By Jake Balmer
The Montage
Reprinted with permission
There are few recent graduates of St. Louis Community College who exemplify the value of a degree from STLCC better than Justin Tolliver.
Tolliver, a 2014 graduate of the graphic design program, directed the documentary “The St. Louis Browns: The Team that Baseball Forgot,” which aired on KETC-TV (Channel 9) in March and will air again in July.
St. Louis has happily supported the Cardinals for decades, but from 1901 to 1953, the city also played host to the Browns, known primarily for their heavy losses and subsequent promotional antics, which included trotting out players like 3-foot-7-inch Eddie Gaedel and one-armed Pete Gray to bat.
Despite — or in some cases because of — their hardships, the Browns still had a moderate number of fans who endure even today, according to the St. Louis Browns Historical Society.
Tolliver works at HLK, a digital design agency in St. Louis, which began working with the Historical Society in 2014 to improve its website. That’s how the idea to make the documentary got started.
“I’m not really a huge sports fan, but I do appreciate the drama,” said Tolliver, who took classes on both the Meramec and Forest Park campuses of STLCC.
“To me (the Browns) are almost more of a human interest story, in how they really weren’t very good, but there are fans who stuck with them when they were here and even 60 years after they left.
If they were still around, I think I would probably root for them.”
STLCC was Tolliver’s springboard to HLK, as he enrolled after already completing a bachelor’s degree in film production at Webster University.
Tolliver credits the portfolio design class he took at Meramec, taught by Michael Swoboda, as key in his career development. Swoboda could tell early on what Tolliver could accomplish.
“What Justin was good at was iteration — coming up with a strong concept and making version after version as he builds towards an appropriate or dynamic solution,” Swoboda said. “He wasn’t afraid to experiment, to work hard (and) to collaborate with others, which are exactly the kinds of things professional designers do.”
While at STLCC, Tolliver also served as layout editor at The Scene student newspaper at Forest Park.
There were some challenges in making the documentary, largely centering around getting in contact with enough interviewees, many of them of advanced age. That includes Chuck Stevens, the oldest living former pro baseball player, born in 1918.
Tolliver also took Don Larsen, predominantly of New York Yankee fame but who pitched his first pro season as a Brown, to the former site of Sportsman’s Park in North St. Louis, although footage of that meeting did not make it into the film.
To Tolliver, these were minor hurdles, and he said reception to the movie has been great.
“I love hearing people say that this movie meant something to them,” he said. “St. Louis has so much interesting history, and the Browns and the people involved with them will always be a part of it.”
“The St. Louis Browns: The Team that Baseball Forgot” is available to watch online through the KETC-TV, also known as Nine Network, at ninenet.org.