(Tabor Baseball) Diamonds Last Forever
The 1948–1949 varsity baseball team. Don Chace '50 (upper right) and Alonzo Tredwell '49 (center) are circled.
(Tabor Baseball) Diamonds Last Forever
Nikki Tredwell and Nick Chace met in college. Their relationship bloomed, and they began to plan a life together. As they learned about each other’s families, their conversations revealed something unexpected: Their families had already been connected for 80 years.
“I always thought in the back of my head that the stories Nick told me about his grandfather made him sound a lot like my grandfather,” Nikki says. “The little things they both did, or the phrases they both used. I’d never heard anyone else say that except in my own family.”
Nick Chace (left) and Nikki Tredwell (right) are engaged to be married. They recently discovered that their grandfathers played baseball together at Tabor almost 80 years ago.
As Nick and Nikki compared stories about their grandfathers, both of whom have passed away, more similarities emerged. Both Alonzo Tredwell ’49 and Don Chace ’50 were passionate about sports, for example, especially baseball. One small detail, though, suddenly brought everything into focus.
“Nick said that his grandfather had gone to Tabor,” Nikki says. “I was like, ‘what? My grandfather also went to Tabor!’”
From there, curiosity quickly turned into action. Nikki and her mother — Ruthie Tredwell, Alonzo Tredwell’s daughter — reached out to Tabor to see if the school archives held any information on Tredwell.
What followed exceeded every expectation. Tabor’s archives included rosters and photographs confirming that the two grandfathers attended Tabor at the same time and played together on the 1948–1949 varsity baseball team. Archivist Sophie Arnfield sent Ruthie Tredwell copies of rosters and team photographs, as well as articles documenting Tredwell’s and Chace’s time at Tabor.
The link between the two families might seem like a remarkable coincidence, but for Nikki and Ruthie, it’s more meaningful than chance. “It just feels full circle,” Ruthie says. “I’d do anything to talk to my dad for 10 minutes about this,” she laughs. “I’d ask him how well he knew Don Chace, because guess what?”
Nikki echoes her mother’s sentiment. “I wonder what it would be like to go back in time and tell them, ‘Hey, your grandchildren are going to get married,’” she says. The discovery also deepened her relationship with Nick and his family. “We were already very close,” she says. “But being able to intertwine our family histories is really amazing.”
Now, as Nikki and Nick plan their wedding, the past will be present in a very real way. Ruthie plans to display the archival photograph of the Tabor baseball team, which includes both grandfathers, at the celebration.
“They’re going to be at the wedding,” Ruthie says. “Absolutely.”
Even beyond the Tabor connection that links the Tredwell and Chace families, Ruthie says that seeing the names and faces from her father’s past brought decades-old memories rushing back. Tabor has always been a part of her life, she says. It shaped her father and his lifelong friendships. She recalls visiting campus as a child with her father for his class reunions. She remembers her father wearing a Tabor Baseball shirt to play baseball and softball games with neighbors over the years. Friday nights, she says, were reserved time in which her father would “yuck it up” on the telephone with his Tabor classmates.
Alonzo Tredwell '49 (left) on campus for an alumni baseball game with a young relative.
Some of the names on the roster, she says, even served as pallbearers at her father’s funeral.
“My dad’s friends from Tabor were our family,” she says. “I’ve known some of the names on that roster my entire life. I grew up going to their houses. Seeing them all an arm's length away from each other in that baseball team photo means so much to me.”
For Nikki, the discovery was deeply emotional. “I never got the chance to meet my grandfather,” she says. “It’s very special to be able to feel closer to someone you’ve only known through stories.” It also highlights the lasting impact of the Tabor experience.
"Their years at Tabor were so formative,” Ruthie says. “They learned how to be friends, and how to be teammates, and they built these close friendships and strong traditions that lasted beyond school. Those shaped us too, and now here we are, back together again. You might not have a family; you might have a very small family; but your friends can be your family. The Chace family is wonderful, and they feel even more like my family now.”