Bob Rives

As a Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame board member, historian and author Bob Rives is responsible for the research and nominations of old-timers.

An Oklahoma native, Rives was educated at Oklahoma State University and Wichita State University.  After serving in the United States Army in Korea, Rives began his career as a newspaper sportswriter but came to Wichita in 1959 to work for Kansas Gas & Electric (now Westar Energy), retiring as a vice president.  He then served as an adjunct professor at Wichita State until 2006.

Regardless of profession, Rives has extensively written about baseball.  His articles have appeared in Baseball America, The National Pastime and Baseball Research Journal.  He has written Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) biographies, including those of Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame members Bobby Boyd, Archie McKain, Daryl Spencer and Joe Wilhoit.

Rives, with his son Tim, also wrote  a SABR Journal article, Pros vs. Cons: Federal Leaguers versus Federal Prisoners at Leavenworth.

In 2004, Rives wrote Baseball in Wichita, which includes historical research, records and anecdotes about the city’s professional, semi-professional and minor league teams.  The book also profiled Wichita State University’s rise to baseball prominence.