The land the armory is on was gifted to the National Guard by the city of Bryan and is deed restricted so that if the land is not used as a National Guard armory, ownership reverts back to the City of Bryan. See the
deed here for more details.
A pretty fair amount of the land that Bob Bond Park sits on is City owned. See
map for more info.; the parcel of land that includes Harrison field’s outfield and the parking lot next to it is city owned.
Parker Field was named after Larry Parker and his son who passed away while coaching and playing in the league.
Harrison Field is named for Roland Harrison who saw the need for a Senior league field and collected enough donations to build it - he considers it the "pride of his life." Roland hit the first home run in BCS the year little league started here in 1952. He coached Little League for 30 years and has a son who played for Bryan High, Texas A&M and 9 years with the Kansas City Royals.
BNLL has been playing on fields at the Armory for a long time. Below is a timeline of events and articles from The Eagle, note the first game was played at the Armory on May 31, 1954 between the Giants and the Cardinals.
***This page is a work in progress***
***If you have additional historical information related to Little League in BCS or Bob Bond Park, please send it to jneid1234@yahoo.com.***
1948, January 17th - Plans for 25th Street National Guard Armory to be built. It was "also to serve as a civic center for Bryan, a community meeting place that will be an asset to the city."
1948, June 15 - City calls for election to gift land to the National Guard for armory.
1948, September 23 - Ad for bids to build 25th Street armory.
1950, August 28 - Interest in forming Little League in Bryan starts..."for not only does it give the youngsters very good supervision, but trains them for American Legion baseball and develops clean sportsmanship. We feel sure that Brazos county will have a little League next year..."
1951 - First Season of Little League in BCS. One league with 4 teams for all BCS. All games played at Williamson Park.
1952, May 4 - Season to begin..."Lights have been installed this season and this will allow the teams to play at night. Bleachers will be set up before Saturday."
1952, June 8 - First half of play in Little League season ends....
1953, February 8 - Little League season to begin. $2500 authorized to spend on new bleachers to seat 600 people. "An electric box has also been placed in the concession stand and mothers working in the stand no longer will be forced to 'fish' through ice and water to find a certain kind of pop." Field and scoreboard improvements were to be made. The Little League became incorporated as a non profit organizaion and an umpire's school was planned for the season....
1953, May 24 - Season begins...
1953, November 18 - Three new Little League parks proposed and number of leagues expanded from 2 to 4 leagues including National League East, National League West, American League north and American League South. The Little League park on Williamson Drive will be supplemented with three new parks for next season and construction on these facilities will begin after the First of the year. For 1954 the area will have 16 major teams and 16 minor teams...
1954, April 11 - BCS Little League expands to four leagues. Bryan has three leagues. Fields are built at the National Guard Armory and at Ben Milam School. These sites are still in use. Interesting to note, older boys interested in summer baseball were all invited to work out every afternoon at 4:30...
1954, May 23 - Season to start with downtown parade and, "Bear Bryant, head coach and athletic director at Texas A&M will toss the first ball into the mitt of Aggie Baseball coach, Beau Bell..." Note, the picture of Clifton Carter. You can read his testimony in the Warren Commission Report. Carter was from Bryan and an LBJ political operative. He was riding in the third car in the motorcade in Dallas and helped the Secret Service unload JFK at Parkland Hospital.
1955, June 5 - "Fifty teams will be playing baseball in Bryan and College Station this summer and will give some 650 players supervised baseball. That's a pretty good program for a community this size."
1956, June 7 -
1956, July 22 - National League East Team Photos...Note, Bob Bond is pictured in the top left photo, as well as Travis Bryan, III.
1957, June 5 - Bob Bond pitches...
1957, July 10 - Bob Bond game with a hit!
1957, November 24 - Bob Bond drowns while duck hunting.....
1958 - the field is named after Bob Bond, who died in November 1957 after playing in the league the previous summer. Following is the image of a plaque in his honor at the ballpark. It reads...
BOB BOND PARK
DEDICATED
1958
IN HONOR OF
ROBERT H. (BOB) BOND
(PIRATES 1955, 1956, 1957)
OUTSTANDING HOME RUN HITTER
FOR LITTLE LEAGUE EAST IN 1957.
ALTHOUGH HE LOST HIS LIFE IN
A HUNTING ACCIDENT IN NOV. 1957,
HIS ENTHUSIAM AND LOVE FOR
THE GAME WILL ALWAYS BE
REMEMBERED BY THOSE WHO
KNEW HIM.
FROM THE RANKS OF YOUNGSTERS WHO STAND
NOW ON THE MORNING SIDE OF THE HILL
WILL COME THE LEADERS, THE FUTURE STRENGTH
AND CHARACTER OF THE NATION.
1959, April 19 - The Little League set-up for Bryan has been re-zoned according to schools for the 1959 season... The re-zoning, undertaken because of overcrowding in some of the leagues, was made by presidents of the various organizations. ...the National League East will be in the Fannin and Travis school area... Boys attending St. Joseph's School will play in whichever league covers the part of town they live in." Interesting note, Travis Bryan Jr. was one of the league presidents.
1959, June 26 - National Little League East Cardinals...
1960, May 15 - National LL East begins play...
1960, May 15 -
1960, June 15 - Little League in BCS for 10 years!! Includes nearly 1000 boys and has grown from 8 teams playing in one park in 1951 to 32 playing in 4 parks this year...
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Comments...
on 10/19/2016 11:31 PM by Lee Ann Wells
Many great men did a fine job! Love this article. It's very interesting to read. Peck Vass was a dear friend of mine and it's nice to see these fine people with great vision are not forgotten!
