One of Caltech oldest living alumni, 97-year-old former Beaver Varsity captain Mel Levet took to the mound to throw out a ceremonial first pitch Friday as the Caltech baseball team hosted Occidental College.
Levet was a three-year member of the Varsity team after earning his freshman numeral in the 1934-35 season, earning the team’s top honor – the Rawlings Baseball Trophy – in his senior year, during which he played every inning of every game.
Levet still has the ball from the game he played with Occidental those many decades past.
The nonagenarian spent the morning being interviewed for an oral history being created about the history of Caltech.
“His memory of his school days is amazing — he just sent me a list a page and a half long listing the faculty he took classes from at Caltech,†wrote Deborah Williams-Hedges, Caltech’s Senior Media Relations Manager, in an earlier email.
Levet was scheduled to be accompanied by his son Boyd, daughter Jan, son-in-law John, and granddaughter Hillary.
The Caltech Beavers lost yesterday’s game to Occidental. What was a tightly contested game through the first six innings eventually became an 11-1 Oxy victory in eight, with the Tigers improving to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in SCIAC play while the Beavers drop to 0-7 (0-4).