As Brunswick Youth Sports (BYS) enters its fourth decade of providing baseball programs for Brunswick youngsters,, it can boast a large measure of success. In its 30 seasons, the program has seen 21,000 boys and girls enjoying summers of fun and competition.
Many of the adults who have been involved in the program over the years may be surprised it is older than they thought. Most historians trace the origins of the organization to 1957 when it became affiliated with Little league Baseball, Inc. But thanks to Police Chief Clayton Crook, who was among the originators of the program and preserved memorabilia, one can trace the Brunswick Boys League to its initial games of Friday, Jun 3, 1955 with the Indians vs. Yankees and Dodgers vs. Giants.
"It actually began in the winter of 1954," Crook said, "when the Rev. Leonard Solt (Brunswick United Methodist Church) called a meeting of interested men to form a baseball league here. At that time there was no organized recreation for youngsters in the area at all.
"We met in his parish house and I remember Paul Rumbaugh and Art Hamer were among those present," Crook said. "I don't believe Rev. Solt had children involved, he just wanted to get something going for the kids. He deserves a lot of credit."
That 1955 program shows that Mr. Solt was the commissioner of the league while Neal Shepherd was presiden, George Vehlber, vice president; Charles Gavlak, Omar Jonas, Reg Perkins, Rumbaugh, Hamer and Crook were directores. Chief umpire was Charles Dennison with Art Raabe, Edmund Prociak, Frank Gibson, Bob Bowman, John Hunter, Harvey Ritchie and Jim Drake the volunteer umps.
The four teams played at Center Schools field (behind Edwards Middle School North House) and the first backstop was installed by Behner Plumbing.
There were no fees, but sponsors helped to pay for uniforms. Because 110 boys showed up to try out for the 60 spots on the teams, the need was obvious and encouraging to the organizers.
In the program, the sale of which also helped support the program, Shepherd said, "I sincerely hope that in the future, Brunswick Boys' League Baseball will grow into many more teams and that all boys, who so desire, will have the opportunity to play in organized baseball."
Little did he know.
In this, the 1986 season, 1,022 children from age seven to 18 are participating in the BYS program with six leagues and 71 teams. And this is not the most "fruitful" year of all. During the real boom years of Brunswick, some 1,200 youngsters were involved.
The philosophy hasn't changed very much over these years. Current BYS vice president Greg Cregan noted that instructional leagues begin at age seven.
"At that age, we want to teach the youngsters the basics of how to play ball, getting along as a team and sportsmanship."
Neal Shepherd said, "From Little League Baseball, the boys will learn lessons of fair play, discipline and teamwork and will find that the other boy, regardless of race, color or creed is a pretty nice fellow, too."
It was 1956 when Crook wrote to the national headquarters of Little League Baseball asking for admission into the organization. There were accepted and became Brunswick Little League in 1957.
All was not a bed of roses. The program was run strictly by volunteers and a May, 1959 newspaper article made a plea for equipment, help and financial aid. A decision was made to charge 25 cents for league schedules. The pop stand was another fundraiser. Disagreements among the adult participants, often about conduct, kept things lively.
"I stayed with the program seven years or so," Crook noted. "I started before my son was old enough to play and stayed with it after he graduated."
Crook's Giants were very successful under his tutelage, but the competition among managers discouraged him. "It wasn't my feeling of what Little League was about, so I quit," he said.
It was about 1959 or 1960 that the Babe Ruth League was founded for older boys. It remained a separate organization from Little League and played at Grafton Road (Kidder) School and the Benjamin field on W. 130th St. And that's what it was - just a cleared farm field.
It was also about that time that league-wide fund raisers were held to help pay the costs of equipment and maintenance. Now, the pres-season fundraiser supplements the BYS registration fees in order to keep the gigantic program going.
Cregan said it's not cheap these days to outfit a player. It costs about $25 to dress each player in full uniform and $142 to outfit a catcher. Each year BYS purchases 40 dozen softballs at $42 per dozen and 100 dozen baseballs at $35 per dozen
While the two leagues remained separate, officers did keep contact. In 1965, for instance, Little League president Robert Kozminski attended the Babe Ruth meeting with Art Hamer chaired.
In January 1966, the Babe Ruth league made an attempt to disband, trying to force the city to take over financial responsibility. In a later meeting, president Fred Grandt explained the city could not give money to any chartered league so disbandment was dropped. The members decided to see what other fundraisers could be attempted. The Babe Ruth fees that year were $8.25 and the new graduate league for old boys was $12. That included caps, insurance and a program book.
In 1966, city council offered 19.7 acres near the water tower to the Babe Ruth League, but legal complications and lack of funds for development nixed the project.
That same year, the Ladies Auxiliary of the Babe Ruth League began holding weekly teen dances at the Brunswick Civic Room and that raised a lot of money, helping to keep the league afloat.
Bob Warner of Substation Road has fond memories of Little League even though 20 years have passed since he first became involved.
He recalled another name change.
"Under Little League rules, a city of our size - it was probably around 15,000 then - could only have 90 boys in the league. Brunswick just wasn't a typical town. There were too many boys from eight to 12 and we hated to eliminate kids. They had to try out and then some would think they weren't good enough. We didn't feel the program should just be for great ball players. It should be for all those who wanted to participate."
So in the mid 1960s, the name was changed to Brunswick Youth Baseball and the league became independent. It was that time that the city agreed to lease 15 acres of Huntington Circle and Windsor Drive to BYB. The stipulation? Improve it within a certain time or lose it.
Phil Bosak of Brunswick remembered that time was drawing near when a group of volunteers began to do the required work. It took pulling up stumps, filling the swampy land and lots of hard labor to accomplish.
"A lot of people put in a lot of volunteer hours on those first fields," Bosak said. "Someone had a bull-dozer and we either paid just for the labor or just for the machine - one or the other - but that helped a lot."
Three fields were ready for 1965 and another by 1966 as well as a refreshment stand.
Warner noted that a lot of non-construction laborers worked on that building in addition to some brick-layers who were either on strike or laid off who volunteer their time.
"I remember one of the men had some sort of carpentry experience because he could cut the beams on the ground without even measuring and hand them up to us to nail in place. When we made more money, we sunk it immediately into improvements. We just worked a little at a time until it was all finished. There are a lot of people who never got, or wanted, any credit for their help, but their services were surely appreciated," he said.
Mrs. Warner also began a newsletter at that time, and it is still in existence. It went to about 400 people back then and continues to be received by all families in BYS.
In January 1969, a committee was formed to explore merging Babe Ruth with BYB and on April 20, the members of the Babe Ruth League organization voted 12-4 by secret ballot to merge. It was decided there were too many boys being lost between BYB and Babe Ruth and that a single organization could better encourage them to continue.
In 1967 Sarah Leasure approached the board asking for a girls' league. In typical fashion, they told her to "work on it." By the time she returned, Warner said, she had every aspect of a Pony Tail League organized - and it was off and running. That year there were 282 boys and 108 girls in the program.
In 1972, the name Brunswick Youth Sports, Inc., was adopted to better reflect the purpose of the organization. That year there were five 3-10 year old teams, nine major and minor league teams, six Babe Ruth League teams; two graduate teams and five girls' teams.
Officers that year were Reg ??win, Fred Mack, Helen Gusen and Doris Masterson. General managers were Gerry Salisbury, Do?? Topper, Dick Sigado, Jim Top?? with umpires in chief Joe Boland and Phil Bosak. Bill Askew was field manager.
A lot of the sponsors even those ?? years ago aren't in existence ?? Wolff Development (Mayor Al?? Wolff was a great supporter of youth sports), Medina County Bank, R??baugh Sohio, Center Homes, Ru?? Construction, Sparkle Market, B??ner Sales.
And in all this time, BYS has had one constant. It has never stood ???
Each time an opportunity came to provide more service to the youngsters of the community, a way was always found to include it. That year, for instance, would have been the first time 18 year-old girls wouldn't have been able to play. ?? women's leagues here only accepted ?? year olds. So BYS is providing ?? team to enter the west side league??
And it has never been supported through tax monies. That fact ?? amazed many organizations from other cities. It is virtually the only organization of this size which does not utilize funds from the city in which it plays and relies on an all volunteer force.
Now that group of volunteers includes a 16-member board of directors plus "general body" including anyone who shows an interest in the organization and attends a required number of meetings. Plans include expansion of Mooney Field, (the name given to the land in honor of the former Little Leaguer who died in Viet Nam) with two more fields and additional parking.
And the future? It seems that will be determined by the needs of the children of Brunswick - as it has been for the past 31 years.
