Men's Cross Country/Women's Softball (11:30 Class)

With the 2010 year marking the 100th year anniversary of Bowling Green State University, our sports management class, History and Philosophy of Sport, took on the challenge of documenting the history of each of the varsity sports at Bowling Green. We were divided into groups and each group selected a men’s team and a women’s team. Our group selected men’s cross country and women’s softball. One of our group members, Jason Salyer, is currently on the BG cross country team and Bryan Ferrer also ran cross country in high school which is the main reason why we selected the sport. It was much easier to access the information we wanted to find with Jason being on the team. We selected softball because the whole group enjoys baseball and softball is the female equivalent.

Documenting the history of each sport was a very long and arduous process that took us the entire semester to complete. Our group had a vague idea of the history of cross country with Jason being on the team, but knew absolutely nothing about the history of softball. The first step our group took was to look up general information about each team. We went to the BGSU athletic website and looked up information about the current teams and also which athletes had been named to the BGSU Hall of Fame. From there we obtained media guides from the coaches of each sport which contained much of the information we needed, as far as statistics, honors, and historical achievements. After that, our group looked through all of the Key Yearbooks in the Archives of the library to compile more information. We took note of roster sizes, major team and individual accomplishments, and coaching histories. Not every yearbook had information about the teams, so we had to piece together information from other sources. After organizing all of the information and double checking to make sure it was correct, we then went on to interview five athletes or coaches from each program. The cross country interviews were easy to conduct, but we had a harder time getting in touch with members of the softball program.

The Bowling Green men’s cross country team has been very successful over the years. The sport began in 1927, but didn’t become very popular until the 1960s when Coach Mel Brodt took over. A total of thirty athletes have earned All-MAC honors a total of 42 times. Fourteen athletes have earned All-Region honors a total of 17 times and six athletes have earned All-American honors a total of 9 times by placing in the top 25 at the National meet. The four year run of finishing in the top 10 of the National meet from 1969-1972 will go down as one the greatest dynasties in Bowling Green sporting history. Coach Mel Brodt will be remembered as one of the greatest coaches in BG history. Most of the historical achievements for cross country and track happened under his tenure, including Dave Wottle winning the Olympic Gold Medal in the 800 meters at the 1972 Olympic Games. The sport has definitely been in the rebuilding stages the last decade, but hopefully the program will be able to step it up and regain some of the glory of the past.

Women’s softball at Bowling Green State University started in the Spring of 1979*. The passage of Title IX in 1972 created many new women’s sports at BG. Although the law passed in 1972, it wasn’t fully implemented until 1976 when both the men’s and women’s sports programs merged together under the same department. All of the women’s sports competed in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) until 1982 when the NCAA took over women’s intercollegiate athletics. The emergence of softball as a varsity sport has brought a great amount of positive publicity for the University as the team has achieved a great deal of success in their 31 year history. The Orange and Brown have qualified to the Regional Tournament four times (82, 88, 93, 04). The process for qualifying to the Regional Tournament is similar to college basketball where 64 teams compete. Every league tournament champion qualifies automatically and the remaining spots are selected at-large by a committee. Bowling Green has been competing in the MAC since 1983 and has won the regular season title twice in 1988, and 1993. They won the MAC Postseason Tournament in those years and also accomplished the feat in 2004. The women have also won the MAC East Division in 2000 and 2001. Overall, the Orange and Brown have had forty-seven athletes earn All-MAC honors a total of 76 times, eleven players earn All-Region honors a total of 16 times, two players earn All-American honors a total of 3 times, three MAC Players of the Year, three MAC Freshman Players of the Year, three MAC Coaches of the Year, and a MAC Pitcher of the Year. The softball team has had 13 winning seasons in their 31 year history with an overall record of 734-756-10 (0.493).

*Note: As mentioned elsewhere, the starting date for Women's softball as 1979 was indicated in the 2009 Women's Softball Media Guide, which does not agree with recent research being conducted by Dr. Janet Parks and Ann Bowers who are currently writing the history of BGSU Women's sports. According to Dr. Parks, the starting date of women's teams begins when intercollegiate competition was first held. Intercollegiate competition in softball was first held between 1965-1972, before being dropped for lack of a coach; intercollegiate competition again resumed in 1977 (J. Parks, personal communication, April 13, 2010).

Members of this group include: Stephen Curitore, Bryan Ferrer, Adam Keller, Adam Klupp, and Jason Salyer