2026 SESSION
ENROLLED
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 157
Commending the North Grounds Softball League.
Agreed to by the Senate, March 13, 2026
WHEREAS, for 50 years, the North Grounds Softball League has facilitated friendly competition, camaraderie, and community building at the University of Virginia; and
WHEREAS, in September 1976, students at the University of Virginia School of Law organized their own fall softball league on Copeley Field, an empty field across from Virginia Law and the Darden School of Business; Frederick Vogel, future Virginia Law professor J. Gordon Hylton, David Mullins, and Robert Barry were instrumental to the league's founding; and
WHEREAS, the inaugural season featured 15 teams with more than 200 players, most of whom were law students and faculty; the faculty team included G. Edward White, Thomas R. White III, future Virginia Law dean Robert Scott, and future Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia Donald Lemons, while the student teams included Nancy Hudgins, future United States Senator George Allen, future United States Attorney Roscoe C. Howard, Jr., and future National Hockey League vice-president Ellis T. “Skip” Prince; and
WHEREAS, the teams were initially split into two divisions, and the “Copeley Singles” won the first championship; members of that first championship team included future New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz; and
WHEREAS, the league was originally called the Law School Softball League, but by the spring of 1977, it had become known as the North Grounds Softball League (NGSL), to reflect that teams from the Darden School of Business and the Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School had joined; and
WHEREAS, in the fall of 1977, then-Major League Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn played in a softball game for the “Amazing Coneheads” team, and a photo of him pitching was published in The New York Times ; and