Inside the Project
A digital oral history of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, produced by the students at the Povich Center.
The most complete telling of the Camden Yards story.
This site is for people who care about baseball, Baltimore, and sports history. It is a historical record built from original interviews and reporting. You'll find stories beneath the more popular storylines, not just the official narrative, and how ballparks are more than just sports venues, but a part of Baltimore history.
What we do
Student journalists at the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism explore stories at the intersection of sports and the world beyond sports. Previous projects have included Title IX and High School Sports, Legalized Sports Betting and its Impact on College Campuses, Risks and Rewards of Youth Tackle Football, and the Impact of a New Ballpark and Minor League Baseball Franchise on Hagerstown, Maryland. Students also have traveled with the Povich Center to Rwanda, Senegal and the United Kingdom.
The ‘Creating Camden Yards’ project is not just about the history of the ballpark, but about the people who advocated for it, opposed it, built it, and its everlasting impact. It is the story of the city of Baltimore and of the power of imagination and collaboration.
Jona Jancewicz, student and project contributor, Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism
Watch the video
How We Did It
By Bode Ramsay, Nyla Cherry and Montanna Norman
Two dozen students at the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism brought this comprehensive history of Camden Yards to life. To do that, they broke into teams to research ballpark history, urban planning, stadium architecture, city transportation networks, the Baltimore Colts and 1980s Maryland political issues. They scoured photo archives. Over two semesters, with nearly 60 interviews, they pieced together the story of how Baltimore’s ballpark came to be.
Student interviews
We asked our students the same five questions about this project. Here are their answers.
What did you know about Camden Yards before working on the project?
What's something significant that you learned?
Talk about a challenge/setback that you experienced
What was a memorable experience during the Camden Yards project?
What contribution are you most proud of?
Camden Yards will continue to host games, draw crowds and evolve with time. And somewhere within its larger story, our small piece of documentation will remain — a record of how it all began, and of the semester that changed the way I see both journalism and the spaces it seeks to illuminate.
Bode Ramsay, Journalism and Computer Science major, Class of ‘26
Behind the scenes
Students traveled throughout Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania to meet subjects and create video recordings.of their interviews. One interview took place at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, one at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, and two at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore.
The project was an important learning experience for our students. It challenged them to sharpen foundational skills of journalism: researching, interviewing, reporting, writing. And a few got to fire questions at an Orioles owner and a Baltimore mayor.
Mark Hyman, director, The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism
Support
Student reporters at the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism have been honored by Investigative Reporters and Editors, Associated Press Sports Editors, Hearst Journalism Awards, The Drake Group’s Student Journalism Prize for Investigative Reporting and others. Help us to continue mentoring the next generation of reporters and storytellers.
Credits
“Creating Camden Yards” is a work of journalism. Editorial control of the project rested solely with faculty and staff of the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism and Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.
Editors
Mark Hyman, Sandy Banisky, Nathan Stevens, Kate Yanchulis, Andy Knobel, Derek Willis, Stacey Decker, Adam Marton, Jona Jancewicz
Student-Reporters
Mekhi Abbott, Ryan Alonardo, Andrew Breza, Eli Cohen, Jona Jancewicz, Henry Lilienfeld, Joshua Panepento, Bode Ramsay, Brinkley Smith, Ethan Therrien, Noah Bland, Nyla Cherry, Matt Cohen, Trevor Gomes, Jacob Kauderer, John McConnell, Montanna Norman, Andrew Rich, Michael Stamatos, Laura Van Pate, Phillip Vecera, Jack Wynn, Sarah Meklir, Elise Shuey and Clay Ludwig
Photos
Baltimore Orioles, Maryland Center for History and Culture, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Library of Congress, Baltimore News American Archives/Hearst Corp., David Stinson, Dr. Bernard McKenna, A. Aubrey Bodine with permission of Jennifer B. Bodine, Richard Rubin, Sean Monahan, Cummings & Co., Nolan Rogalski/CNS.
Video
Baltimore Orioles, Tom Catlin, WMAR, WJZ, Mid-Atlantic Moving Image Archive
Research Assistance
Jennifer Grondahl, Bill Stetka, Mark Fine (Baltimore Orioles); Michael Frenz and Matthew Kastel (Maryland Stadium Authority); Siobhan Cernugelj Hagan, Austin Miller (Mid-Atlantic Moving Image Archive); David B. Stinson (ballpark historian); Sarah Clinton-McCausland and Jenny Schollaert (Hornbake Library, University of Maryland, College Park), Jen Abbott, Megan Craynon, Maria Day (Maryland State Archives); Oyinda Omoloja and Deyane Moses (Afro Charities), Catherine Rogers Arthur (Maryland Center for History and Culture), Michael Gibbons and Shawn Herne (Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum); Kelly Groft (WMAR)
Special Thanks
The Povich Center would like to thank Frank, Jennifer, F.J. and David Lucchino for their generous support of this project.
We’d also like to recognize Clint Bucco, Louis Berney, Pittsburgh Pirates, Matt Foster (Joe Spear shoot), Jade Deyoe (Rick Sutcliffe shoot), and Katelyn Brickey and Matt McDermott from idfive.
Donors
Lucchino Family Foundation, Phyllis L. and Leonard J. Attman Foundation, Kelso Bishop Family Foundation, Joyce and Jerry Sachs, Diana Huffman, Harvey and Sandy Platt, Peter Land, Bruce and Suzanne Hoffman, Joanne Belgrad, Ken Karpay, Samuel I. Rosenberg, Martha Mazzone, Tina and Robert Cantu, John Claster, Rosemary Brewer, Jack Bloomfield, Sapna Bansil, Roberta Strickler and David Meyers, Amelia Jarecke, Lauren Rosh, Amy Rosewater and Marc Halushka, Bill Hyman and Janine Pratt, Diana Morris and Peter Shiras, Reese Levin and Dave Ottalini
More enterprise projects from student journalists at the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism
Bringing Back Baseball: A Minor League Ballpark in Hagerstown
Title IX and High School Sports
Legalized Sports Betting’s Impact on College Campuses
Balancing Risks and Rewards of Youth Tackle Football
Name, Image and Likeness and High School Sports
About The Shirley Povich Center For Sports Journalism
The Povich Center prepares students to be innovators and leaders in all facets of sports media. The center's unique, experiential curriculum and public programs elevate and amplify discussion of race, gender, politics and the world — just as Shirley Povich did each morning in The Washington Post.