Bob Kendrick (born June 15, 1962) is the President of the

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) is a privately funded museum dedicated to preserving the history of Negro league baseball in America. It was founded in 1990 in Kansas City, Missouri, in the historic 18th and Vine – Downtown East, Kans ...

(NLBM) in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

. Prior to that he served as the museum's first Director of Marketing and was promoted to Vice President of Marketing in 2009. He left to serve as Executive Director of the

National Sports Center for the Disabled The National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that began in 1970 providing ski lessons for children with amputations. Today, the NSCD is one of the largest therapeutic recreation organizations in the w ...

Kansas City in 2010 and returned to the NLBM in 2011. Kendrick has created many signature museum educational programs and events including the ''Hall of Game'' which honors former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

greats who played "in the spirit and signature style of the

Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relativel ...

." With the museum shut down in early 2020 due to COVID-19, on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro leagues, he oversaw the NLBM's ''Tipping Your Cap'' campaign. This was an online campaign to get people to pay their respect to the early players and teams of the Negro leagues, players who were not given a chance to play in the Major Leagues until

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first Black American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the Baseball color line, ...

played with the Dodgers in 1947. All former US Presidents have participated in this campaign. The Museum re-opened provisionally in mid-June 2020 and Kendrick said it's needed now more than ever because " u need to see the pain that (African-Americans) have experienced, but you also need to see their successes." Kendrick has been the recipient of the Mary Lona Diversity Award from the Greater Kansas City Black Chamber of Commerce in 2006 and he was named “Citizen of the Year” by the Omicron Xi chapter of the

Omega Psi Phi Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. () is a List of African-American fraternities, historically African-American Fraternities and sororities, fraternity. It was founded on November 17, 1911 at Howard University. Omega Psi Phi is a founding member of ...

fraternity. The Kansas City Globe named Kendrick on their list of “100 Most Influential African-Americans in Greater Kansas City” in 2009. Kendrick was inducted into the

Missouri Sports Hall of Fame The Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is located in Springfield, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1994 by Springfield businessman John Q. Hammons, the Hall of Fame is housed in a two-story, 32,000-square-foot building. On display are more than 4,0 ...

in 2014.

Early life and education

Kendrick was born in

Crawfordville, Georgia Crawfordville is a city and the county seat of Taliaferro County, Georgia, United States. The population was 479 in 2020. History Crawfordville was founded in 1825 as the seat of the newly formed Taliaferro County. It was incorporated as a to ...

. He went to

Park College Park University is a private university in Parkville, Missouri, United States. It was founded in 1875. In the fall of 2023, Park had an enrollment of 6,389 students. History The school which was originally called Park College was founded in 1 ...

on a basketball scholarship in 1980 and earned a B.A. in Communications Arts in 1985.

References

External links

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum website

Tipping Your Cap campaign
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kendrick, Bob Living people 1962 births Basketball players from Kansas City, Missouri Negro league baseball Park Pirates men's basketball players African-American museum directors 20th-century African-American people