City honours legendary umpire Doug Hudlin
Higgins Street, a short road that runs along the outfield of Jerry Hale Field between Hillside Avenue and Cook Street, will soon have a second name — Doug Hudlin Memorial Way.
Victoria council voted unanimously last week to install three commemorative street signs under the Higgins Street signs to recognize Hudlin’s contributions to the city and community.
The legal name of the street will remain Higgins Street.
Hudlin, a legendary baseball umpire, city employee and baseball Hall of Famer who was the grandson of some of the city’s first Black residents, dedicated much of his life to community service and especially to youth baseball.
In 2017, the city recognized June 11 as Doug Hudlin Day in honour of the umpire, who died in 2014 at age 91.
Two years ago, the city installed permanent signage with information about his story on the bleachers on the west side of Jerry Hale Field at National Little League Park.
Hudlin, a long-time City of Victoria employee, dedicated more than 40 years to baseball as both a player and an umpire.
Born in 1922 in Victoria, he spent many of his umpiring years calling games at Jerry Hale Field, and presided over his final game as umpire in 1992.
He was the first non-American umpire to work the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in 1964, and seven years later became the first international umpire ever to work a second Little League World Series.
Hudlin has been inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame, the B.C. Baseball Umpires Association Hall of Fame, and the Little League Umpire Alumni, and was a founding member of the British Columbia Black History Awareness Society.
The Hudlin family continues his legacy of community service through Little League, and started a foundation called Step Up to the Plate that raises funds in support of Special Olympics.
The city is hoping to have the signs, which the city is setting $1,000 aside for, installed in early June.