Friends of Rickwood

Friends of Rickwood is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which maintains and manages Rickwood Field for the City of Birmingham along with the Rickwood.com website.

Former efforts to preserve and restore Rickwood Field began in earnest after the Birmingham Barons moved to the newly-built Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in 1988, leaving Rickwood without an anchor tenant. Before the end of the decade, Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce executive Tom Cosby enlisted the support of advertising executive Terry Slaughter, who brought in his colleague Coke Matthews. All three founders explicitly referenced the pain of losing of the Birmingham Terminal Station as contributing to their resolve not to allow the field to fade away.

The non-profit was incorporated in 1992. With significant corporate and foundation support it was able to secure the detailed documentation of the property for the Historic American Buildings Survey, and its 1993 addition to the National Register of Historic Places. In January 1995 Friends of Rickwood signed a 50-year lease with the Birmingham Park and Recreation Board, granting it the exclusive authority to restore and manage the stadium and grounds.

The Friends of Rickwood initially hoped to raise $7 million to repair and restore the stadium, including $3 million for an on-site baseball history museum. Davis Speake & Associates participated in the development of a master plan, which was expected to be tackled in phases. Priority projects included replacing the roof, rebuilding the press box, replacing about 5,000 seats, replacing the louvers built into the outside wall behind the stands, recreating the original hand-operated scoreboard, rebuilding the outfield bleachers, adding landscaping and lighting outside the stadium, and updating plumbing and electrical systems. The choice of Rickwood as a filming location for the Ty Cobb biopic Cobb provided an opportunity to get the scoreboard built and to restore the outfield wall with hand-painted advertising signs evocative of the early 20th century.

By fall 1995, with help from the Chamber of Commerce and other organizations, they had collected about $700,000 toward that goal. The city pledged to match private donations. The group succeeded in accomplishing the roof and louver repairs as they continued to pursue larger corporate and public grants. Miles College continued to use the stadium, and the Birmingham Board of Education made use of the facility for high school baseball. Several men's amateur leagues and the Birmingham Police Athletic League also used the ballpark, which averaged between 175 and 200 dates per year, including numerous tournaments and showcases. The Friends especially worked to secure "turn-back-the­-clock events" which leveraged the park's historical status. The 1996 HBO movie "Soul of the Game" also used Rickwood as a filming location.

On June 12, 1996 the Friends of Rickwood hosted the first Rickwood Classic throwback game with the Birmingham Barons facing a regular-season Southern League opponent at Rickwood, dressed in period "throwback" uniforms. The initial game, a 3-2 win over the Memphis Chicks, brought out a capacity crowd of 10,334 fans. The event proved to be a major source of publicity and revenue for the Friends group, supplementing nominal appropriations from the city and periodic grants from the Alabama Historical Commission, the Alabama Bureau of Tourism and Travel, the Alabama Department of Community Affairs, and the Joint Study Committee for the Alabama State Parks division of the Alabama Department of Conservation & Natural Resources.

Friends of Rickwood has also promoted the educational value of Rickwood Field, hosting school field trips and group tours, and publishing a website and self-guided tour materials. David Brewer was hired as executive director in 1998. By 2013 the organization had put more than $2 million into the stadium, repainting the entire exterior and completing updates of the restrooms and locker rooms, as well as making spot repairs to other deteriorating systems.

In 2017 a structural evaluation resulted in a determination that Rickwood Field was no longer safe for public events, and that year's Classic was moved to Regions Field. The city made a $500,000 appropriation for emergency repairs. A "GoFundMe" online donation drive garnered $4,500 of its $15,000 goal. Enough money was pledged to try to reopen the park in 2018, but execution of the work extended into 2020, at which point the COVID pandemic prevented further progress on reopening.

In 2022 board chair Gerald Watkins contacted Major League Baseball about the possibility of holding an exhibition game at Rickwood. Just as bids for repair work were approved, the league announced that it would schedule a regular season game in Birmingham to honor the history of the Negro Leagues.

References

• Wainwright, Paige (Fall 1995) "Rickwood Field: Grand Lady of Baseball." Alabama Heritage, No. 38
• Brewer, David (2006) "Take Me Out to the Ball Park: The Restoration and Revitalization of Rickwood Field." in Deborah Slaton, Chad Randl & Lauren Van Damme, eds. Preserve and Play: Preserving Historic Recreation and Entertainment Sites." Historic Preservation Education Foundation, National Council for Preservation Education
• Glier, Ray (August 16, 2010) "Birmingham Ballpark Lives to See 100." The New York Times
• Moorer, Brit (May 22, 2017) "Group working to restore Rickwood Field." CBS42.com
• Wray, Cheryl (June 1, 2017) "Birmingham promises $500,000 to repair Rickwood Field, return Barons to historic park in 2018." The Birmingham News
• Butler, Alex (June 20, 2017) "Fundraiser aims to save America's oldest ballpark." United Press International
• Wray, Cheryl (June 1, 2017) "Birmingham promises $500,000 to repair Rickwood Field, return Barons to historic park in 2018." The Birmingham News
• Harksen, Lauren (June 14, 2023) "Birmingham City Council approves $500,000 bid for Rickwood Field improvements." WBRC.com
• Waldstein, David (June 20, 2023) "Going Back in Time, M.L.B. Will Play a Game at Rickwood Field." The New York Times

External links

• Rickwood.com website
• Friends of Rickwood at facebook.com