Mann, Leslie (MS 532)

Finding Aid | Digital Documents

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 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. 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.