Softball Australia’s Over 35 Men’s National Championship winners in 2023 will be awarded the Bob Harrow Memorial Trophy, as Softball Australia seeks to further honour the softball legacy of WBSC Softball Hall of Fame member Bob Harrow.
Bob Harrow, father of Laing Harrow - who steered Australia’s women’s softball team to fifth place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and led the Aussies to their second Men’s Softball World Championship in 2022, passed away in July 2022.
Softball Australia CEO Rosie Williams OBE announced the Bob Harrow Memorial Trophy at the conclusion of the 2023 Open Men’s National Championships at Hawker International Softball Centre in the ACT.
“The Harrow name continues to be front and centre within Australian softball,” said Williams. “Our hope is that the naming of the Bob Harrow Memorial Trophy will add to the extensive legacy and impact that Bob has, and continues to have.”
Bob was a WBSC Softball Hall of Fame member (2011), a Softball Australia Life Member (2010), a Softball Australia Coach of the Year in 2004 and 2009, and was the Head Coach of the Australian Men’s team that won the 2009 World Championship in Saskatoon, Canada.
He helped lay the foundations of what became the Aussie Steelers, and of Australia’s two World Championships to date. His vision for a national competition led to the introduction of Australia's National Fastpitch Softball League, which ran from 1989 until 1996 and became a stable of elite men’s and women’s softball talent for Australia's National Teams.
