Rochester area boys in the mid-20th century were fortunate to have a summer activity courtesy of the Eastman Kodak Company.
Boys from about 10 to 16 could play in the KPAA (Kodak Park Athletic Association) program. At its extent in the 1950’s and 1960’s the summer softball leagues, sponsored and fully paid for by Kodak, enrolled about 1,500 boys on about 100 teams in about 15, 8 team leagues.
Each team played 14 games. Kodak provided the fields, bats, balls, gloves, umpires, a tee shirt and a picture of the team for each player.
The umpires (two per field) were area physical education teachers on their summer break, each outfitted in a blue and white uniform provided by Kodak.
All of the fields were in the Kodak Park area. There were four fields each at John Marshall High School and KPX, on the south side of Ridge Road between Dewey Avenue and Mt. Read Boulevard.
Single fields were at School 41, D.P.I. and the premier field on Lake Avenue north of Ridge Road where the Kodak Park adult team played. Kodak’s adult team had won the National Softball Championship in the late 1930’s and were annual contenders for the top U.S. industrial softball team.
Teams and leagues were named after professional teams in the major and minor leagues. Four time slots for games were provided for each league day: 9: a.m., 10:35 a.m., 1:15 p.m. and 2:45 p.m.
Leagues played split seasons meaning after the first half of the season if you finished one through four you were paired, for the second half, with one to four teams from a comparable league. If you were in the bottom half, you joined the bottom half of a similar league.
I played three years (1950, 1951 and 1952) at ages 11, 12, and 13. I am missing one picture but have two, 1950 and 1952. All players were students at Spencerport Central and, sad to say, some are no longer with us. The 1950 team is the Mohawks and the 1952 team is the Parks. I have no recollection of our record either year.
While planning this article I googled KPAA and came across a 2008 column in the Schenectady Daily Gazette by Jeff Wilkin who wrote about his experiences playing KPAA softball on his neighborhood team in the late 1960’s.
Needless to say, KPAA softball no longer exists. Many of us old timers have fond memories of the days when it did.
11/17/13
