Hec Andrews

Clarence “Hec” Andrews was born on June 6, 1897 in Gardiner Mines, Cape Breton.  One year later, the Andrews family moved to Dominion where Hec lived and worked for the rest of his life.  

Hec began his baseball career in 1912 at the age of 15, playing shortstop for the Dominion Hawks.  Hec was also noted for his ability with a bat, hitting from either side. It was very few games where Hec didn’t hit a home run!  During a playoff game in 1921, Hec, who only weighed 136 pounds, hit the longest homerun in the league’s history, 478 feet, from the Hawks field out into the Atlantic ocean where fisherman luckily retrieved the ball which resides now with his grandson, Bruce.  This record of 478 feet stood for many years.  

After the Dominion Hawks dispersed in 1922, Hec continued to play baseball with an amateur team in Cape Breton and remained with them until his retirement in 1930.  He made a short comeback in 1935 to lead Dominion to the Nova Scotia finals, this time as a right-fielder.

Clarence “Hec” Andrews was inducted into the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame and in 1999 the late Hec Andrews was celebrated with a Cape Breton Sports Heritage Award accepted by his daughter, Melva Carabin.

Hec worked in the coal mines in Cape Breton for 48 years and died in 1977 at the age of 80.