“This team was prepared, they were finished, they couldn’t find their identity and they didn’t really believe in each other,” Rector said in a phone interview with the Panthers, who were ages 13 to 10 and in the midst of a nosedive. when Birmingham-Southern’s board of trustees voted unanimously in March to close the liberal arts institution at the end of the academic year due to financial instability. “They went 19-4 and have won a super regional since then. I can’t explain it. It was as if the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders.”
Rector became the baseball team’s faculty athletic liaison a few years after arriving at the Alabama school in 2007. In the role, he introduces himself to the team’s freshmen and transfer players every fall and is a regular at practices and games in home in the spring. He leads breathing exercises and offers muscle relaxation and visualization techniques to help the Panthers perform at their best on the field, and is available to support players who fall behind in their studies.
On Tuesday, when Birmingham-Southern held its final practice at Striplin Field before a farewell party at a local restaurant, longtime Panthers coach Jan Weisberg invited Rector to speak to the players, just as he had done before your trip to the super regionals. and countless times before. As Rector considered his message to the team, he grew concerned about the proverbial weight returning to the Panthers’ shoulders.
“Everyone is rooting for them, they are America’s team, and I was worried that suddenly they were carrying too much of a burden,” he said. “I told them, ‘I speak for all of us — faculty, staff, coaches, students, alumni — and you owe us nothing. Last weekend was for us. You gave us a gift, and it was a gift. The last memories of Birmingham-Southern will be positive, after the last two months have been then sad and then negative.’ I told them, ‘You changed the narrative and the outcome of this story. Now, you just need to go play for one more day.’”
The Birmingham-Southern baseball team’s magical journey, which became a national story and attracted the attention of a documentary crew, brought much-needed joy to the city and the school’s grieving teachers, students and alumni during a difficult period. .
“It’s a bright little light in all this darkness,” Rector said.
While Rector grew up in Virginia and earned his undergraduate degree at U-Va. Before making Birmingham his home, Rod Moss grew up just a few blocks from the BSC campus, where his mother worked in various administrative roles at the school. In 1968, Moss served as batboy for the Panthers baseball team, walking up the hill to games after his nearby elementary school ended.
Moss’s older sister attended Birmingham-Southern, and when it came time for him to choose a college, the familiarity of home—and the tuition discount that his mother’s position afforded the family—were too much to pass up. . He counted several members of the baseball team as fraternity brothers and graduated in 1976 with a degree in elementary education.
After teaching for four years in Birmingham city schools, Moss transitioned to a career in hospital administration. His various jobs took him up and down the East Coast, but he kept tabs on his beloved alma mater from afar. Moss, who attended a bittersweet closing ceremony on campus last week, recently joined other alumni in changing his Facebook profile picture to an image of a baseball with the Birmingham-Southern logo and slogan : “We will let you know when we are ready to close.” He has fond memories of his school’s runner-up finish in the 2019 College World Series and was moved by the determination of this year’s team.
“To do what they did, especially with the announcement of the school closing, is just phenomenal,” Moss said in a phone interview, fighting back tears. “It shows the rest of the world what it means to be a [Birmingham-] Southern person. It’s a special place and everyone is so proud of these guys.”
Support for the team reached far beyond Birmingham.
At last weekend’s super regionals in Granville, Ohio, Birmingham-Southern athletic director Kyndall Waters, a former volleyball player at the school, was inundated with questions about how people could support the program in its final days. After speaking with the parents of some of the Panthers players, Waters’ sister Kristin Sullivan organized a GoFundMe campaign on behalf of the Hulse Patio Social Club, an informal fan group founded in 2008 by the father of the Birmingham-Southern assistant coach and former player, JD Hulse. The group was a fixture at BSC home games, where parents would barbecue on a patio beyond the first base dugout to feed the fans, the Panthers and even the opposing team.
As of Friday morning, the GoFundMe campaign had raised more than $107,000, which will be used to cover travel expenses and rings to commemorate the school’s second trip to the College World Series. Any remaining funds will be donated to the coaching staff.
“It’s hard to imagine Birmingham without Birmingham-Southern College,” Sullivan said. “It was a punch in the gut and it will feel very strange after next week, but it brought a lot of joy during a very difficult time. It’s been beautiful to see the community, and really the country, support the team.”
After retirement, Moss works part-time as a home game assistant for the Rocket City Trash Pandas, the Class AA affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels. He’s mentioned the Birmingham-Southern story to his colleagues at the stadium in recent weeks, and their response has generally been the same.
“They ask me, ‘Well, the school isn’t going to be there, so who are they playing for?’” Moss said. “And I tell them, ‘They’re representing a school that no longer exists, that’s true, but I think in their hearts and minds, it still exists.’ You’d have to go to Birmingham-Southern to understand that.”
Rector and Sullivan are traveling to the College World Series in Eastlake, Ohio, where the Panthers will open their portion of the double-elimination tournament on Friday at 4:45 p.m. ET against Salve Regina. With any luck, Birmingham-Southern will avoid another norovirus outbreak like the one that left about half the team hooked up to IVs behind the bench and sent two players to the hospital before the second game of its super regional sweep.
Rector, who has received a credential that will grant him access to the dugout, will be on call if Weisberg decides the team can benefit from his experience. Otherwise, he plans to enjoy the fan experience.
“It’s the icing on the cake right now,” he said. “I don’t say that to people, because they are competitors and they want to win. But for us, they already won.”
Many of Rector’s fondest memories from his 17 years at Birmingham-Southern involve the baseball team, including the way Weisberg and the program embraced his son Ross, who is autistic. The player who watched Ross’ ceremonial first pitch before a game in 2014 still stays in touch. After some reflection, Rector returned to the question of how the team managed to turn its season around in the face of unusual adversity.
“Ultimately, it all starts with Jan,” he said. “His ability to navigate these waters was simply inspiring. The players accept it because they know he wants what’s best for them, and that’s the biggest factor in how they’ve managed to stick together.”
