Jan. 27, 2009
Reception Invitation
Fordham Baseball 150th Celebration website
Bronx, N.Y. - Fordham Athletics and the Fordham baseball team will open the upcoming 2009 season with the 150th anniversary celebration of the very first baseball team at Rose Hill in a reception to be held on Thursday, February 5th. The reception will be held in the 12th Floor Lounge of the Lowenstein Center on Fordham's Lincoln Center Campus.
The event will start at 6:30 PM, and is $100 per person ($75 for 2007 and 2008 Fordham graduates) with gourmet hors d'oeuvres to be served and open bar service throughout the evening. Head coach Nick Restaino and the rest of the 2009 Rams will be in attendance, along with a number of baseball alumni from the previous 150 years.
Fordham baseball has won more games than any other Division I program in the country, posting 4,000 wins, heading into the 2009 campaign, while claiming multiple championships and league titles.
Fordham's winning history includes, Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Frankie Frisch, the Fordham Flash; Esteban Bellán, the first Latin American to play professional baseball in the United States; Coach Jack Coffey, the inspiration for Coffey Field and the only major leaguer to play with Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth in the same season; and Vin Scully, a Fordham outfielder who went on to become the legendary voice of the Dodgers.
For 150 years, players, coaches and fans have shared a love for the game of baseball and the University--a tradition that remains alive today.
To register for the reception, click here for the official invitation or register on-line at the Fordham Baseball 150th Celebration website. You can also contact Alex Morr at (212) 636-6489 for more information.
Future Fordham baseball events this year:
Tuesday, April 7th
Williams College vs. Fordham University - 150th Anniversary Game - Houlihan Park
Saturday, May 9th
Richmond vs. Fordham - Fordham Baseball Alumni Day - Houlihan Park
Some Fordham Baseball Historical Facts
- Fordham has had scheduled exhibition games against the Philadelphia A's, New York Giants, & Boston Braves of MLB, while also playing Eastern teams like Newark and Baltimore.
- The origin of Fordham's team name started at a baseball game. In 1883, the Fordham nine, a.k.a. baseball team, were playing against Army, when Fordham students began cheering: One-Dam, Two-Dam, Three-Dam... FORDHAM!!! The cheer was a unanimous hit with students, however, the Jesuit faculty felt the cheer was not in keeping with the image of Fordham gentlemen. Unwilling to give up the cheer entirely, the students four "Ram" as a suitable rhyme, and thus Fordham team are now known as the Rams.
- The Rams hosted for the first time ever multiple university teams from Japan and Hawaii in the early portions of the 20th Century.
- The Fordham Flash, Frankie Frisch, sets the single season stolen base record at 35 in 1918. The record would stand for 67 years until Jack Allen's 1985 season of 47 stolen bases.
- Fordham played the college half of a doubleheader as a part of Baseball's Centennial celebration in 1939 at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, N.Y. against Boston College. The Rams shutout the Eagles, 5-0, in that game.
- Was an initial member of the Metropolitan Collegiate Baseball Conference in 1945.
- Fordham pitcher Hank Borowy ('39) was the last pitcher to win a World Series game for the Chicago Cubs in 1945.
- Jack Coffey Field was dedicated on April 3, 1954, and Coffey retired following the 1958 season. His last home game was May 17th, 1958, which was deemed Jack Coffey Day, where the Rams defeated Manhattan College 14-7. To forever honor Coffey, then Fordham president Rev. Laurence J. McGinley, S.J. retired Coffey's title of "Graduate Manager of Athletics," so no one else would ever hold that title. An award was also created in Coffey's name, which was originally given to the student-athlete achieving the highest academic standing, but from 1965 to the present day, the award honors an alumnus, administrator, or coach for outstanding contributions and dedication to the athletic program.
- Houlihan Park, the current site for all Fordham baseball home games, is the fourth version of the Rams' home diamond. The current site of Edwards' Parade was the first Fordham baseball field with a large grandstand in front of Hughes Hall. The baseball diamond then moved to Fordham Field next to the Rose Hill Gym, which was then was moved to its current location as Jack Coffey Field, after a slight reconstruction effort. In 2005, construction on Houlihan Park was started and completed for the beginning of the 2006 season.
