Longtime Weyburn oilman Laurence Woodard has a piece of baseball history in his home, and he wants to hang on to it rather than give it to a museum, because it's also part of his family's history.
Longtime Weyburn oilman Laurence Woodard has a piece of baseball history in his home, and he wants to hang on to it rather than give it to a museum, because it's also part of his family's history.
Framed in a glass case on his wall is the uniform worn by his father Vince when he played baseball in Colgate 100 years ago. The uniform is in excellent shape, and the display includes two photos of the Colgate baseball team, both from 1910, and includes his dad and his uncle, John Devere "Dee" Woodard, both longtime players for the team.
Explaining some of the history of his family, Laurence noted that Vince and Dee homesteaded with their father, Frank, east of Weyburn in 1903, after coming here from Appleton, Minn., and then in 1907 they bought land at Colgate.
The Woodard families in those days were large, said Laurence, and at one time were big enough they could've fielded their own ball team.
While they farmed the land at Colgate and at Weyburn, they played baseball for many years. In the earliest times, as they got around with horse-and-buggy, their opponents came from Goodwater, Tribune, Bromhead, Maxim and Radville.
"All the towns had ball teams, and they all put on fairs and held sports days," said Laurence. In later years, with the automobile and passenger train making transportation more widely available, the Souris River League started up, with such teams as Torquay, Midale, Oungre and even Fillmore.
As a young man, Laurence played ball too, as a pitcher, and played for the teams at Colgate, Tribune and Goodwater.
Later, as a coach, he helped coach the Weyburn Senior Beavers to a national championship title in 1996, and that team was subsequently inducted into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame in North Battleford. At some point, the Hall of Fame got word of Laurence's Colgate memorabilia, and asked him if he could donate it for their archives where they have uniforms, photos and records of many of the teams that used to play baseball in the province.
He decided to preserve the uniform in its glass case, and to keep it for posterity for his family. His family thanked him for keeping it, as they told him, "If you take it up to Battleford, we'll never get to see it."
As a lifelong baseball fan, Laurence has other memorabilia on display along with the Colgate uniform, including signed baseballs from Fergie Jenkins, former Detroit manager Sparky Anderson, and Stan Musial (including a certificate of authenticity), along with a Yankees ball cap, his father's favourite pro team.
