Paying Tribute to Sid Drell (1926-2016)

[SLAC | SLAC Softball ]

 

SLAC's Annual Theory vs Experiment Softball Game began in the 1950s as a Faculty versus Students game on the Stanford campus. Sid and Burt Richter brought this tradition to SLAC when it was formed and respectively led Theory and Experiment teams to compete for bragging rights in the Research Division.  

With superior numbers, Experiment prevailed far more often than Theory.  The 1st Theory win was in 1974, year of the November revolution.  Their 2nd win came in 1982 and their final win was in 2003.   In 2007, the competing Experiment and Theory teams merged to form the Research team and compete against a new Accelerator team  -- leading to lab-wide participation in SLAC's Annual Softball Game. 

The Drell-Richter Trophy was inaugurated in 1999 to recognize the significance of completing four decades of this annual tradition and pay tribute to Sid and Burt, who initiated and fostered the rivalry of competing Theory and Experiment teams.   The trophy represents Theory confronting Experiment at Accelerator Park. The home run fence is represented by a beam tree, a traditional symbol of the lab.

 

Photos and story links, featuring Sid, for some of the annual games follow.

              
   Sid savoring victory in the 1982 game



                      Sid pitching in the 1983 game     



                            Sid enjoys victory in the 1984 game      


                                                                  

Post-game celebration at Sid and Harriet's campus home

Inaugurating the Drell-Richter Trophy at the 1999 game
 
 
   
   
     Captain's Toast Photo   Haber Photo
Sid and Burt getting ready for the 2000 game  (top);
and with the Theory Team (bottom)
                    
More post-game celebrations at the Drell's campus home

 

And we have this comment from a report on the Drell Fest dinner in 1998:  
"
BJ pondered the meaning of a dinner honoring Sid held at a golf course. Musing, he posited that golf is a fixed target experiment while softball, Sid's real sport, is colliding beams."

 


November 2017
Mike Woods