William “Dutch” Ussat was born in Dayton on April 11, 1904, and during his tenure at Stivers, he lived at 113 Dutoit Street. He was an outstanding infielder-outfielder for Coach Brandenburg.
It is hard to believe that with future professional baseball players — Harry Schwab, Jake Matusoff, Russ Young, and Dutch — in the lineup, Stivers still cold not beat Steele for the city championship in 1920 or 1921.
Dutch started playing professionally for the Saginaw Aces in the MichiganOntario league in 1924. His contract was sold to the Cleveland Indians in July of 1925, and he made his major league debut on September 13, 1925 against the Detroit Tigers. His first chance in the field was to throw out the “Georgia Peach”, Ty Cobb.
In 1926, late in spring training, Dutch was optioned to Cleveland’s minor league affiliate in Waco, Texas. That same year, he was moved from Class A up to the Class AA Columbus Senators. In 1927, he was recalled to the majors by Cleveland, but only batted .188, 3 hits in 16 official at bats. He was optioned to Terra Haute and never made it back to the majors. He played a total of 10 seasons in the minor leagues for the Saginaw Aces, Waco Cubs, Columbus Senators, Terra Haute Tots, Erie Sailors, Springfield Buckeyes, Dayton Aviators, Buffalo Bisons, Scranton Miners, and Dayton Ducks.
He played nearly 600 games in the minors with 624 hits in 2221 at bats for a .281 batting average. He had a .930 lifetime fielding average. It makes one wonder whether he got a fair chance to prove himself in the majors. In 1938 and 1939, Dutch played for the amateur Muncie Indiana Citizens.
In 1940, he worked for Delco in Dayton and managed their amateur team. In 1944, Dutch managed the Dayton Shroyers team and was picked to manage the Class B amateur All-Stars. In 1952, he was named to the Dayton Amateur Baseball Commission and was scouting the local area for the Boston Braves. He and Dickson Burrows, another Stivers AHOF inductee, are credited with starting the local area Class AA and F amateur baseball leagues.
Dutch and his wife, Dorothy, had two sons, Phillip and William. Phillip and his wife, Diane, have two sons, Phillip and Scott. William and his first wife, Carolyn, had a daughter, Christina. William and his second wife, Judith, have two children: Amy and Billy. Dutch died May 29, 1959, of a heart attack at the age of 55 while working for the Dayton Journal Herald and is in Memorial Park Cemetery.