Since 2004 the Southwest Collection (SWC) has served as the repository for the National College Baseball Hall of Fame (NCBHoF) on behalf of the College Baseball Foundation. Around July 4th every year, we are fortunate enough to attend the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and better yet, accept archival items that chronicle the event as well as the history of college baseball. They range from scrapbooks, newspapers, and photographs, to videos and media guides. Our favorites are the artifacts: signed balls, caps, bat, uniforms…even a surprising number of cleats. Perhaps most impressive, the SWC downloads and archives nearly 700 emails per day during each baseball season from over 200 Division I and other schools.
As we’ve mentioned before, recording oral histories with Hall of Fame inductees, as well as current NCAA baseball award winners, also helps the SWC preserves college baseball’s history. Nearly 100 oral histories have been conducted with players and their families, all added to our massive oral history collection currently comprised of thousands of interviews on sports as well as a host of other topics.
The 2016 Hall of Fame induction festivities will occur on Saturday, July 2nd, at the “College Baseball Night of Champions.” 2016 will see the induction of eight members:
- Augie Garrido, championship coach of the University of Texas and Cal State Fullerton
- Bob Braddy, coach of Jackson State University for 28 years
- Tommy Thomas, coach of Valdosta State University for 39 years
- Tom Paciorek of the University of Houston
- J. D. Drew of Florida State University
- Rick Monday of Arizona State University
- Matt DeSalvo of Marietta College
Hall of Famers’ careers are not the only ones celebrated. College baseball’s finest young athletes receive awards for their on-the-field excellence. The 2016 season’s award winners will be announced at the televised Night of Champions dinner on Monday evening, but can also be found on the Hall of Fame’s website for those who can’t attend. They are also commemorated on limited-edition posters and baseball cards produced by the Southwest Collection’s exhibit preparator Lynn Stoll, some of which are included among the images in this blog. These items highlight the biography and always-impressive stats of each of the 2016 inductees and award winners.
Participation in the National College Baseball Hall of Fame festivities is but one of many ways in which the Southwest Collection preserves and makes available our sports history holdings. For example, we preserve the records of the former Southwest Conference, the Big XII Conference, and the few remaining records of the former Big 8 Conference. For more information about these collections please contact our Reference Staff who would be happy to guide you through them.
Southwest Collection Archive 