Main John Griffith envisioned a nation made higher, more healthy and stronger — extra highly effective and patriotic — and cast by youthful competitors that preached good citizenship.
To this present day, his legacy thrives on baseball fields throughout America and within the highest ranges of intercollegiate competitors.
Griffith, a World Battle I veteran, impressed the creation of American Legion Baseball.
It’s the nation’s oldest organized youth baseball league, based practically a century in the past in the summertime of 1925.
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About 100,000 youngsters in the USA ages 15 to 19 play American Legion Baseball every summer season on 3,500 groups from coast to coast.
“Health and well being posed issues for army personnel in World Battle I,” Jeffrey Stoffer, editor of American Legion Journal, instructed Fox Information Digital.
John L. Griffith was commissioner of the collegiate Western Convention, later the Huge Ten, in 1925 when he inspired American Legion members in 1925 to assist sports activities as a approach to practice American youth. American Legion Baseball was created the next 12 months in response to his name to motion. (Public Area)
“The veterans who got here again and began their Legion posts remembered these issues vividly.”
By some accounts, half of all World Battle I enlistees failed to satisfy fundamental bodily health necessities.
Griffith on the time was a nationally acknowledged school sports activities administrator, the primary commissioner of the convention now often known as the Huge Ten.
“Health and well being posed issues for army personnel in World Battle I.” — Jeffrey Stoffer, American Legion Journal
He provided an answer to strengthen the nation’s youth: Play ball!
“There may be nothing in our nationwide life that stresses the qualities which are careworn in our athletics,” Griffith stated in an impassioned speech earlier than the South Dakota American Legion state conference on July 17, 1925.
“The qualities of clever braveness, the preventing intuition, cooperation, promise and the flexibility to hold out that promise, all of those are issues … are careworn in our athletic video games.”
Ted Williams, at bat, and Yogi Berra, catcher, are among the many 82 Nationwide Baseball Corridor of Fame legends who performed American Legion Baseball as teenagers. (Getty Photographs)
He urged the American Legion “might nicely think about the advisability of helping within the coaching of younger People by means of our athletic video games.”
American Legion Baseball fielded groups in 15 states the next season. It has since grown to all 50 states.
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Griffith, an athlete himself, noticed competitors as the important thing to a match, preventing youth and a important cog within the Arsenal of Democracy.
The American Legion was the proper accomplice. The patriotic group itself was based within the rapid aftermath of World Battle I; the primary American Legion caucus of veterans met in Paris in March 1919.
John L. Griffith, a World Battle I veteran and commissioner of what is now the Huge Ten, impressed the creation of American Legion Baseball when he issued a name to motion on the South Dakota American Legion conference of 1925. (Courtesy American Legion)
Griffith’s perception in nationwide power by means of sports activities discovered advocates within the highest ranges of the army.
“On the fields of pleasant strife are sown the seeds which, in different years and on different fields, will bear the fruits of victory,” Gen. Douglas MacArthur famously stated, the phrases chiseled in granite as we speak at West Level.
Griffith, it seems, was getting ready the youth of America to struggle in World Battle II.
Within the service of Uncle Sam
John Lorenzo Griffith was born on Aug. 20, 1877 in Mount Carroll, Illinois, to Hugh Jordan and Lucy Luella (Cummings) Griffith.
He attended tiny Beloit School in Wisconsin, the place he turned the sports activities editor of the college newspaper earlier than graduating in 1902.
John L. Griffith from the Drake College yearbook, revealed 1918, the place he served as dean of males and was a outstanding sports activities coach. (Drake College Archives & Particular Collections)
He maintained an curiosity in sports activities journalism all through his life. Amongst different accomplishments, he based the influential publication “The Athletic Journal.”
Griffith turned a nationally acknowledged school sports activities coach and administrator, most notably in observe and discipline at Drake College.
“Working and discipline occasions had been … a approach to maintain troops sharp whereas in France.”
He was nicely into his profession and nearing age 40 when the U.S. entered World Battle I in 1917.
He dutifully enlisted within the service of Uncle Sam. He served stateside at Camp Dodge, Iowa, as an officer in a U.S. Military machine gun unit.
It was there that he earned the rank of main — and was later usually known as by his army rank when again in civilian life.
World Battle I noticed advances in coaching troops. But that was not sufficient for Griffith.
Troopers discover ingenious methods to scale a wall throughout coaching at Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina, circa 1918. American Legion Baseball founder John L. Griffith, and different World Battle I veterans, had been dismayed by the general health of American troops coming into the battle. (Picture by © CORBIS/Corbis by way of Getty Photographs)
Legion ball fuels the Huge Leagues
After the warfare, Griffith returned to his profession as a school sports activities coach and administrator, carrying with him a renewed perception within the want for a fitter American youth.
The American Legion members, virtually all of them fellow World Battle I veterans, enthusiastically embraced his 1925 name for a stronger, extra aggressive youth of America — youngsters of each sound thoughts and physique instilled with the virtues of excellent citizenship.
The Oakland, California, boys baseball staff defeated the staff from Worcester, Massachusetts, 4-0, within the opening sport of the American Legion’s Junior World Sequence at Oomiskey Park on Aug. 1, 1928. (George Rinhart/Corbis by way of Getty Photographs)
“They organized and sponsored groups, drafted native schedules and carried out championship tourneys,” The American Legion writes in its on-line historical past of the baseball program.
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American Legion Publish 9 in Milbank, South Dakota, the place Griffith issued his name to motion, fielded one of many group’s very first baseball groups.
The small group proudly embraces its heritage because the birthplace of American Legion Baseball.
“Baseball is a pastime and a ardour for the folks of Milbank.”
“Baseball is a pastime and a ardour for the folks of Milbank and the encircling space,” Tim Jurgens, previous commander of Miller-Birch American Legion Publish 9 in Milbank, instructed Fox Information Digital.
“Main League Baseball has sponsored Legion Baseball virtually since its inception,” notes the American Legion in its historical past of its baseball program.
A monument marks Milbank, South Dakota, because the birthplace of American Legion Baseball on July 17, 1925. The group, the monument reads, “was first proposed as a program of service to the youth of America.” (Courtesy Birch-Miller American Legion Publish No. 9)
“And Legion Baseball has returned the favor, churning out Main League prospects for the reason that alumni base has been sufficiently old to be scouted.”
The American Legion says the variety of its baseball gamers who’ve gone on to the Huge Leagues is just too quite a few to chart.
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Nevertheless, it notes that “greater than half of present major-leaguers performed Legion Baseball. So did virtually each working Main League Baseball supervisor, together with a number of former commissioners.”
American Legion Baseball has produced 82 gamers who’ve gone on to the Nationwide Baseball Corridor of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
Corridor of Fame baseball pitcher Bob Feller finds loads of volunteer catchers as he exits the U.S. Navy on the finish of World Battle II. Feller is amongst 82 Nationwide Baseball Corridor of Fame performers who discovered the sport and civic service taking part in American Legion Baseball as a young person. He volunteered for the Navy the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. (Getty Photographs)
Lots of the nation’s best baseball gamers had been additionally amongst its most distinguished troopers.
Purple Sox slugger Ted Williams served as a fighter pilot in each World Battle II and Korea.
“Greater than half of present major-leaguers performed Legion Baseball.”
Yankees catcher Yogi Berra fought at Utah Seashore with the U.S. Navy on D-Day. Lawrence Peter Berra truly earned his well-known nickname from a teammate whereas taking part in American Legion Baseball.
Indians pitcher Bob Feller was six years into his Corridor of Fame baseball profession when he risked his future as an athlete to enlist within the U.S. Navy on the darkest day in its historical past: Dec. 7, 1941.
‘He was a patriot’
John L. Griffith died in Chicago on Dec. 7, 1944, three years to the day after the nation was plunged into World Battle II with the assault on Pearl Harbor.
He reportedly succumbed to coronary heart failure.
Main John L. Griffith was a number one determine in American youth and collegiate sports activities within the first half of the twentieth century. (Drake College Archives & Particular Collections)
He was 67 years previous.
He’s buried as we speak at Oak Hill Cemetery in his hometown of Mount Carroll, Illinois.
The tide of World Battle II had clearly turned in favor of the USA and its Allies on the finish of 1944.
“By the point he died he’s nicely conscious that (his efforts) to advertise health had been taking part in a fairly large position within the warfare effort.”
“By the point he died he’s nicely conscious that (his efforts) to advertise health had been taking part in a fairly large position within the warfare effort,” Winona State College professor Dr. Matthew Lindaman, writer of the 2018 biography, “Match for America: Main John L. Griffith and the Quest for Athletics and Health,” instructed Fox Information Digital.
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“He in all probability would have recognized that the wants he noticed after World Battle I for athletic coaching would have produced some success.”
Griffiths’ loss of life left an enormous gap in novice athletics throughout the nation.
The 1930 American Legion Baseball staff from Publish 9, Milbank, South Dakota. American Legion Baseball was born in Milbank in 1925 — and the group nonetheless embraces its baseball heritage as we speak. (Courtesy Birch-Miller American Legion Publish 9)
“For a very long time to come back, will probably be troublesome to think about the Huge Ten with out Main John L. Griffith,” Ohio State College athletic director Lynn St. John wrote within the days that adopted.
“It will likely be equally onerous to visualise the Nationwide Collegiate Athletic Affiliation with out him.”
The work of American Legion Baseball that he impressed continues as we speak.
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The American Legion in Milbank, South Dakota, is feverishly working to boost thousands and thousands of {dollars} to construct a brand new state-of-the-art facility for Legion ball and main baseball competitions.
John L Griffith, proper, challenged the American Legion to assist youth sports activities at a conference in Milbank, South Dakota, on July 17, 1925. The 1930 Milbank American Legion Baseball staff is proven at left. (American Legion Publish 9/Public Area)
The aim is to open in time to have a good time the a hundredth anniversary of Griffith’s imaginative and prescient within the city the place American Legion Baseball started in 1925.
The hope is to incorporate an American Legion Baseball museum, stated Jurgens, the previous Publish 9 commander.
Patriotism stays important to the mission of American Legion Baseball.
“The American Legion wants to face for patriotism,” Jake Comer, previous American Legion nationwide commander and present member of the American Legion World Sequence Board of Administrators, instructed Fox Information Digital.
“In lots of senses of the phrase, he was a patriot.”
Patriotism, he stated, is way more than waving the flag.
To learn extra tales on this distinctive “Meet the American Who…” sequence from Fox Information Digital, click on right here
Patriotism, in accordance with the American Legion Baseball creed, stands for “a sound soul, a clear thoughts and a wholesome physique.”
It additionally stands for good citizenship.
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“Griffith legitimately thought communism was a significant menace after World Battle I and one of many methods to cease it was to create a nation of health,” stated Lindaman.
“In lots of senses of the phrase, he was a patriot.”
