Springfield College Digital Collections
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SPRINGFIELD COLLEGE ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS MANUSCRIPT NUMBER MS 532 Leslie Mann Springfield College Records, ca. 1908-2017 Written by Jeffrey Monseau January 2019 Total Shelf space occupied .25 linear feet Total Number of boxes 1 box ABSTRACT Leslie Mann was born on November 18, 1893 in Lincoln, Nebraska. While attending Lincoln high school, Mann lettered and made All-state in three sports: basketball, baseball, and football. Mann attended Springfield College from 1911 to 1913 and received a Bachelor of Physical Education in 1925 and a Bachelor of Science in 1941, the delays mainly due to his Major League Baseball career. Mann is widely regarded as one of the most talented athletes to attend the college, becoming the first freshman to make the varsity football team and his football performance against Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indians, where he scored almost all the points for Springfield College. Mann played Major League Baseball from 1913 to 1928, ending his career with .282 batting average. He played for the Boston Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, New York Giants, and Chicago Cubs. He was a member of the 1914 "Miracle" Braves team that went from last place to winning the pennant that year. During and after his career, he coached football, basketball, and baseball, including coaching at Springfield College as a basketball coach from 1924-1926. Mann also established one of the earliest known Baseball training programs. This training included several inventions, including the Mannscope, an innovative projector to use with his training films, and the See-how, a handheld 16mm viewer to show athletes how to play sports. An advocate for Baseball and Sport in general, Leslie Mann helped found the USA Baseball Congress, the International Amateur Baseball Federation, and was instrumental in bringing Baseball to the 1936 Berlin Olympics as exhibition sport. Materials in this collection include correspondence, pamphlets, books, news releases, newspaper articles, magazine articles, baseball cards, glass (lantern) slides, and photographs created by or collected by various offices at Springfield College. Materials date from 1908 through 2017. Most of the materials within the collection consist of correspondence between the Springfield College Alumni Affairs Office and Leslie Mann about his work with U.S.A. Baseball Congress, the International Amateur Baseball Federation, and the See-how. There are also books and Lantern Slides used in “The Fundamentals of Baseball” training program created by Leslie Mann. Leslie Mann Springfield College Records Page 2 Archives and Special Collections Library Services, Springfield College, Springfield, Massachusetts INFORMATION ON USE OF THE COLLECTION TERMS OF ACCESS AND USE Finding Aid: Unrestricted This work is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike License (CC BY-NC-SA). Materials in Collection: Unrestricted use PREFERRED CITATION Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information (in addition to any other information required by the citation style being used): MS532 – Leslie Mann Springfield College Records, box #, folder #, Archives and Special Collections, Springfield College, Springfield, Mass. HISTORY OF THE COLLECTION Materials come from various department offices at Springfield College or were acquired and/or purchased by the Springfield College Archives and Special Collections. Offices represented were Office of Alumni Relations and Office of the President. This is listing of the known acquisitions: ACQ-0099-2017 - Baseball Fundamentals by Leslie Mann ACQ-0100-2017 - Leslie Mann Boston Brave Quilt Square ACQ-0101-2017 - Leslie Mann 1916 Blank Bank Baseball Card ACQ-0102-2017 - Leslie Mann 1923 Cincinnati Reds Baseball Card Collection arranged, and Finding Aid written by Jeffrey Monseau, January 2019. ARRANGEMENT Since materials came from different sources at different times, there is no original arrangement inherent in the collection. RELATED MATERIALS In Archives and Special Collections, Springfield College, Springfield, Mass.: Digital Collections – For all Digital Images and Documents within the collection Digital Images and Documents - For all Digital Images and Documents on Leslie Mann within the Springfield College Archives Digital Collection Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide Collection - For complete collection of Leslie Mann’s Baseball coaching program Leslie Mann Springfield College Records Page 3 Archives and Special Collections Library Services, Springfield College, Springfield, Massachusetts Archival Records within Springfield College MS533 - Channing R. Mann Springfield College Records MS535 – Leslie Mann Papers The Springfield Student Springfield College Alumni Magazines Springfield College Athletic Department Records Springfield College Football Team Records Springfield College Basketball Team Records Springfield College Marketing and Communication Records--Scrapbooks and News Clippings Archival Records Outside of Springfield College The Giametti Research Center at the Baseball Hall of Fame: https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/education/research There is a player folder full of various materials on and from Leslie Mann, including some correspondence. In addition, they have a Mannscope projector. Some materials have been digitized, see here. Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame: http://nebhalloffame.org/inductees/by-name/ There are some materials donated by Leslie Mann III (Grandson) and maybe even by Channing Mann concerning his career at Lincoln High School. These including many early team photos. LA84 Foundation Sports History Library: https://la84.org/ Library collections hold around eight films, maybe more, created by Leslie Mann. These films date from the 1920s through the 1940s. They are baseball, football and Basketball training films. They have transferred them from 16mm to VHS tape. Books and Manuscripts Mann, Leslie. 1939. History and Development of the U.S.A. Baseball Congress and the International Amateur Baseball Federation: John Moore's Cup Series. World's Amateur Baseball Championship. Springfield, Mass.: author. Online Resource Record: https://springfieldcollege.on.worldcat.org/oclc/30948614; Online Version: https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15370coll2/id/20987 Mann, Leslie. 19AD. Basketball Notes. Online Resource Record: https://springfieldcollege.on.worldcat.org/oclc/851576515; Online Version: https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15370coll2/id/20988 Leslie Mann Springfield College Records Page 4 Archives and Special Collections Library Services, Springfield College, Springfield, Massachusetts DeGroat, Harold Stephen, and Leslie Mann. 1935. Baseball Instruction Course, Springfield College, Springfield, Mass. : Baseball Theory Notes Based Upon Leslie Mann's Mannscope Motion Picture Course and Other Material. Springfield, Mass.: publisher not identified. Online Resource Record: https://springfieldcollege.on.worldcat.org/oclc/31440991; Online Version: https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15370coll2/id/18678 Lowenfish, Lee. 2007. Branch Rickey: baseball’s ferocious gentleman. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Online Resource Record: https://springfieldcollege.on.worldcat.org/oclc/71552176. Chetwynd, Josh, and Brian Belton. 2007. British Baseball and the West Ham Club: History of a 1930s Professional Team in East London. Online Resource Record: https://springfieldcollege.on.worldcat.org/oclc/72871313 Online Resources Society for American Baseball: Les Mann; Bouchard, Maurice. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/9e10a544 Baseball Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mannle01.shtml SEARCH TERMS AND SUBJECTS The following terms represent persons, organizations, and topics documented in this collection. Springfield College Springfield College--Football Springfield College--Basketball Springfield College--Basketball--Men Springfield College--Sports Springfield College--Sports--Men Springfield College--Baseball Springfield College--Baseball--Men Springfield College--Alumni and alumnae Springfield College--Faculty Baseball Coaches Coaches (Athletics) Mann, Leslie Lantern Slide DeGroat, Harold S. Major League Baseball (Organization) American League of Professional Baseball Clubs National League of Professional Baseball Clubs Mannscope See How Mann, Channing R. Thorpe, Jim, 1887-1953 Leslie Mann Springfield College Records Page 5 Archives and Special Collections Library Services, Springfield College, Springfield, Massachusetts BIOGRAPHY NOTE Leslie Mann was born on November 18, 1893 in Lincoln, Nebraska. He stayed in Lincoln throughout his childhood, attending Lincoln High School. While in high school, Mann lettered and made all-state in three sports. Along with being incredibly talented in these three sports, which were basketball, baseball, and football, Mann was also a track star in high school. Mann attended Springfield College from 1911 to 1913 where he maintained his exceptional football and baseball ability. Mann became the first freshman to make varsity football at the college. He is most well-known for his football performance against Jim Thorpe and the Carilse Indians, as Mann scored 18 of his team’s 24 points and competed with Thorpe, who said that “Never have I had such an opponent in a game”. Here, it is clear that Mann was not only the star of his team, but he was also one of the best football players in the country. Mann is considered one