36 Facts About Bowie Kuhn

Bowie Kent Kuhn was an American lawyer and sports administrator who served as the fifth commissioner of Major League Baseball from February 4,1969, to September 30,1984.

Bowie Kuhn served as legal counsel for Major League Baseball owners for almost 20 years prior to his election as commissioner.

Bowie Kuhn was born in Takoma Park, Maryland, the son of Alice Waring and Louis Charles Bowie Kuhn, a fuel company executive.

Bowie Kuhn's father was a Bavarian immigrant, and his mother had deep roots in Maryland.

Bowie Kuhn grew up in Washington, DC, and graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School.

Bowie Kuhn then attended Franklin and Marshall College in the V-12 Navy College Training Program before going to Princeton University in 1945.

Bowie Kuhn graduated from Princeton with honors in 1947 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics.

Bowie Kuhn then received his JD degree in 1950 from the University of Virginia School of Law where he served on the editorial board of the law review.

Bowie Kuhn's tenure was marked by labor strikes, owner disenchantment, and the end of baseball's reserve clause, yet baseball enjoyed unprecedented attendance gains and television contracts during the same time frame.

Bowie Kuhn suspended numerous players for involvement with drugs and gambling, and took a strong stance against any activity that he perceived to be "not in the best interests of baseball".

Bowie Kuhn barred both Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle from the sport due to their involvement in casino promotion; neither was directly involved in gambling, and both were reinstated by Kuhn's successor Peter Ueberroth in 1985.

Also in 1970, Bowie Kuhn described Jim Bouton's Ball Four as "detrimental to baseball" and demanded that Bouton retract it.

Bowie Kuhn, who thought that baseball could attract a larger audience by featuring a prime time telecast, pitched the idea to NBC.

In 1980, during the Iranian hostage crisis, Bowie Kuhn sat at a baseball game with Jeremiah Denton, a Navy admiral and former POW in Vietnam who would be elected US Senator later that year from the state of Alabama.

Bowie Kuhn denied his request, citing the propriety of the reserve clause, which was language in contracts that essentially prevented a player from playing with another team even after his contract expired.

Bowie Kuhn was a major adversary of Oakland Athletics owner Charles O Finley.

In 1976, when Finley attempted to sell several players to the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees for $3.5 million, Bowie Kuhn blocked the deals on the grounds that they would be bad for the game.

At the start of the 1974 season, Bowie Kuhn inadvertently got into the middle of a small controversy during Hank Aaron's pursuit of Babe Ruth's record of 714 career home runs.

Bowie Kuhn did not attend the game where Aaron broke the record, his excuse being a previously scheduled speaking engagement with the Wahoo Club, the Cleveland Indians booster club.

In 1977, Bowie Kuhn battled the brash new owner of the Atlanta Braves, Ted Turner.

Turner admitted that he had made remarks at a cocktail party about acquiring San Francisco Giants star Gary Matthews, at a time when Bowie Kuhn had ordered owners not to speak about potential free agents.

Bowie Kuhn concluded that Turner's statement was not in the "best interest of baseball" and fined Turner, suspended him from baseball for one year, and penalized his club with the loss of a draft choice.

Bowie Kuhn was denied access to the Yankees clubhouse during the 1977 World Series and asserted her 14th amendment right was violated.

When baseball writers came out in support of inducting Negro league players into the Hall of Fame, Bowie Kuhn supported recognizing the players in the Hall, but was unable to garner sufficient support from the Hall of Fame board of directors.

Bowie Kuhn would have been a better friend to the Hall of Fame if he had led them to come to terms with their institutional racism in private, rather than leading them to expose it to the public.

Bowie Kuhn was quick to punish players who used drugs with heavy fines and suspensions.

Ironically, when Porter was named the most valuable player of the 1982 World Series while playing for the Cardinals, Bowie Kuhn was on hand to congratulate him.

Bowie Kuhn was both praised and attacked for the firm stand that he levied against offenders.

The owners elected Peter Ueberroth as the sixth Commissioner of Baseball, however since Ueberroth was serving at the time as president of the organizing committee for the 1984 Summer Olympics Bowie Kuhn was allowed to remain Commissioner for the 1984 regular season before leaving office.

Bowie Kuhn became an adviser and board member for Domino's Pizza and the Ave Maria Foundation.

Bowie Kuhn had been a longtime resident of Ridgewood, New Jersey.

Bowie Kuhn became the Chairman of the Catholic Advisory Board of the Ave Maria Mutual Funds upon the inception of their first mutual fund, Ave Maria Catholic Values Fund, in May 2001.

Bowie Kuhn was a member of the Catholic organization for presidents and CEOs, Legatus, and was influential in chartering the Legatus chapter in Jacksonville, FL.

In July 2001, Bowie Kuhn appeared on an hour-long episode of The Journey Home, in which he explained the role that his Catholic faith had played in his life and career.

Bowie Kuhn died on March 15,2007, at St Luke's Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, after being hospitalized for several weeks with pneumonia.

Bowie Kuhn was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008, after having been elected by the Veterans Committee nine months after his death.