Cosgrove, Francis


School / Team

SD Amateur Baseball Association

Achievements

Co-founder and secretary-treasurer of SD Amateur Baseball Association; led organization for 22 years; instrumental in shaping its bylaws and glory days in 1930s–40s

Operator of a weekly newspaper in Garden City, Cosgrove was one of the founders of the South Dakota Amateur Baseball Association (in 1933; he was secretary-treasurer) and the man regarded as most responsible for its glory days in the 1930s and ’40s. Except for service in World War II, Cosgrove worked in an executive capacity in the organization from its founding until 1959 – a stretch of 22 years. Many of his ideas were incorporated in the original bylaws and most of them are still in the book.