Seated here, II: the Fort Wayne Baseball Hall of Fame

Founded 16 October 1961 — carried today by the Northeast Indiana Baseball Association

The founding: The city's baseball oldtimers, gathered since the 1940s, reorganized as the Fort Wayne Oldtimers Baseball Association, and at their meeting of 16 October 1961 co-chairmen Red Carrington and Elmer Wagner announced the formation of a Fort Wayne Baseball Hall of Fame, naming Lou Holterman and James "Hub" Hart its first two inductees. The association worked through the 1970s and 1980s, fell into hiatus in the early 1990s as its most active members died, and resurfaced in 1998 under Bob Parker, reviving the inductions. In 2003 it took its present name, the Northeast Indiana Baseball Association (NEIBA), which holds an annual Hall of Fame and Awards Banquet and publishes a quarterly, Line Drives.

The documented inductees: The hall's full roster is not published in the record reached — the expand note names the settling source — but its banquets document the line across the decades: Dottie Wiltse Collins, inducted in 1999 as one of the first two women in the hall; Dottie Schroeder, Maxine Kline and Vivian Kellogg, with Joe McComb and umpire Feroen Betts, in 2002; the former major leaguers Steve Hargan and Brent Gaff, coach Bill Jones and the former Daisy Katie Horstman in 2003, at a banquet held in the Kruse World War II Museum in Auburn, where the association's museum home then stood; TinCaps president Mike Nutter, Huntington coach Mike Frame and Fort Wayne native Mike Marchesano in 2019; and Josh VanMeter — the first Fort Wayne-area native to play for the TinCaps — with Scott Gidley and Randy Miller in 2026. A Fort Wayne institution with a regional name since 2003, printed at its true shape: founded here, governed here, its hall of record the banquet roll.

Sources:

1. Northeast Indiana Baseball Association, the association's own history (neibaseball.org) — the 1961 formation, the first inductees, the hiatus and 1998 revival, and the 2003 renaming.
2. The Waynedale News, 2002–2003 — the 2002 and 2003 banquets and classes, and the Kruse Museum home.
3. Fort Wayne TinCaps / MiLB, 17 May 2019, and WPTA, June 2026 — the 2019 and 2026 classes.
4. Dottie Wiltse Collins's record (en.wikipedia.org, from her obituary record) — her 1999 induction as one of the hall's first two women.