Brother Collett, sports editor emeritus for the Dayton Daily News and a member of Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame, joined Phi Delta Theta in 1939 while an undergraduate at The Ohio University.  He was a member of the Class of 1942.

The Nation’s Sports Writer
A native of Ironton, Ohio, Brother Collett became a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America in 1947, a year after concluding his service in the Air Force at Wright-Patterson.  Brother Collett joined the staff of the Dayton Journal, which was absorbed by Cox Newspapers (along with the Dayton Herald) in 1949.  Ritter was named the sports editor of the newly created Dayton Journal Herald, and continued in this position after the Dayton Daily News absorbed the Journal Herald.  While baseball was Ritter’s favorite sport to write about, he also covered the Olympic Games, college and professional basketball, college football, NFL championships and Super Bowls.  He retired from the Daily News in 1991 and at that time, he held the No. 1 card issued by the Baseball Writers Association of America that designated him as the being a member longer than any other active sportswriter.  

Though retired for a decade, Ritter was still seen around the newsroom, at the ballparks and on the pages of the paper. Two generations of Southwestern Ohioans grew-up reading Brother Collett’s daily column and even in retirement, he wrote a weekly column until shortly before his death.   It was an honor for our Fraternity that his final published article appeared in the Fall 2001 issue of The Scroll.

While writing about sports was his profession, opera was Brother Collett’s passion.  The Metropolitan Opera’s home at Lincoln Center (New York City) was a familiar place to Brother Collett.  During his career, he would make routine visits to The Met when covering sporting events in and around New York.  In retirement, he would make annual treks to New York to attend several operas during the course of a week.  It is suggested that even the most schooled opera aficionado couldn’t top our Brother when it came to his knowledge on the subject.

The National Pastime
For more than fifty years Brother Collett reported on sports teams in southwestern Ohio, including the Cincinnati Reds and Bengals.  Beginning in 1946, Ritter covered 44 consecutive World Series for his Dayton papers.  Our Brother Collett was one of the favorite writers for Major League Baseball players.  The players and coaches trusted Ritter and they knew he was an honest man.  Though well liked by all in baseball, Ritter was not afraid to criticize when the need to do so was clear to him.  The first to do so publicly, his not-so-flattering comments about then-Reds owner Marge Schott caused his dining privileges at the Reds’ ballpark to be revoked. 

“Ritter always stressed that individual achievement, personal commitment and excellence in service to others was what made our national pastime so great and so loved,” noted a Phi during Brother Collett’s memorial service.
Ritter was one of the founders of the Fred Hutchinson Scholarship Fund for cancer research and he was instrumental in the founding of Major League Baseball’s Hutch Award that is awarded annually to the player who has overcome great adversity during his lifetime.  Brother Collett was a member of Phi Delta Theta’s Lou Gehrig Memorial Award Committee since its inception in 1955, serving as chairman of the Gehrig Award for the past four decades.  The Gehrig Award is given annually to recognize the on and off the field accomplishments of a Major League Baseball Player, focusing on a player’s involvement within his community and philanthropic ventures. 

Brother Collett is the author of seven books (including the Fraternity’s “In The Bond – Phi Delta Theta at 150”) and served as a member of the Honors Court of the National Football Foundation, the selection committee for the College Football Hall of Fame. 

A Lifetime of Commitment and Contributions
Brother Collett and his wife, Jean, have been longtime supporters of the Dayton-based AIM for the Handicapped, and Jean has served the organization as its president.  Ritter had also sponsored the Little 500’s Phi Delta Theta Bicycle Team for many years. His two decades of contact with the Phi Delt Bike Team often caused Ritter to marvel at how the Fraternity continued to foster many bonds of friendships, even those that spanned several generations.  Ritter’s connection with Phi Delta Theta began with his introduction to the Fraternity his freshman year at OU, and in the sixty-two years that followed, that connection would only grow stronger. 

In August of 1992, Brother Collett received the J. G. Taylor Spink Award and was inducted into the writer’s wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.  Brother Collett received the Phi Delta Theta Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1995 and he was presented with the Fraternity’s Legion of Honor at the Sesquicentennial Convention in 1998.  He is the only member of the Fraternity to receive both of these honors.  In recent years, Ritter had become one of the Fraternity’s most sought Founders Days speakers, and if he was available to attend an event, he would do so.

Brother Collett entered the Chapter Grand in September of 2001.

“The same hand that shook those of many of the world’s greatest sports heroes took many more in the hand of friendship,” said Conrad Thiede during Brother Collett’s eulogy. “Ritter showed us all that success, and especially in friendship, is in the way you walk the paths of life on a daily basis, not simply in getting rich or rising high to fame.  It is being big of heart, being broad in mind, being faithful to friends and family, and being kind to a stranger.”

Brother Collett’s wife Jean has remained in Dayton.  They have two children, Jerry of Long Island, N.Y. and Rhea of Dayton.

[From the Dayton Daily News:09.27.2001, Mike Peters]