[1] Born in Trumbauersville, Pennsylvania, Detweiler was one of many promising young ballplayers whose careers were interrupted by military service during World War II.

[2] He then became a well known sports figure in an area that involved baseball, basketball, and football, while serving as an official, umpire, and assignor of games.

[4] In 1940, Detweiler gained a promotion to the Wilmington Blue Rocks of the Class B Interstate League, where he switched to third base and batted .313 with a .472 slugging percentage in 93 games.

[7] Assigned to the 1301st Service Unit, he regularly played for the New Cumberland Reception Center baseball team with teammates Tommy Hughes, Pat Mullin, Fred Caligiuri and Harry Marnie.

Then, along with Hughes, Mullin and Steve Sundra, Detweiler helped make the Camp Siebert Gashouse Gang one of the most dominant forces in southern states military baseball between 1944 and 1945.

[5] In 1947, Detweiler was released at his own request and returned to the Federalsburg A's of the Eastern Shore League, where he had started his professional career eight years earlier, and posted a .352 average with 29 home runs and 133 RBIs.