Bridgewater College

VIDEO: KIT MAY HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CEREMONY

Kit May was a tremendous baseball pitcher, outfielder and long ball hitter for the Eagle teams. As a freshman in 1922, he threw the first no-hitter in Bridgewater College history. In 1924, he pitched BC to a 4-3 victory over a powerful University of Richmond squad. In 1925, in a game with East Tennessee State Normal School at Bridgewater, Kit hit the first home run at Riverside Field (now called Harry G.M. Jopson Field). The ball passed over the road beyond right field and into the North River. He was captain of the 1925 team.

Kit was a four-year ace of the staff and teamed with his brother C.E. "Tiny" May, as a battery from 1922-24 for the Eagles. The May battery transformed New Market into a Valley League power in the summer of 1923. Kit was a strikeout pitcher who used a blazing fastball and curve to become the Valley top pitcher. He was a freshman representative on the Men's Council at BC in 1921-22 and was junior class president in 1924. In 1925, his senior year, he served as class president and was voted May Day King. Kit graduated from Bridgewater with a B.A. degree in Social Sciences. He served as Director of Physical Education from March-May of 1925.

May played professional baseball for Martinsburg of the Blue Ridge League in 1925 until his contract was sold to the Memphis Chicks, where he played for 12 years in the old Southern League. He pitched and batted the Chicks to the 1930 Southern League Championship.

Kit returned to the Shenandoah Valley as a teacher at Robert E. Lee High School in Staunton for 1945 until 1970, when he retired to his farm in Parnassus, Va. He served as the President of the Staunton Teachers Association and was a member of the Virginia Education Association, Lions Club and the North River Ruritan Club.

Kit May was a leader on and off the field. He passed away in 1977 but his memory lingers in the hallowed halls of Bridgewater College.