Tribute to 40 Years of Salado Little League Baseball
Forty seven years ago in 1971 a group of eight Salado citizens saw a need for an organized youth program. Involved in this collaborative effort and founders of the original Salado Little League were Salado locals by the names of Bob Dunnahoo, Dean Dunning, Neil Fielder, Donald Frazier, Donald Goodnight, Archie Guyer, Bennie Williams and Kenneth Wolff. These men have been described as a great group of guys who really came together for the youth of Salado.
CONCEPTION OF THE SALADO LITTLE LEAGUE
Salado local Dean Dunning, owned a local company that did dirt work in the Salado area in the early seventies, and was part of the original group who established the Salado little league. He also coached and volunteered much of his time and equipment to make the Salado little league a reality. He explains that, “I think that most of us involved played baseball growing up and we all realized how much discipline and life lessons we all learned from the sport and knew our children would benefit in the same way by being involved in an organized baseball league.” At the time, the closest baseball league for ages 9-12 was in Belton. Initially Belton agreed to let Salado participate in their league, so, although they called themselves the “Salado Little League,” they played 4 years in the Belton Little League Association
In their first season, out of the sixteen boys that tried out to play, they drafted two teams of mainly 10 year olds that dominated the Belton league even though it consisted primarily of 12 year old players. Dean Dunning recalls, “Those Salado boys were the most determined, dedicated players you ever saw.” After four years of this treatment, in 1975, the initially accepting Belton Little League, became a little less hospitable toward their small town neighbors to the south so the Salado League had to find its own ball field to call home.
At that time, Salado was a small community with a graduating class of only three seniors and what is now the Salado Civic Center was then the Salado High School. The only baseball field in the community was a grassy field with only a backstop located directly behind this building which the high school baseball team played on. To keep the Salado Little league going, this group of men worked out a deal with the Salado school district that they would construct a new baseball field on school property if the little league could play their games on it and if they could use the current ball field as their practice field. With donated labor and money the new high school field was built where the current football field sits today. Dunning recalls, “We would have all kinds of fund raisers, anything to raise a buck, from cake auctions to passing the hat at ball games. The most money we ever raised was at a BBQ dinner where people could eat for free and donate what they wanted in a big wash pot.” Archie Guyer who not only helped establish the league, but also coached for years adds, “Everything was donated or done by volunteers, we would even pull volunteer umpires from the bleachers to referee the games. The people of Salado were and still are very supportive of valuable community projects.”
After playing on the new high school field for a few years, another Salado citizen named C.B. Hodge saw the need for youth fields dedicated solely for the younger children. Mr. Hodge generously donated the land where the current Salado Youth Sports Complex is located with the intention of having a little league baseball field and two soccer fields built on it.
Once again with only donated labor and money the roads, parking lot and Salado’s first little league baseball field was built and appropriately named “Hodge Field”. Finally, with their very own ball field built to little league specifications, the pitcher’s mound didn’t have to be moved forward to accommodate the younger players and they could actually knock home runs over the fence! Better yet, with light poles acquired from a nearby central Texas school, games could even be played after dark! After years of persistence and perseverance, the little league had really hit the big-time now and was becoming more established in the community. The concession stand was run by volunteers and all income went directly into the little league fund. Once the league finally had some money in the bank they began purchasing bats, baseballs, helmets and other gear and eventually acquired sponsors to purchase the uniforms.
LITTLE LEAGUE MEMORIES FROM THE “OLD SCHOOL”
In a time when children respected their elders and a parent swatting a deserving kid’s backside was the accepted consequence for unacceptable behavior, discipline was the foundation of the little league. Archie Guyer recalls a few rules that he set from day one. They included, “No swimming (in Salado creek) on Saturday before a game and if we lost a game, we practiced on the following Sunday afternoon and if you didn’t come to practice, you don’t get to play in the game.” Guyer adds, “While it revolved around discipline, we had a lot of fun, I’ll never forget that at the beginning of a season I told the players, ‘if you make the playoffs, we’ll take you to a game in the Astrodome.’ I’m telling you, those kids came out every day to play some ball!” Dean Dunning continues, “Sure enough they made the playoffs so Archie and I loaded them up in a couple of station wagons and headed to Houston. Archie and I paid for the trip our selves and even had the player’s names shown across the big screen during the game.” Most of these boys hadn’t been out of the central Texas area before and Guyer recalls, “I’ll never forget when we got to the hotel after watching the game in the Astrodome, one of the boys stretching out on the bed in the hotel room with his hands behind his head and said ‘Now this is the life!’ he really thought he was something.”
It’s obvious that the kids learned a lot and they had a great time. Dean Dunning recalls, “We had a strong little league and those boys were good players all the way through high school. We instilled a lot of pride in those boys. We are from the old school that believes that there are winners and there are losers and nobody wants to be a loser. You should play to win and if you get beat fair and square, you should feel like hanging your head in defeat.”
When they parted from the Belton League and officially created the Salado Little League they played other nearby leagues from Jarrell, Florence, Holland, Bartlett, Troy and Moody. Even after over thirty years the former coaches still get red faced when recalling bad calls by umpires. Archie Guyer recalls, “Some of these games were really grudge matches, for some reason everybody wanted to beat Salado. I remember an umpire at an away game that apparently had something against Salado because his strike zone was only slightly larger than the baseball itself. After fifteen consecutive walks, I told the team to pack everything up and we walked off the field and left.”
LITTLE LEAGUE’S IMPORTANTCE IN SALADO TODAY
“There’s just no replacement for the physical activity and the friendships made between the players themselves as well as between the players and coaches.” Dean Dunning continues, “The lessons last a lifetime. I’m sure I’ve forgotten plenty in my life, but I can still remember my little league coach and that was many years ago.”
Although you may not see these eight men out on the baseball field much anymore, make no mistake, that their original intention of strengthening the Salado community by bringing people together through the sport of baseball is still alive today. Although the league may be called by a different name today, its existence was made possible by the inspirational efforts of these eight determined citizens nearly forty years ago.
