KEN RANKIN took off work during the
summers, most of the time without pay, so he could help kids in
Fairbanks learn how to play baseball.His decades of service to the community are to be recognized this
evening when a baseball field next to Pioneer Park is to be named in his
honor at about 5:50 p.m.
It is also to be “Ken Rankin Legacy Night” at Growden Memorial Park,
with the Alaska Goldpanners playing the Mat-Su Miners. Rankin’s brother,
Dale Rankin, is to throw out the first pitch. The ceremony honoring
Rankin is to start at 6:45 p.m.
The Rankin family has a long tradition with youth baseball and the
Alaska Goldpanners. General Manager Don Dennis said that Ken was his
“unofficial adviser” and a reliable sounding board for many of the
things Dennis did with the team, helping out on such decisions as the
design of the uniforms.
“I think it’s hugely appropriate that he gets a field named after
him,” said Dennis. “His interest went far beyond the baseball part into
a very personal interest in each kid.”
Rankin, who coached baseball in Fairbanks for nearly four decades,
died in 2002 at 73. He began coaching in 1959 with Jim Growden, the man
who Growden Memorial Park is named for. Their team was first known as
the Pan Am Jets and later became the Yankees. Rankin was a big fan of
the New York Yankees and of pinstripes.
A lifelong bachelor, he was born in Knoxville, Iowa, and served four
years in the Navy, then studied at Upper Iowa University before heading
north. He worked at Clear Air Force Station as a member of Laborer’s
Union Local 942 until his retirement.
As reliable as the midnight sun, he could be found in or near the
ballparks every day in the summer, carefully tending the grounds and
practicing with his players. He could never get enough practicing.
His players always tucked their shirts in and were asked to play the
game and conduct themselves with pride. He went so far as to send
instructions home to the moms on cleaning uniforms so they would stay
bright after multiple cycles in the washing machine.
“He was a disciplinarian when he was coaching, but he was always a
very gentle man,” said Jim Dieringer, whose children knew Rankin as a
coach. “The kids that were on his team, they loved him.”
After the games, the parents would wait in the stands while Rankin
engaged the kids with a lecture that could be a long one, hitting the
high and low points as the kids drank soda pop.
Rankin donated thousands of hours of his time to tending the fields
and used his own money to help buy equipment and uniforms.
He took personal responsibility for the condition of the baseball
fields and could be found there at any time of the day, digging
dandelions, painting the backstop, setting the sprinklers or kicking off
those who didn’t belong.
In a News-Miner interview in 1990, Rankin had this to say about the
value of programs for children: “I’m a firm believer if a kid starts
with sports–and this goes for the glee club, drama club, band and all
that–and sticks with it, by the time he gets out of school, he’s going
to be a good, honest, smart kid.”
