Harold McKinley Cooper (February 14, 1923 – October 4, 2010) was an American politician and Minor League Baseball executive who served as president of the

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball ...

from 1978 to 1990. He is recognized as the father of modern baseball in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

,"Columbus' Father Of Modern Baseball, Harold Cooper, Dies"
''

WBNS-TV WBNS-TV (channel 10) is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside the company's sole radio properties, WBNS (1460 AM) and WBNS-FM (97.1). The stations share studios on Twi ...

'', Retrieved on September 2, 2017 for twice helping return the game to the park that would subsequently be named

Cooper Stadium Cooper Stadium was a baseball stadium in Columbus, Ohio that was built in 1931 and closed in 2008. It was the home of several minor league teams, including the Columbus Clippers from 1977 to 2008. History Cooper Stadium was built in 1931 as Re ...

in his honor.

Early life and the Red Birds

Cooper grew up in the Columbus neighborhood of Franklinton, just a few blocks from the site where the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

built a home for their

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

franchise in 1932."Editorial: Harold Cooper"
''

Columbus Dispatch ''The Columbus Dispatch'' is a daily newspaper based in Columbus, Ohio. Its first issue was published on July 1, 1871, and it has been the only mainstream daily newspaper in the city since ''The Columbus Citizen-Journal'' ceased publication in 19 ...

'', Retrieved on September 2, 2017 He visited Red Bird Stadium while it was still under construction, bringing lunch to grandfather who was serving as a foreman."ILHOF Class of 2007"
''

International League Hall of Fame The International League Hall of Fame is an American baseball hall of fame which honors players, managers, and executives of the International League (IL). It was created by the International League Baseball Writers' Association in 1947 to honor t ...

'', Retrieved on September 2, 2017 Later, he would sneak into games frequently, occasionally getting caught. After one such apprehension, Red Birds president

George Trautman George M. "Red" Trautman (January 11, 1890 – June 25, 1963) was an American baseball executive and college men's basketball coach. Ohio State As an undergraduate at the Ohio State University, Trautman was a three-sport letterwinner in footbal ...

gave him an unpaid job cleaning mold off hot dogs. In 1935, he was promoted to the paid job of clubhouse boy, cleaning uniforms, shining shoes and running errands for the players.

Military service and return to baseball

Cooper graduated from Central High School in 1940 and attended

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

in 1941. He then served in the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

from 1942 to 1946."Harold M. Cooper"
''

legacy.com Legacy.com is a United States-based website founded in 1998, the world's largest commercial provider of online memorials. The Web site hosts obituaries and memorials for more than 70 percent of all U.S. deaths.Keagle, Lauri Harvey"Death in the D ...

'', Retrieved on September 2, 2017 After the war, he took a position in Columbus with the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (later known as Minor League Baseball) before heading to Hutchinson, Kansas, where he would be named

The Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

Minor League Executive of the Year in 1950 while running the

Western Association The Western Association was the name of five different leagues formed in American minor league baseball during the 19th and 20th centuries. The oldest league, originally established as the Northwestern League in 1883, was refounded as the Western ...

affiliate of the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

Columbus Jets

Following the 1954 season, the Cardinals pulled out of Columbus, promoting their

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

affiliate to replace the Red Birds in the

. Cooper led a group that purchased the struggling

Ottawa Athletics The Ottawa Athletics (also known as the Ottawa A's) were a professional minor-league baseball team based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, that operated from 1952 to 1954. The team played at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa and was a member of the Triple-A Inte ...

and Red Bird Stadium. From 1955 to 1968, he would serve as GM of the rechristened

Columbus Jets The Columbus Jets were a Minor League baseball team that played in Columbus, Ohio, from 1955 to 1970. The team moved from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada where they were known as the Ottawa Athletics. The Jets were a member of the Triple-A (baseball), Tr ...

, once again earning Minor League Executive of the Year honors in 1965. Cooper stepped down in 1968 to begin a 17-year run as a Commissioner of Franklin County. Two years later, the Jets were relocated to Charleston when Columbus refused to allocate funds to refurbish the then 39-year-old Jets Stadium.

Columbus Clippers

In 1977, Cooper persuaded his fellow commissioners to purchase and renovate the stadium, which was renamed Franklin County Stadium. The renamed

Columbus Clippers The Columbus Clippers are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians. They are located in Columbus, Ohio, and are named for speedy Merchant ship, mercha ...

returned from Charleston, with the county taking the unique step of buying the affiliate itself from the Pittsburgh Pirates for $25,000. The gamble paid off; as of 2016, Forbes valued the team at $41 million, and the team made a profit for the county of $1.33 million in 2015. While still serving as a County Commissioner, Cooper became president of the International League in 1978, a post he held for 12 years. From 1988 to 1989, he served as commissioner of the

Triple-A Alliance The Triple-A Alliance was an interleague partnership between the American Association (AA) and International League (IL) Triple-A leagues of Minor League Baseball from 1988 to 1991. The two leagues played an interlocking schedule consisting of 4 ...

, an interleague partnership between the International League and

. In 1984, the old ballpark he watching being built as a child was renamed Cooper Stadium in recognition of his contributions to baseball in Columbus. When the Clippers outgrew Cooper Stadium in 2009, they erected a statue of Cooper, entitled '' The Father of Columbus Baseball'', at the main entrance of their new home,

Huntington Park Huntington Park is a city in the Gateway Cities district of southeastern Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 58,114, of whom 97% are Hispanic/Latino and about half were born outside th ...

."City baseball standout Harold Cooper honored with a statue"
''

, Retrieved on September 2, 2017

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Harold People from Columbus, Ohio 1923 births 2010 deaths Minor league baseball executives Ohio State University alumni 20th-century American politicians United States Coast Guard personnel of World War II Politicians from Columbus, Ohio County commissioners in Ohio Baseball executives Sportspeople from Columbus, Ohio