"All-American" Outfielder Receives the Rofle Tainter Batting Trophy

              Ed Levy, Daytona Beach baseball manager and a graduate of Rollins College, presents Dr. Rolfe Tainter's annual Best Batter trophy to outfielder Connie Mack Butler at banquet Thursday night.

Baseball Team Honored By Townspeople; Awards, Speeches Highlight Program

The citizens of Winter Park honored the Rollins baseball team with a banquet at the Winter Park Women's Club Thursday night.

The program was styled as a simple tribute to the N.C.A.A. runnerup squad of last spring. It turned out to be that and something more for the 190 people assembled. They were treated to a look at Rollins sports through the years, and through sports were given a look at Rollins through the years.

Baseball dignitaries were there, some of them graduates of Rollins themselves. There were Zack Taylor and Ed Levy, who attended Rollins in other eras and went on to careers in baseball. There also were Bobo Newsome, George Myatt, and Bill Burwell, baseball men in this area who have become keen followers of Rollins and Rollins baseball.

Guest speaker was Bob Steelman, ex-Omaha announcer who piped the games back to Orlando, this summer, who is now a businessman in Texas and a rabid Rollins fan. But F.E.L. Whitesell, president of the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce, who emceed the program, gave Rollins athletic director Jack McDowall, baseball coach Joe Justice and president Hugh McKean, and, Newsome, Myatt, Taylor, Levy, and Burwell a chance to add to the program.

A telegram from Al Lopez, manager of the American League champion Cleveland Indians, was read, expressing regret that he was unable to attend the banquet, but expressing the hope "that you go all the way next year."

But through it all the baseball team held the spotlight. They were introduced to the audience one by one and sat at an honored table. Each team member received an engraved wrist watch.

Taylor, the former major league star and St. Louis Browns manager, talked of how he was "stolen" from high school in the early days of the century to take a bookkeeping course at Rollins and play on the Rollins baseball team.

McDowall recapped a history of Rollins baseball from among his 25 years here. He explained that before 1929 he could only relate what had happened from heresay, but that there had been little organization or rules to early Rollins baseball. Rube

Newsome

Waddell had once pitched for the Tars and they played local semi-pro and town squads.

The Tars had little but a team during the early 30's, he explained. There were no uniforms and Bob Evans, the coach," was a football not a baseball coach and the scores looked more like football scores." The resurgence of Rollins baseball started in 1933 when Bob Fuchs, son of the owner of the Boston Braves, enrolled at Rollins. The team got old Brave uniforms and played Florida. "Rollins had state champions way back then", said McDowall, "but of course there was only Florida to beat."

Gradually more and more squads came to play Rollins until last year the first Baseball Week was held here with several of the countries best collegiate outfits participating. This season, announced McDowall, Ohio State, Alabama, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Amherst and Rollins will compete in the Baseball Week tournament.

Rollins will also play as one of the four teams at-large at the Big Four tournament at Chapel Hill this spring against North Carolina, Duke, North Carolina State, Wake Forest, Michigan State, Oklahoma and Yale.

Steelman paid special tribute to Don Finnigan, who caught the entire tournament with a broken hand. He said that Don Tausic, Michigan State's All American catcher, may have been voted the tourney's best player, but in a college tournament "I'll take that fellow sitting right in front of me."

Justice then presented A11-American certificates to Connie Mack Butler and Bill Cary. Alumnus Joe Johnson read a telegram received from Dr. Rolfe Tainter, whose annual rotating trophy for the best Rollins batter was presented to Connie Butler.

Following his speech, Justice was presented a radio by Eugene (Bud) Coleman, in charge of arrangements for the banquet.