By Chris Mayhew
The Cincinnati Enquirer

KENWOOD - William "Bill" Hugo had a love affair with baseball and its history that began when he published a statistics newsletter as a teenager.

Mr. Hugo, 81, of Kenwood, died Friday at Otterbein Retirement Community near Lebanon from complications of Alzheimer's.

As founder of the Cincinnati area Hoyt-Allen chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research, he was sought out by those looking for hard-to-find baseball facts.

Mr. Hugo was a bulldog about facts and getting every detail right, said Greg Rhodes of East Walnut Hills. Mr. Hugo helped Rhodes with research on five books about the Cincinnati Reds.

Rhodes said Mr. Hugo collected hard to find publications like Baseball Magazine that was popular before 1950.

"When he subscribed to things, he kept them," Rhodes said.

Mr. Hugo was born and raised in Richmond, Ind. After serving stateside in the Army Air Corps from 1943-46, he spent the rest of his working days as an accountant. Before retiring in 1984, he spent 15 years with Anthem Blue Cross.

For three years in the 1970s, Mr. Hugo wrote for Sports Alert, a local publication about the Reds, said his wife Isabelle Gallatin Hugo.

He then published his own Reds newsletter, Riverfront Review.

He published a history of St. Paul United Methodist Church in 2001.

Other survivors include his sister, Julie Sullivan of Pasadena, Texas.

Mr. Hugo's body was donated to the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

Memorials: St. Paul United Methodist Church, 8221 Miami Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45243; or Hospice of Cincinnati, 4310 Cooper Road, Blue Ash, OH 45242.

E-mail cmayhew@enquirer.com