My name is Hunter Murphy and I am from Cincinnati, OH. I am approaching my junior year at Davidson and I am majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Chinese Studies. I am ecstatic about working with Archives this summer as the JEC Archival Assistant and I cannot wait to see what history lies uncovered in the files at the Archives.
I was helping moving some files to south storage the other day when we came across a box a old sports equipment where we found these baseballs dating back to as early as 1921. I was especially interested in the two older looking balls that said, “Dav-5 Duke-0” and, “The Last One”. I did some research an although I didn’t find anything on the baseball that said, “Dav-5 Duke-0” I did find that the baseball saying, “The Last One” was the game ball from the final game of the 1927 season between Davidson and Furman, Davidson winning 16-5. All of the players signed the baseball commemorating the 1927 season.
“The Last One” Baseball from the last game of the 1927 season with the names of the players and the score written on it.
A baseball with “To Davidson – 100 Great Years of Baseball” and signatures of past players on it.
Baseball from a game against Duke, “Dav-5 Duke-0” written on it.
It is crazy to think that the sports being played now started over a hundred years ago and how much the game of baseball has evolved over the years. The baseball saying, “To Davidson-100 Great Years of Baseball” is right. It shows how far baseball at Davidson has come, which is why I am going to give a little bit of history on Davidson baseball.
The first mention of baseball was back in 1870 when two clubs (the Mecklenburgs and the Red Jackets) were in existence. Every Saturday morning the members were excused form the literary society meetings t
Baseball from 1921 with, “Davidson Baseball 1921” written on it.
o take part in a game. However, they were not allowed to play other schools. It was not until 1902 that intercollegiate baseball was founded at Davidson and was then allowed to play other collegiate teams. Since then they joine
d the Southern Conference from 1947-1988, left the Southern conference to become independent from 1989-1991, back to the Southern Conference from 1992-2014, and finally joined the Atlantic-10 in 2015 where they currently play their games. They’ve sent multiple individuals to MLB organizations, most recently Will Robertson, drafted by the Baltimore Orioles, and Durin O’Linger, signed a free agent contract with the Box Red Sox organization. Davidson made its way to its first A-10 Conference Championship just a year after joining in 2016 but fell short. The year after Davidson rallied back and won the 2017 A-10 Conference Championship and went on
Davidson baseball game, image of the Davidson catcher diving to tag out a U.N.C. Chapel Hill runner at home plate.
to beat U.N.C. Chapel Hill to win the Regional Championship sending them to the first ever Super-Regionals in college history. Davidson Back in 1990
Davidson traveled to play the Miami Hurricanes, the number one team in the nation, and won 3-2! Then again in 1994 Davidson beat Georgia Tech, the number 1 team in the nation, and won 6-4. Davidson went from not being able to play other college team to winning a Conference Championship and going to the Super-Regionals. Davidson baseball has come so far, I cannot wait to see what the future holds in store for the Cats.
#CATSAREWILD
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