The part Department Commander Frank McCormick played
in the beginning of the American Legion Baseball program.
The Americanism Committee at the 1925 South Dakota State Convention held in Milbank, South Dakota submitted a resolution to the Legion National organization recommending to the national organization at its annual convention in Omaha that this or similar program be adopted as one of the major activities of the national organization of the American Legion.
Little did one realize, sitting in the convention in Milbank, the significance of Department Commander McCormick’s (local Wagner boy) introduction of a close friend of his, the late Major John L. Griffith, Commissioner of the Western Conference (Big Ten) and vice president of the Collegiate Association of the United States. Because in addressing the assembled Legionnaires, Major Griffith gave utterance to ideas quickly developed into Legion Junior Baseball.
jywsd11
