Dodgertown
Spring’s Eternal at Dodgertown
The Sporting News list of 100 Most Powerful People in Sports for the 20th Century, December 1999
- Pete Rozelle
- Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis
- Roone Arledge
- Branch Rickey
- Marvin Miller
- David Stern
- Rupert Murdoch
- Avery Brundage
- Ban Johnson
- Muhammad Ali
- Walter O’Malley
- Steve Borstein
- Phil Knight
- George Halas
- Babe Ruth
- Walter Byers
- Lamar Hunt
- Ted Turner
- Paul Brown
- Michael Jordan
- Jackie Robinson
- Pierre De Coubertin
- Juan Antonio Samaranch
- Donald Fehr
- Tex Rickard
- Roy Hofheinz
- Horst Dassler
- Red Auerbach
- Bill France Sr.
- Arnold Palmer
- Al Davis
- Birch Bayh
- Billie Jean King
- Paul Tagliabue
- Charlie Finley
- Clarence Campbell
- George Steinbrenner
- Peter Ueberroth
- Bert Bell
- Jacob Ruppert
- Dick Ebersol
- Mark McCormack
- Al Neuharth
- Tex Schramm
- Bill Veeck
- Arthur Ashe
- Howard Cosell
- Fathers Theodore Hesburgh and William Beauchamp
- Don King
- Connie Mack
- David Falk
- John Wooden
- Andre Laguerre
- August Busch Jr.
- Peter Seitz
- Roger Penske
- Wilt Chamberlain
- Jack Nicklaus
- Bill France Jr.
- Bowie Kuhn
- George Preston Marshall
- Ed Barrow
- Abe Saperstein
- John McGraw
- Larry MacPhail
- Dick Schultz
- Gary Bettman
- Adolph Rupp
- Walter Brown
- Jesse Owens
- Deane Beman
- Phog Allen
- Wellington Mara
- Charles Comiskey
- Eddie Robinson
- Knute Rockne
- Arch Ward
- Jerry Jones
- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
- Bobby Orr
- Art Rooney
- Alan Eagleson
- Pele
- Bud Selig
- Tommie Smith and John Carlos
- Pat Summit
- Laurence Tisch
- Bobby Jones
- Tiger Woods
- Leigh Steinberg
- Henry Iba
- Bill Bowerman
- Anatoli Tarasov
- Albert “Happy” Chandler
- “The Voices of Baseball” — Mel Allen, Red Barber, Vin Scully, Harry Caray, Jack Buck, Ernie Harwell,Bob Prince, Etc.
- Sonny Werblin
- Ed and Steve Sabol
- J.G. Taylor Spink and C.C. Johnson Spink
- Wayne Gretzky
- The Famous Chicken
ABC Sports ranks the Top Ten Most Influential People "off the field" in sports history as voted by the Sports Century panel in December, 1999
- Branch Rickey
- Pete Rozelle
- Roone Arledge
- Marvin Miller
- Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis
- David Stern
- Avery Brundage
- Walter O’Malley
- George Halas
- Mark McCormack
Attendance 1953-1957 Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Milwaukee Braves

The Dodgers won back-to-back National League Pennants in 1952 and 1953, but in both seasons finished on a losing note in the World Series against the rival New York Yankees. In 1954, there was a new manager when the club arrived in Dodgertown, as O’Malley had hired solid baseball man but relatively unknown Walter Alston. The quiet but firm Alston replaced Charlie Dressen, who had failed in his demand for a three-year contract, which was against existing club policy of one-year deals. Alston had been a fixture in Vero Beach for years as a successful minor league manager. His 1953 Montreal Royals club defeated the New York Yankees’ Kansas City Triple-A team to win the “Little World Series.” Alston would go on to sign 23 consecutive one-year contracts under O’Malley and be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The Dodgers played four spring exhibition games and 96 total organization games at Dodgertown in 1954.
“Each year my wife Lela and I drove to Vero Beach from our home in Darrtown, Ohio. But 1954 was special. I was the manager now, not a minor league skipper,” said Alston. “I couldn’t wait until it was time to start spring training. I would be anxious to see which kids were ready to move up. It was exciting to speculate about who would be the next discovery.”Joe Hendrickson, Dodgertown
It was also in 1954 that an energetic and talented broadcaster named Vin Scully took the lead role, a position he still holds today.
“There’s not a place in the world that has as many memories for me as Dodgertown,” said Hall of Fame broadcaster Scully, who has been a regular since 1950 and has a street named for him there. “My first year, they didn’t know what to do with me. So, I slept on a cot in a little room off the main lobby.”Dodgertown: A Trip Through History, Josh Rawitch, MLB.com, February 17, 2002
To help defray some of the year-round expenses of maintaining Dodgertown and to reach out to youngsters, O’Malley and his staff developed a Dodgertown Camp for Boys ages 12-16 initiated in July and August of 1954. O’Malley did his homework regarding sports camps, writing to Ed Steitz at Springfield College for background materials on running a camp. Springfield was recommended to O’Malley as running a model camp program that was the best in its field. When the Dodgertown Camp for Boys began it was to be an all-sports camp, promising an opportunity to receive instruction in baseball and a variety of recreational activities, including swimming, tennis, fishing, basketball and shuffleboard, all while living on base.
The camp started under the directorship of Les MacMitchell, a former New York University track star, with assistance from Bill Ceccotti and Buck Lai and some 50 counselors. Terry O’Malley, Walter and Kay’s daughter who had just graduated from New York’s College of New Rochelle, joined the camp administration as secretary. Nearly 200 boys from throughout the country were sent to the prestigious camp from July 1 to August 25, 1954, paying $500 for all expenses, to train where the Dodgers did. One of the camp counselors that first year was O’Malley’s 16-year-old son Peter, who would, years later, run the entire Dodgertown complex (Jan. 1962-Jan. 1965) and succeed his father as Dodger President on March 17, 1970. Peter had made headlines in the Vero Beach Press Journal at age 15, when he lost an identification bracelet he wore in the Dodgertown swimming pool. An unidentified woman found it and returned it to the Dodger office. While Walter and Kay O’Malley would have been pleased to offer their thanks and a reward, none was asked for and they were impressed with the honest citizen.Vero Beach Press-Journal, March 13, 1952
Walter Alston, who was named Dodger Manager by Walter O’Malley for the 1954 season, throws batting practice. Alston was a successful minor league manager in the Dodger system, before his promotion.
Red Barber, Connie Desmond and Vin Scully comprise the Dodger broadcast team in 1950-53. Barber and Scully were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as winners of the prestigious Ford C. Frick Award.
Citing year-round potential for the complex, Walter O’Malley launches the Dodgertown Camp for Boys. Campers at the initial 1954 session paid $500 for two months housing, all meals and sports instruction under the directorship of track star Les MacMitchell. Peter O’Malley was a 16-year-old camp instructor, while his sister Terry served as a secretary for the camp’s administration.