AUBURN, Ala. – Lucinda Cannon fondly remembers childhood trips to Florida for Major League Baseball spring training with her parents and her brother, Jimmy.
"Daddy and Jimmy loved baseball, and loved being a part of it, loved going on those trips," she recalled.
Lucinda's father, William J. Samford, served as Auburn's general counsel for 17 years. Her grandfather, Thomas D. Samford, was a member of the Board of Trustees for nearly four decades. Samford Hall is named for her great-grandfather, William James Samford, who served as Alabama's governor at the turn of the 20th century.
"Auburn's been a part of our heritage for a long time," she said. "It goes back, not only my daddy, but my granddaddy and his daddy. We do bleed orange and blue. We've been down here to sports from the time I was a little girl."
Like his grandfather, Jimmy Samford served on the Auburn University Board of Trustees, from 1987 until his death in 2003 at age 53.
Jimmy passed along his love of baseball to his nephew, Lucinda's son, Race Cannon, continuing the family tradition of spring training trips to Florida.
"We saw Bo Jackson many times and always hollered 'War Eagle!'" Race remembered. "He always responded. He's been a great ambassador for Auburn sports."
Jimmy Samford's love of baseball and love of Auburn led him to spearhead the drive to renovate Plainsman Park in the 1990s. On a fact-finding tour of big league ballparks such as Fenway Park and Camden Yards, Jimmy took his nephew with him.
"I didn't know it was a research trip," Race said. "He brought a lot of those elements back into the design here."
Bricks like in Baltimore and Chicago. The Green Monster from Boston. Following its 1998 upgrade, Plainsman Park earned nationwide admiration as one of college baseball's finest venues.
Expressing gratitude for Samford's leadership, Auburn renamed the facility Samford Stadium-Hitchcock Field at Plainsman Park in May of 2003, seven months before he passed away.
Lucinda and Race oversee the W. James Samford Jr. foundation, which continued Jimmy Samford's legacy of generosity and love of Auburn baseball with a leadership gift to the player development facility under construction beyond the right field wall.
"We've tried to be true to him with his foundation, with the things he loved, baseball being one of them," Lucinda said. "We like our baseball team. We like our coach. We're very proud that we went to Omaha last year, and expect to keep going back out there. We want to be able to attract the best players that we can, and hopefully this will be something that will attract them to want to be here."
Race pointed out that facility enhancement is an ongoing process.
"There's no one thing that can be done where it's done and you hang your hat up and you say this is what it needs to be, because other schools are constantly improving too," he said. "You'll get leapfrogged pretty soon. This went from the best stadium in the SEC to down lower in a matter of 15 years or so because everybody else is working. We want one project to get done and another one to get started. Never resting on laurels."
That's why the Cannons encourage others who love Auburn baseball to participate by investing in the program's future.
"It feels like a special place," Race said of the stadium that bears his uncle's name. "I like that the university gives it focus and attention, and people who are supporting it do the same thing. The reason we stay involved in it is to continue leadership in that. Hopefully, our involvement continues to spur others' involvement.
"We have a lot of talent. It's a serious program. The more attention that we can give it, the more serious it gets. The more serious it gets, the more attention it will get. We want it to spiral up and have Auburn be known, not only for football and basketball but for baseball, too."
Honoring Jimmy Samford's legacy, Lucinda and Race have philanthropically supported many projects across campus: the School of Nursing, the Raymond J. Harbert College of Business, scholarships for political science majors. And one of Jimmy's first loves, baseball.
"There's a proper balance between athletics and academics," Race said. "Auburn consistently strikes that balance very well, so we try to do the same thing."
"We're very proud of what we do," Lucinda said. "We think Jimmy would be very proud of how we're spending his money, paying it forward.
"We want to be a part of the future as well as a part of the past."
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer