By Maria Carter, KCUR
Kansas City, MO. – Kansas City baseball legend Buck O'Neil will be posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom - the nation's highest civilian award.
The award will be presented to O'Neil's family next week in a White House ceremony. O'Neil died earlier this year at age 94.
A White House statement said O'Neil represented excellence and determination both on and off the baseball field" as a player and manager in the Negro Leagues.
O'Neil became Major League Baseball's first black coach and was a co-founder of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City.
He earned worldwide fame in 1994 after historian Ken Burns featured him in the documentary "Baseball."
Last year, O'Neil fell one vote short of gaining entry to Baseball Hall of Fame, causing an uproar among many fans and supporters.
"But he also went on really to have great contributions beyond the baseball field," noted Bob Kendrick, a spokesman for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. "So I think in his mind this would have been the greatest thing to happen in terms of honors for him."
The museum is raising money to build a research center names after O'Neil. Kendrick says he hopes this recognition will help raise awareness to secure the needed $15 million.
The Medal of Freedom is the nation's highest civilian honor, putting O'Neil in the ranks of diplomats, Nobel laureates, and astronauts. He's one of ten recipients this year; others include bluesman B.B. King, author David McCollough, and former Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta.
"We're naturally very proud that our chairman and our very good friend Buck O'Neil to receive such a prestigious honor," Kendrick added. "But it also makes us wish that he was here, so he could actually be there to accept the honor."