Brian Allen Crawford • 1987–2005
Brian the Athlete
From T-Ball to Senior Night, athletics—especially baseball—form one of the strongest continuous threads in Brian's family photographic archive.
Baseball became closely associated with Brian and with #13, but it was not his only sport. The surviving archive also reflects basketball, martial arts and the ordinary competition and friendships that were part of growing up.
The Beginning
T-Ball & Childhood Sports
The athletic story begins in childhood.
Family photographs preserve Brian in T-ball and document sports as a recurring part of his early years. Baseball appears again and again, alongside basketball, martial arts and other childhood activities.
This early material matters because it shows that the athletic story did not begin with high school or with the Memorial. It was part of Brian's life while he was growing up.
Growing Up Through Sports
Baseball Through the Years
The family archive follows Brian from childhood baseball toward increasingly competitive play and, eventually, Prague High School.
Learning the Game
T-ball and youth baseball establish the beginning of a photographic record that continues through Brian's senior year.
Continuing to Compete
Baseball remained part of Brian's life as he grew older, including material preserved from youth teams and the Oklahoma Braves.
Prague Baseball
By the final years of the archive, Brian is documented batting, pitching, playing first base and wearing #13 for Prague.
This page will continue to expand as additional dated photographs, rosters, schedules and other contemporary records are identified.
Prague High School
Batting • Pitching • First Base • #13
The high-school photographs preserve multiple parts of Brian's baseball experience rather than a single posed portrait.
Pitching
Brian pitching for Prague High School during the final years of the family archive.
First Base
April 18, 2005 — one of the surviving photographs from Brian's final baseball season.
Senior Baseball
The Prague uniform and #13 became enduring visual links between Brian's athletic life and the Memorial that followed.
An Enduring Symbol
Brian's Number
#13 is visible throughout Brian's baseball story and later became one of the most recognizable symbols associated with his memory.
On this page, the number is presented first in its original context: Brian the athlete. The Memorial's later use of #13 belongs to the next chapter of the story.
Senior Year • 2005
The Final Baseball Season
The surviving 2005 photographs preserve Brian as an 18-year-old senior still participating in the game that had followed him from childhood.
March 23, 2005
Brian turned 18 during his senior year.
April 18, 2005
Prague High School baseball — first base.
Senior Night
Brian with Mom and Dad during his senior baseball season.
Family • Baseball • Senior Year
Senior Night
One photograph brings together several parts of Brian's story: family, baseball and the closing months of high school.
Brian is pictured with his mother and father during his senior baseball season. On this athletic page, the photograph marks the end of a timeline that began years earlier with T-ball.
Brian's life, however, was never defined by athletics alone.
More Than an Athlete
The Rest of Brian's Story
Baseball and #13 are enduring parts of Brian's memory, but they are only part of the person preserved in this archive.
Continue through Brian's life, music, friendships and the memories of those who knew him.