Suffolk

January 17, 1947, a day that will go down in Suffolk Athletics history. Charles Law, the department’s first-ever Director of Athletics and, penned a letter to Tufts announcing the formation of the University’s baseball team.  

Three months later, Law, inaugural Suffolk Hall of Fame inductee, stepped on the diamond as head coach in the University’s first-ever collegiate contest. Sporting blue-and-gold, but a lighter shade, royal blue, to mimic the athletic department’s then-mascot Royals, Suffolk took the field against Tufts.

To be the best you must beat the best and Suffolk’s first opponent was just that in the Jumbos, the leading team in New England the previous season. Tufts’ pitcher Ed Niles and two costly errors downed the then-Royals, 5-0, but that would be Suffolk’s only defeat of the season.  

From there, Suffolk rattled off nine victories en route to a .900 winning percentage, which remains as the best in the University’s rich baseball history to this day.

Among the wins, was a 27-1 offensive onslaught of Cambridge Junior College and a pair of extra-inning thrillers against Wentworth and Assumption. Both times Suffolk needed extra time to decide a winner Dick Long was on the bump and earned the triumph. Against the Leopards, Long helped his own cause with a homer and Nick Pappas also sent a ball out of the park. Arnie Teperow barreled the longest wallop in the Assumption game, a clean-up triple.  

Suffolk’s squad wrapped up the first season with the Beacon Hill Championship after it bested Calvin College in two contests, 11-0 and 10-6. 

To be the first to do something is one thing, but to do so successfully is another. The dozen players to ever sport a Suffolk uniform not only went to bat for the University, literally and figuratively, but laid the groundwork for Suffolk’s most successful program that has since amassed 1,111 victories.