Longtime Nashville baseball historian Skip Nipper, who had battled cancer, died on Oct. 21, according to the Nashville Old Timers Baseball Association.
Nipper, who was 76, was a past president of the NOTBA and spent many years on the board of directors.
Nipper, who played football and baseball at Stratford High, and his father, Virgil, created the Virgil Nipper Co. in 1976, a manufacturer’s sporting goods representative agency. Virgil Nipper played minor league baseball in Nashville.
Skip Nipper's uncle, Walter Nipper, owned Nashville Sporting Goods located on 8th Avenue.
Skip Nipper was a historical adviser to the Nashville Stars, a group working to bring a Major League Baseball franchise to Nashville.
Nipper, also a member of the Society of American Baseball Research, spent his life following baseball on all levels in Nashville and throughout Tennessee. In 2007, he published his book "Baseball in Nashville" and dedicated it to his father. He launched a blog and website after his book was published.
"Skip was (a) true historian for baseball, especially Sulphur Dell and the Nashville Vols," Nashville Sounds founder and former Vanderbilt baseball coach Larry Schmittou said. "He knew Nashville baseball better than anybody I know. He followed the old Southern League and players from it. He was a good writer, a good interviewer. He had a podcast that was always very informative and entertaining. He will definitely be missed because, on top of all that, he was just a really good guy."
Nipper's book detailed Nashville's first professional baseball team, which was organized in 1885, and traced the sport's roots to 1862, when Union soldiers during the Civil War camped along the Cumberland River and taught the game to local citizens.
He often spoke to civic clubs throughout the South about baseball and was a frequent contributor to The Tennessean. In 2015, as the Nashville Sounds' First Horizon Park was set to open, Nipper wrote a series for The Tennessean on the franchise and local pro baseball in general.
In 2024, Nipper received the Achievement Award from the Metropolitan Historical Commission.
"Whenever we would have board meetings, whatever Skip was asked to do, he did," Nashville Old Timers Baseball Association president Alan Purdy said. "He loved the Old Timers. He loved telling stories. I told the board today when I emailed them the one thing I will miss is hearing Skip's stories. It was amazing how much he retained about Nashville area baseball. He knew so many people and touched so many people. He was a great advocate for the game we love and he was a better human."
Funeral arrangements are pending.
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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Longtime Nashville baseball historian Skip Nipper dies at 76