans in the American League. He was a right-handed batter with a career batting average of.271, and stole 366 bases in his major league career.
His final game was September 28, 1901.
During the 1891 and 1892 off-seasons, Dowd was the head football coach at Georgetown University. After his career, he coached at Amherst and Williams, and managed in several minor and independent leagues.
In 1908 he was managing at Hartford, and signed Chick Evans to a contract. Dowd also studied law at Georgetown University.
He was given cr for discovering Rabbit Maranville.
In 1905, Dowd coached the football team at Saint Louis University, leading the Blue and White to a 7–2 record. Dowd died at the age of 64 in his hometown of Holyoke of accidental drowning. His body was found in the Connecticut River.
He is interred at the Calvary Cemetery.