Baseball has been part of Saskatchewan culture for longer than Saskatchewan has been a province. The first recorded baseball game in its history was played in 1879 at Fort Battleford, then capital of the Northwest Territories.
Born and raised in Leipzig, Jane Miller grew up loving baseball. Playing or watching, baseball offered folks a break from school work or farm work. Growing up about 30 kilometres away in Wilkie, Dave Shury also had a love for baseball. After the two met and became a couple in 1952 鈥� Jane was 18 and Dave was 22 鈥� at a Saturday night dance, baseball naturally became a shared interest.
A few years later, Jane and Dave Shury were married, after Dave had graduated with a degree in law and Jane as a registered psychiatric nurse. Around that time, with a career in law just beginning and Jane nursing at Saskatchewan Hospital, Dave helped found the Saskatchewan Minor Baseball Association. During this period, Jane stayed involved with baseball as a member of the hospital鈥檚 softball team, the Aces, and shared in the team鈥檚 championship season.
Retired since 1999, Jane has kept busy with volunteering in the community, but most of her time is devoted to the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, located in Battleford, that she began with her husband in 1983.
鈥淗e was the motivator to get [the Saskatchewan Baseball Museum] going and to keep it going. He had the desire and dream and the ability to put it all together,鈥� said Shury. 鈥淎nd, of course, because I loved it too and supported it.鈥�
The key to starting the museum and keeping it running for 33 years is found in the Shury鈥檚 team work and their seemingly perfectly complimented skills, with Dave鈥檚 strengths in organization and preserving the memory of Saskatchewan baseball and Jane鈥檚 in her desire to volunteer for a worthy cause and be involved in her community.
Said Jane of their partnership, 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 be here without him and Dave wouldn鈥檛 have been able to do that without me.鈥�
After Dave was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the 1960s and became confined to a wheelchair, Jane became more and more involved in her husband鈥檚 dream, but she was only too happy to help him achieve it.
鈥淟ittle by little he was able to do less and I was his main caregiver. I loved [the museum] just as much and I was certainly there to support him,鈥� she said.
Before he passed away, Dave often spoke about the projects he wanted to complete for the museum.
鈥淭here was a number of things Dave wanted,鈥� explained Shury. 鈥淣umber one, he wanted a building that had wheelchair accessible bathrooms and he got that.
鈥淗e wanted a mural of the first game [played in the Northwest Territories] and we got that for him after he died. The other thing he wanted was the biggest bat in Saskatchewan, but I did one better and we got the biggest bat in Canada. That was part of fulfilling his dream.鈥�
With Dave鈥檚 health in decline, Jane had taken on much of the duties of president of the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame before he passed away in 2008. As the official president of the HOF and museum for eight years now, Jane never lacks for tasks that need her attention and she鈥檚 glad for the work.
鈥淚鈥檓 pleased that I have this [job] because I鈥檓 not an individual to sit back and not do anything,鈥� said Jane. And as if that鈥檚 not enough, she added that she would like to become more involved again with other community organizations.
As president of the Hall of Fame and Museum, Jane can often be found at their location on 22nd Street in Battleford and jumps at the chance to impart some of the knowledge of Saskatchewan baseball history she鈥檚 picked up over the years to visitors.
On the day the News-Optimist spoke with Jane, a young couple from Ontario on their way to Edmonton stopped in and were asked, as are all visitors to the museum, to sign the guestbook and were then informed of the first recorded baseball game in Northwest Territories history. It鈥檚 a fact of Saskatchewan sports history that not even all residents of the Battlefords know, and Jane shares it with museum visitors proudly.
The next project planned is to digitally categorize selected items that represent elements of the eras in the province鈥檚 baseball history. Jane points to an honorary Hall of Fame inductee who played at the old diamond at Abbot Field on King Hill during the days of 鈥渂arnstorming,鈥� when touring baseball teams from the United States would pull into town and have a baseball game planned for the following afternoon, as exemplifying a period in the Battlefords鈥� history.
鈥淭hey played against any team that was there at the time. It was in the early 鈥�60s when Satchel Page brought his team [the Satchel Paige All Stars] to North Battleford. I wasn鈥檛 there, but I certainly know the story because Dave was there,鈥� said Jane. 鈥淭hey drove into North Battleford and they stopped at a garage and they asked who do we contact in the community about getting a baseball game going. They lined up their team, the North Battleford Beavers.鈥�
Barnstorming teams were often made up of players who had played in black leagues in the United States. The treatment of the teams as they travelled around Canada during a time when the southern United States, where many of them were born, was still segregated, left a lasting impression on the players.
鈥淭hey were put up in hotels and given free accommodation and free food, and to those players, it was something. It left an indelible mark,鈥� said Jane.
鈥淎fter the game the North Battleford Beavers gave all the money from the gate to these guys, because they didn鈥檛 have money to go back to the States.
鈥淣orth Battleford got in touch with the team in Unity and the next day they did the same thing down there. They were put up in a hotel and given the money to go back home.鈥�
In the early 2000s, the Hall of Fame committee extended an invitation to one of these players to attend the museum鈥檚 annual induction ceremony. Myron 鈥淢ex鈥� Johnson played shortstop with the Kansas City Monarchs and later the Satchel Paige All Stars. He was too ill to attend the ceremony, but his niece asked if she could attend in his place.
鈥淗er history is what鈥檚 important.鈥�
Johnson鈥檚 niece, Carlotta Walls LaNier, like her uncle, was born in Little Rock, Ark. Along with eight other African Americans, she was among the first black students to attend classes at the formerly segregated Little Rock Central High School. The group, known as the Little Rock Nine, was later awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
During her speech at the ceremony honouring her uncle, Walls LaNier spoke about the impression the people of Saskatchewan made not only on her uncle, but on his family.
鈥淪he was so taken with her uncle鈥檚 experience in Saskatchewan and hearing about it,鈥� explained Jane. 鈥淪he was able to bring out what happened to her uncle and to these other baseball players that came up to Saskatchewan and were treated so royally and it had such an impact on everybody and her. That, along with what was going on in the States, it had such an affect on her. That was really a fantastic thing.鈥�
The heart of Saskatchewan鈥檚 baseball history lies in what it tells about our past. Through Dave Shury鈥檚 dream and Jane Shury鈥檚 support, commitment and love to see it through, this shared past will be preserved for generations to come.
