Martin Luther Mathews, co-founder of the Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club, remembers a day in 1958 when a close friend invited him to his home.
“There, he had 30 boys in his house who wanted to do something with their lives,” said Mathews, who was coaching baseball outside his career of working in an engineering department at a textile manufacturing company.
He placed those 30 boys on baseball teams that year, but other kids just kept showing up wanting to play. In the summer of 1960, Mathews and the late Hubert “Dickey” Ballentine, coaches of neighborhood baseball teams called the Knights and the Arabs, were talking in Handy Park after baseball practice. They both hated to turn kids away, and both desired to keep young men on the fields and off the streets. This meant they needed to organize more teams.
“We came up with a great idea,” Mathews said. “Why can’t we have a boys club like they have in South St. Louis?”
Five years later and still without a central facility, they had organized more than 100 teams: 75 baseball, 22 football, 22 cheerleading and two basketball teams.
“We use sports as a drawing card,” Mathews said. “My pride is to see kids take on sports and then they go on and develop in other areas. Those first 30 boys have become top FBI agents, top business people and educators, professional athletes. We use those first 30 boys as an example.”
On Nov. 25, Mathews announced that after more than 50 years, he is retiring as president and chief executive officer of the Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club. His retirement will become effective Nov. 1, 2014, allowing the agency an opportunity to initiate a yearlong search for a successor and celebrate his contributions with the establishment of a Martin Luther Mathews Legacy Fund Campaign.
“What would have happened if I had said ‘no’ to the man and those 30 kids?” Mathews said. “We have touched the lives of millions of people. That’s what we’ve done.”
Mathews-Dickey has come a long way since the first meeting in Handy Park. The new facility at Kingshighway and Penrose is equipped with an Olympic-size pool, basketball gymnasiums, community meeting and music rooms, computer and tutorial labs and administrative offices. Today the club provides direct services to nearly 6,000 members and episodic services to more than 40,000 annually.
“Our Board of Directors cherishes the generations of lives that Mr. Mathews has touched and his tremendous leadership in growing the agency from a dream under a shade tree to a multi-faceted educational, cultural and sports institution,” said board Chairman Rev. Earl E. Nance Jr.
“We have some very big shoes to fill and are thankful that Mr. Mathews will serve as president emeritus to advise the next leader.”
By forging relationships with business and community leaders, Mathews has been able to develop programs such as the Volunteer Tutorial to supply youth with “study buddies” and Computer Literacy Instruction to tackle the digital divide through technology training.
“Through education we can overcome hardships and difficulties and provide support systems to conquer poverty, ignorance and hatred to become productive citizens,” Mathews said. “My lifelong mission is to educate youth on the front end to prevent them from falling through the cracks on the back end – the guiding principle of our ‘It’s Better to Educate than to Incarcerate’ Initiative.”
Also a firm believer in youth employment opportunities, Mathews founded Earn and Learn to help them earn money as managers, coaches, scorekeepers and umpires. In an effort to reduce gang violence, he collaborated with the FBI in 1992 to establish the Motivation, Vocation and Preparation program.
On July 22, 1982, President Ronald Reagan awarded Mathews the United States Presidential Citizens Medal.
“The good works of Martin Mathews flow as deeply through the City of St. Louis as the Mississippi River itself,” Reagan wrote on the award. “His inspiring contribution to bettering the lives of inner-city youth is a shining example of the power of good.”
In order to renovate the club and broaden its services, Mathews successfully worked with major corporate leaders and Civic Progress to solicit financial and in-kind donations. Mathews also was the first African American to serve on the board and executive committee of the United Way of Greater St. Louis.
An avid sportsman, Mathews built strong relationships with the Junior Football and Khoury baseball leagues. He also collaborated with Major League Baseball and St. Louis Cardinals officials on the creation of the Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities (RBI) Program in 1992 and subsequent hosting of the first World Series for the program.
Among his numerous distinguished awards are The A&E Biography Community Hero, Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame and the St. Louis American Salute to Excellence in Education Lifetime Achiever Award. Mathews is also a recipient of honorary doctorate degrees from Saint Louis University, Washington University in St. Louis, Webster University and the University of Missouri – St. Louis.
“If we are going to be the greatest country in the world, we have to start investing in our young people,” Mathews said. “That’s why I have no regrets of my 55 years. Millions of people remember those days when you were out there giving kids an opportunity when they didn’t have opportunities.”
