Bill Conlin Youth Sports Complex Grand Opening
Saturday, March 27, 2004, Noon – 2 p.m., 7801 Freeport Blvd.

Sacramento, California, March 25, 2004 – The long-awaited grand opening of the Bill Conlin Youth Sports Complex will be held at noon this Saturday, March 27, 2004. The complex is named after Bill Conlin, long-time sports journalist, editor and columnist with The Sacramento Bee. The grand opening event coincides with opening day of Pocket Little League.

“We’ve been waiting for a youth sports complex in the south Sacramento area of the City for a long-time, and it is most fitting that we name it after Bill Conlin,” said City Councilmember Robbie Waters. “Bill was a pioneer, not only in the profession of journalism, but in youth sports. The Bill Conlin Youth Sports Complex consists of three baseball fields, two soccer fields, concession stand, eating areas with picnic tables, planters with shade trees and shrubs, restrooms, and additional tree plantings along all the new sport fields on an approximately 7.19 acre site. In the years ahead Bill Conlin Youth Sports Complex will be adding on additional ball fields, shade structure, and play area for young children.”

The Bill Conlin Youth Sports Complex is named after newspaper sports columnist Bill Conlin, who covered sporting events for over a half-century. He was the only person in Sacramento to serve both The Sacramento Union and The Sacramento Bee as a sports editor and he had a passion for getting youth involved in sports.

Bill Conlin was born in Sacramento in 1913 and graduated from Stanford University in 1934 with a degree in economics. Bright and well educated, he preferred the sports and newspaper world to the intellectual circuit. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he returned to Sacramento to embrace the city that was to remain his home during his 84 years.

His favorite topic to write about was young Sacramento athletes and his columns covered Little League, youth basketball, football and golf. He retired from The Sacramento Bee as sports editor in 1985, although the paper continued to carry his Sunday nostalgia column through 1996.

The Bill Conlin Youth Sports Complex Foundation has been established to develop funding that benefits the sports complex and youth sports in Sacramento. Co-chairs of this charitable foundation include R.E. Graswich of The Sacramento Bee and Jean Runyon of Runyon Saltzman & Einhorn Advertising. Persons interested in making a donation are asked to contact Gifts to Share, Inc., at (916) 264-5172.