Wallace Bray 1890s
Some players became so closely associated with the name they adopted that their real name takes a century to catch up. Wallace Louis Bray came from a prominent family in Santa Clara, California, and like many players at the turn of the 20th Century chose to play under an assumed name to spare the family the shame of having produced a professional ballplayer. Baseball Reference and other sources still list him by his assumed name.
Bray went by the name Wallace Bray while playing baseball at Santa Clara University (other contemporary sources said he also attended the University of the Pacific)—one of his coaches was Major League pitcher Joe Corbett. (There is some confusion because there is another player with the surname Hogan, Major Leaguer Willie Hogan attended Santa Clara seven years after Bray and also played in the Pacific Coast League at the same time and he was also sometimes called “Happy,” but Hogan was his given name).
Bray became Wallace Hogan when he signed his first professional contract with the Sacramento Senators in the California League in 1900, and picked up the nickname “Happy.”.
The Berkeley Daily Gazette said:
“He was dubbed “Happy” by the writers because of his sunny disposition.”
He become an extremely popular West Coast baseball figure and in 1903 he was still with Sacramento when they joined the Pacific Coast League, the league in which he played and managed for the next 12 seasons
While never a great player, he was considered a good catcher and infielder but he was a career .186 hitter; The San Francisco Chronicle called him “The most popular figure,” in the Pacific Coast League.
After playing for the Tacoma Tigers, Fresno Raisin Eaters and Los Angeles Angels, Bray was named manager of the new PCL franchise, the Vernon Tigers in 1909; Vernon finished last, but Hogan’s team, which moved to nearby Venice, improved each of the next 5 years and finished in 2nd place twice.
The Chronicle said:
“Taking a new club in a league of the highest minor classification…is quite a job. Hogan made good with a bang, or his club has always been in the running and in addition it has always been a big attraction.”
The Associated Press said:
“(Hogan) is a human dynamo when on the baseball field. The present position of the Vernon club in the pennant race is due mainly to his dynamic personality…Baseball players say Hap is the fairest manager in the league and that he treats his men better than any other coast league impresario.”
The Tigers got off to a great start in 1915 and were in first place on May 9, an off day, when Bray went swimming at Venice beach and “He contracted a severe cold and pneumonia set in.” He missed several games, but “While it was reported several times that Hogan was in serious condition, it was confidently expected that he would pull through it all right.”
He did not pull through and died on May 17 at 37-years-old.
The Associated Press said of his funeral:
“Roy Hitt, Doc White, Walter Carlisle, Dick Bayless, Frank Decanniere and Johnny Kane are the players who acted as pallbearers. The other members of the club and prominent men in baseball acted as honorary pallbearers. While the throng at the funeral viewed for the last time the face from which even death could not efface the famous smile, every baseball game played in the Coast League halted for five minutes, the stars of the diamond in many cities on the Coast stood with bared heads in silent prayer for the dead star. In accordance with Hogan’s wishes, the body was cremated.”
Wallace Louis “Happy Hogan” Bray 1912
The Tigers went into a tailspin under new manager Dick Bayless, while they recovered in the second half the team finished 4th.
A benefit game was played to raise money for Bray’s widow on June 25 at Washington Park in Los Angeles. The Sporting Life said:
“In the most remarkable tribute ever paid to the memory of any man in Los Angeles, 10,000 persons choked the stands.”
Baseball History Daily 
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