Did You Know?

The name Moses Fleetwood Walker doesn't mean much to anyone other than devoted baseball historians, collectors of obscure knowledge, and fans of Oberlin College athletics. If you fall in one of these three categories, you'll know that "Fleet" Walker was the first African-American to play major league baseball, preceding Jackie Robinson by 63 years.

Walker enrolled at Oberlin College in 1877. In 1881, his last year at the college, he joined the first varsity baseball team as a bare-handed catcher. (The team was 3-0 that year.) In 1883 he joined the Toledo Blue Stockings of the Northwestern League...a year later, the club joined the American Association, a major league. He played in 42 games that year, hitting a respectable .263 and helping the Blue Stockings win the championship.

Responding to a 1920 alumni questionnaire, Walker summed up his experiences at Oberlin in one word: "excellent."

Walker was in the inaugural Heisman Club Hall of Fame class at Oberlin, inducted in 1990.

Interested in learning more? Read a newspaper article from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and an online entry from the Negro League Baseball Players Association.

Tour de France

Hello! I am here to just give a fun little update on what I have been up to this past year as a recent Oberlin graduate. Since the beginning of October I have been living and working in Alençon, France (lower Normandy) as an English language assistant. I decided to take the job because I studied French in college and wanted to take a year off before going to grad school, and I thought that living and working in France would help me out a bit. It’s been great so far!

I’ve been able to travel on school breaks and meet new people from different parts of the world. I live with a Spanish assistant and a German assistant, so the common language in the house is French. For fall break I went with my Spanish housemate, Celi, to Barcelona for 10 days. I speak no Spanish. But, we stayed with her family and they were wonderful hosts. For winter break I went with another English assistant to Wales to stay with her and her family for the holidays. Even though it is an English-speaking country, it was still a different cultural experience. There were lots of castles and pubs and enough strange British people to make the whole vacation rather interesting...I really want to go back! We even went to Liverpool, and I got to see the nightclub where the Beatles started out (that was particularly amazing for me)! Once the weather is nicer I want to take some trips to the south of France to enjoy the sun and Mediterranean, which is really just an excuse for me to take the TGV (high speed rail) around the country.

You'll hear from me again soon....

Michelle Zanni, Oberlin '09

Lloyd!!

I am sure many of you seen the infamous show Entourage on HBO, but did you know the Ari Gold's assistant Lloyd is really Oberlin College graduate Rex Lee. Recently, Lee was back on campus for an interview with Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Matthew Wright where they chatted about Hollywood, Lee’s time at Oberlin and how he got to where he is now. Read the whole Article courtesy of the Oberlin Review here.

Back in the OC

After five months of amazing adventures in New Zealand followed by three less exciting months at home, I'm finally back in Oberlin for my last semester. Not only is this my last semester as an undergrad, but it's also my last softball season EVER. I was unusually nervous about returning to Oberlin; my friends and teammates had had a whole semester together creating memories and of course, practicing. I, on the other hand, was M.I.A., which I feared would leave me out of the social loop and well as drastically out of shape compared to everyone else. Thankfully I was wrong and my reunion with the team went smoothly.

Practice has kept us all on our toes. Thanks to pitching, practicing, conditioning and lifting there isn't a part of my body that hasn't been sore this first week, and undoubtedly I am not the only one. We have eleven on the team this year and there will definitely be some challenges to come, especially when it comes to the various positions everyone will be playing. However, I am confident that everyone, including myself, will put their all into the season this year, making it one to remember.

Cheers for now,

Jen Sees, #15

This Day in History

On February 10, 1835 the Oberlin College board of trustees passed a resolution to admit and educate black students alongside white students, making it the first college in the country to do so.

Roland Baumann, a retired archivist, writes in his new book Constructing Black Education at Oberlin College, "Time has confirmed the 1835 resolution as one of the milestones in the struggle for racial equality in the United States."

To find out more, check out the following link.

And to read President Marvin Krislov's memo "One Vote Makes a Difference", click here.