Former big-league pitcher Milt Wilcox makes a splash with dock-jumping dogs.
By John Johnston, Associate Editor
November 2019
Milt Wilcox, F483994, considers himself fortunate that significant portions of his life were shaped by a man named Sparky and a dog named Sparky.
Milt, who lives in Jacksonville, Florida, with his wife, Cathi, pitched for five Major League Baseball teams during a career that spanned 16 seasons, until 1986. For 11 of those seasons (two in Cincinnati and nine in Detroit), his manager was the legendary Sparky Anderson, a member of Baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Spectators gather around a pool during an Ultimate Air Dogs event.
And for the past 14 years, Milt has traveled the country with Ultimate Air Dogs, which runs dog dock-jumping shows and competitions. Milt created the company with his son, Brian, but it would not exist if not for a black Labrador retriever named Sparky Anderson Wilcox.
Sparky the baseball manager led the 1984 Detroit Tigers to a World Series championship. Milt was a starting pitcher on that team. Sparky knew baseball inside and out, but that wasn’t what most impressed Milt. “He always preached that family and God came first, and then baseball,” Milt said.
Sparky also placed a high priority on children’s charities. Milt recalled a road trip to Seattle when he was awakened at 6:00 in the morning by a knock on his hotel door. There stood Sparky and Ernie Harwell, the late, great Tigers announcer, telling him to get dressed. They were going for a walk.
They ended up at a children’s hospital, where they passed out Tigers hats and signed baseballs for kids eating breakfast in the cancer ward. “(Sparky) did that all the time,” Milt said. “It was a cool deal.”
In 2001, long after his playing days had ended, Milt, a lifelong dog-lover, went to a farm near Jackson, Michigan, and picked out a black lab pup with a white spot on his chest. Milt named him after the baseball manager he so admired.
The dog, it seemed, could do anything. He learned to catch a Frisbee, and to hunt. He loved being at a lake, running on a dock, and then jumping high and far into the water. When Sparky was about a year old, Milt saw dogs doing similar things as part of a competition being televised by ESPN.
“I looked at my son and said, ‘Sparky can do this.’”
In fact, Sparky excelled at such events, which led father and son to start Ultimate Air Dogs in 2005, with Milt’s black lab as the star. They bought a trailer and hauled a portable dock to 15 shows the first year, 30 the next — and the number kept growing.
Dogs compete in divisions that include Splash (distance jumping); Catch-It (distance jumping, plus the dog must catch an object in midair); Fetch-It (a dog knocks down a bumper suspended above the water); and Chase-It (a timed swimming race).
Milt emphasizes that these are family-friendly events. “We try not to make it too competitive,” he said. “When people come to jump their dogs, we tell them: ‘This is all about fun. Remember, the dogs don’t know how far they jump. The dogs are just having fun. You’re supposed to have fun.’”
Perhaps no dog had more fun than Sparky. He once met his namesake at a golf fundraiser for Sparky Anderson’s Catch Charity for Children (https://catchcharity.org), which benefits pediatric patients and their families at Children’s Hospital of Michigan and Henry Ford Hospital.
“Where’s my dog?” Sparky asked Milt that day. “I want to see the dog you named after me!” Milt obliged, driving back to his Detroit home to pick up the pooch. Then the two Sparkys had their picture taken together.
Sparky Anderson died in 2010, and Sparky Anderson Wilcox passed the following year. But Ultimate Air Dogs is going strong. Today, four crews travel annually to about 125 events, many of them county and state fairs.
Milt’s wife, Cathi, works with a dog during a competition. The couple travels to events in their 42-foot Entegra Coach diesel pusher.
A few years ago, Milt and Cathi decided that traveling in an RV made more sense than staying in hotels with their dogs (they had five at the time). So, they bought a 40-foot diesel pusher, which still had the former owner’s FMCA goose-egg-shaped membership emblem.
The couple didn’t know much about the organization. Soon, though, Milt saw an advertisement for an FMCA convention in Perry, Georgia. And after asking around, he learned that a high percentage of RVers travel with dogs. So, the Wilcoxes became FMCA members in 2018, and Ultimate Air Dogs made its FMCA convention debut in March 2019 in Perry. FMCA officials hope to schedule them for future conventions as well.
The Wilcoxes now own a 42-foot Entegra Coach diesel pusher. With Milt behind the wheel, it tows a trailer with their motorcycles. Cathi drives a Ford pickup, which tows their dock-jumping equipment. Their two Belgian shepherds — 2-year-old Java and 4-year-old Slash — accompany them everywhere.
Although Java and Slash jump at Ultimate Air Dogs competitions, they are not eligible to win medals, Milt said. (Java and Slash apparently overheard this, because they began barking in protest as Milt and I talked.)
Milt isn’t shy about showing his concern for all dogs. If he sees one that’s overweight, he might ask the owner about its diet and whether it gets enough exercise. “Some people may be offended,” Milt said, “but I don’t really care.
“Hopefully I’ve imparted a little bit of wisdom about how to treat dogs, play with dogs, work with dogs. I think I’m a good handler of dogs. (But) I’m more of a people trainer than a dog trainer,” he said.
“I treat every dog like it’s my dog,” he added. “I have a saying: These are actually my dogs that I let you take home at night.”