College Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2014 Release | Harvard Magazine Feature (1998)

Photo courtesy of Harvard Athletic Communications; portions of the story courtesy of Harvard Athletic Communications and the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- William Clarence Matthews, class of 1905 and namesake of the Ivy League baseball conference title trophy, has been inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame, the organization announced Tuesday. Matthews had been on the ballot since first being nominated in 2009.

Matthews joins the likes of Gene Stephenson, Bill Bordley, Alex Fernandez, Mike Fiore, Demie Mainieri and Mickey Sullivan as the class of 2014.

Selected this year by the Black College Legends and Pioneers Committee – which selects inductees who played or coached at Historically Black Colleges and Universities prior to 1975 – Matthews joins Ralph Garr, Lou Brock, Danny Goodwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones as previous honorees in this category.

While at Harvard, Matthews was a star infielder and a key contributor of teams that went 75-18. As a senior Matthews had one of the best seasons in his career, hitting .400 with 22 stolen bases for the Crimson. Prior to his impressive tenure in Cambridge, Matthews was at Tuskegee from 1893 to 1897, serving as captain during his final season. He also helped organize the school's first football team.

Following his collegiate and professional career, Matthews practiced law until 1912 when he was appointed by Theodore Roosevelt to the District Attorney's Office in Boston. In 1924, Matthews, who had assisted in Calvin Coolidge's presidential campaign, was eventually tabbed as an Assistant U.S. Attorney General, a title he owned until his passing in 1928.