YVC to Unveil Parker Faller Field Plaques
Yakima, WA – The namesakes of Parker Faller Field will be honored on Saturday, October 20, at the field on the campus of Yakima Valley College. A scrimmage between YVC and Central Washington University is scheduled for 11 AM with the ceremony to take place at the main entrance of the field at 10:45am. Players and coaches will participate in the unveiling of the two bronze plaques that each include a picture and short biography of Shirley D. Parker and Bill Faller. The public is invited to attend and there is no admission charge to attend the baseball scrimmage. The plaques are a gift to the college from the Parker Youth & Sports Foundation (PY&SF).
Shirley Parker was a successful attorney and businessman from Yakima who built the original Parker Field in 1937 for his minor league baseball team, the Pippins. By 1939, Mr. Parker along with his mother, Rose B. Larson, gifted the land to the city and school district where the college and Larson Park stand today.
Bill Faller joined the YVC faculty in 1961 as head baseball and football coach. During his 26-year career at the college, his baseball teams won 664 games, 11 conference championships and 18 league titles, ranking him as the most successful baseball coach in Northwest Athletic Conference history. His 1964 football team was 7-1 and brought the college its only conference title. After retirement, he served for three years as the Parker Youth & Sports Foundation’s president and continues on the Foundations board of directors today. The 93-year-old coach will attend the unveiling ceremony.
In 2004, with the philanthropy of Shirley Parker’s son, Daryl Parker, the Parker Youth & Sports Foundation was organized. Since that time, the PY&SF has been a strong financial supporter of local youth sports programs and YVC athletics. Parker was a founding board member of the Foundation and developed a strong working relationship with the first president, Bill Faller. In 2014, Daryl initiated the field name change with the college to Parker Faller Field and included a donation to cover the cost of the name change signage. Daryl Parker died in 2015, and his will included a $250,000 donation to the Faller/Brayton Endowment Fund that is administered by the PY&SF. In the past three years the PY&SF has made several field improvements to the field that include new dugouts, infield turf, fencing, new entrance, and signage.
Contact: Ray Funk rfunk@yvcc.edu, Director of Athletics
Press Release Contacts:
Jay Frank / 509.574.6870 / jfrank@yvcc.edu
Stefanie Menard / 509.574.4646 / smenard@yvcc.edu