Walter O'Malley was a man of many talents. As a baseball pioneer, he foresaw the expansion of baseball to the West Coast, moving the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles before the 1958 season. As an owner who was ahead of his time, O'Malley oversaw the development and construction of the innovative Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Lesser known, but profound nevertheless, was his role in the formation of the world's first Sports Administration Program at Ohio University. His hand in the beginnings of the academic discipline of Sports Administration, which has led to the graduation of some 1,100 alumni from the Ohio program alone, have long been celebrated at Ohio University.

The genesis of the Ohio University Sports Administration Program and O'Malley's influence upon it can be traced back to New York. There, in the 1950s, O'Malley and Dr. Clifford Brownell, a professor at Columbia University, conversed on several occasions about the business of baseball. Always the pragmatic businessman, O'Malley lamented the lack of properly trained administrators for the Brooklyn Dodgers, the organization of which O'Malley had been majority owner and general partner since 1950. In particular the Dodgers were lacking in well- trained individuals for the team's business-related areas. Wouldn't it be something, O'Malley reflected, if a university could train students, in areas such as contract negotiation, facilities management, and marketing, which could contribute to more efficiently and effectively running a sports organization such as the Dodgers?

Remembering these conversations, Brownell later recounted them to a young James Mason, a doctoral student whom Brownell was advising at Columbia. After receiving his doctorate, Dr. Mason took O'Malley's revolutionary idea and brought it to life, founding in 1966 the world's first Sports Administration program at Ohio University. From its nascent days in the mid-to-late 1960s, the Sports Administration Program developed a reputation as the place for aspiring sports executives to learn about the industry and find jobs in sports and entertainment, a reputation that continues to this day. Mason's successors have continued to shepherd the Program through the years, furthering the reach of O'Malley's idea. That reach has spanned the past 40 years, as the Sports Administration Program has produced hundreds of executives that work in all areas of the sports and entertainment industries.

The influence of Walter O'Malley on baseball is well-known and celebrated. Indeed, the face of modern baseball owes a great deal to his innovative ideas, be it in the international outlook of the game, in the ageless grace of Dodger Stadium, or in the growth of Major League Baseball on the West Coast. Major League Baseball will pay tribute to the late O'Malley when he is inducted into baseball's hall of fame in Cooperstown, NY in July 2008. O'Malley will be enshrined in an executive class that also includes a former commissioner, two former managers, and the inaugural owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

At Ohio University, O'Malley is further celebrated for his profound influence on the larger world of Sports Administration. Here, his ideas about Sports Administration took root and have flourished for 40 years. As the recently established Ohio University Center for Sports Administration grows, its research and educational initiatives will assure that O'Malley's legacy will long endure.