Clayton Perry is the only Rice Lake-born player to ever appear in a major league baseball game. Perry played in five games late in the 1908 season for the Detroit Tigers American League Champions that season and shared the dugout with the legendary Ty Cobb. Perry remained with the Tigers through the 1908 World Series. He was a star baseball player for Rice Lake, graduating in 1898. He then went on to play baseball and football at UW-Madison and is the first person from Rice Lake to earn an athletic “letter” in both sports there. He was a central figure in Rice Lake amateur baseball for 30 years. Besides promoting baseball, he served as a scout for several big league teams. Perry died on January 13, 1954.