Jasper Youth Baseball honors Ed Ewing's decades of support
Ed Ewing still keeps a 70-year-old Rex Critchlow Award on his bathroom shelf, where he sees it every morning.
Jasper Youth Baseball honored Ed Ewing for decades of support, but the detail that says the most is still sitting on a bathroom shelf next to the sink. Ewing said the Rex Critchlow Award he received more than 70 years ago is the only trophy he kept, even after collecting what he estimates were about 200 over the years.
“I’ve probably won 200 trophies since then. All of them are gone,” Ewing said. The award, which he sees every morning, has become a quiet link between his own life and the long memory of Jasper baseball.
That connection runs deep in the league’s own records. Jasper Youth Baseball’s awards history includes the Rex Critchlow Little League Award, the Myron Fetcher Babe Ruth Award and the Herbert C. Pittman Jr. Service Award, a list that shows how much the program has depended on more than just players on the field. Recent Rex Critchlow Little League Award winners include Andrew Noblitt in 2018, Carter Stamm in 2015, Austin Simmers in 2014, Evan Aders in 2012 and Ben Wenholt in 2011.
The service-award history stretches back decades as well, reinforcing the role of parents, coaches, volunteers and donors who keep youth baseball running year after year in Jasper. Ewing’s recognition fit that tradition. It was not simply a salute to a former player or supporter, but a nod to the behind-the-scenes commitment that keeps fields ready, teams organized and the league tied to its own past.
Ewing’s own story makes that connection even stronger. A 2013 profile said the Jasper native grew up poor, left town at 17 with $20, served in the Air Force, worked for International Harvester and later built Ewing Properties. That same profile noted that he played sports as a kid in part because school was a place to shower, a small detail that captures how closely athletics, access and basic daily need were connected for him.
The name on his keepsake reaches even farther back into Jasper baseball history. A May 8, 1936, Jasper Herald archive item said the local American Legion would organize junior baseball under Rex Critchlow’s management, showing that the name tied to Ewing’s award belongs to a much older community lineage. In Jasper, that history still lives through the volunteers and families who keep showing up.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
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