Editing Birch Bayh (section)

== Early life ==
=== Youth and education ===
Bayh was born in [[Terre Haute, Indiana]], the son of Leah Ward (née Hollingsworth), a teacher, and [[Birch Bayh (coach)|Birch Bayh]], an intercollegiate coach and athletic director. His ancestry included ancestors who were German, English, [[Scotch-Irish Americans|Scotch-Irish]], and Scottish. Bayh spent summers on his grandparents' farm in [[Shirkieville, Indiana]], where he later lived. As a student at New Goshen (Fayette Township) High School, young Birch took part in speaking contests, played baseball and basketball, and won the Indiana [[4-H]] Tomato Championship.<ref name="Cruikshank">Cruikshank, Kate. ''[http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=8621 The Art of Leadership; A Companion to an Exhibition from the Senatorial Papers of Birch Bayh] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121228194809/http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=8621 |date=December 28, 2012 }}''. (Indiana University Libraries, 2007)</ref>

From 1946 to 1948, Bayh served as a [[Military Police Corps (United States)|Military Police Corps]] with the United States Army in occupied Germany following World War II.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2lsbAAAAIBAJ&pg=4387,4776683&dq=birch+bayh&hl=en |title=82German Families Fed|work=The Pittsburgh Press|via=Google News Archive Search}}</ref> He excelled in sports, competing as a [[Golden Gloves]] boxer in college<ref name="Household">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/02/15/archives/birch-bayh-isnt-a-household-wordyet-senator-birch-bayh.html |title=Birch Bayh Isn't a Household Word—Yet |first=Robert |last=Sherrill |newspaper=The New York Times |date=February 15, 1970 }}</ref> and taking part in two Major League Baseball tryouts.<ref name="Goodheart">{{cite web |url=http://www.birchbayh.com/id2.html |title=Legislative Summary |website=www.birchbayh.com}}</ref> Bayh graduated from the [[Purdue University]] School of Agriculture in 1951, where he was a member of the [[Alpha Tau Omega]] social fraternity and senior class president.<ref name="Cruikshank" /> In 1951, he won Alpha Tau Omega's highest individual collegiate award, the Thomas Arkle Clark Award. He married Marvella Hern in August 1952, and took courses at [[Indiana State University]] in Terre Haute for two years while also running the family farm.<ref name="SenatePapers">{{cite web |url=https://libraries.indiana.edu/ |title=Indiana University Libraries |website=libraries.indiana.edu}}</ref>

=== Indiana legislature and 1962 U.S. Senate campaign ===
[[File:Birch and Evan Bayh 1962.jpg|thumb|Bayh with son Evan Bayh, wife Marvella and an unidentified woman, 1962.]]
Bayh's political career began at age 26 with his election to the [[Indiana House of Representatives]] in 1954, where he served two years as Speaker and four years as Democratic [[Floor Leader]]. At the time, Bayh was the youngest Speaker in Indiana state history.<ref name="Household" /> While he served in the legislature, Bayh studied law at [[Indiana University Maurer School of Law|Indiana University's School of Law]], received his [[Bachelor of Laws|LL.B.]] in 1960, and was admitted to the Indiana Bar in 1961.<ref name="Biography">{{cite web |url=http://www.birchbayh.com/id1.html |title=Biography |website=www.birchbayh.com}}</ref>

At age 34, Bayh was elected to the United States Senate in the [[1962 United States Senate elections|1962 midterm elections]], defeating 18-year incumbent [[Homer E. Capehart]]. Capehart was outspoken on the threat of Soviet nuclear missiles being placed in [[Cuba]], and was buoyed by the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] of that October. Bayh's disadvantage was dramatized in the opening scene of the 2000 film [[Thirteen Days (film)|''Thirteen Days'']], as President [[John F. Kennedy]] rattles a newspaper and asks an aide, "You see this goddamn Capehart stuff?" and the aide responds, "Bayh's going to lose".<ref>{{cite web |last=Self |first=David |title=13 Days script by David Self |url=http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/13_days.html |work=The Daily Script|access-date=December 6, 2012}}</ref>

Bayh's success was attributed to a vigorous campaign of 300 speeches between [[Labor Day]] and the election,<ref name="Cruikshank" /> and a catchy campaign jingle that taught voters the correct pronunciation of his last name:<ref name=":4" />

{{blockquote | <poem>Hey, look him over,
He's your kind of guy.
His first name is Birch,
His last name is Bayh.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,829383,00.html |title=Nation: Indiana: Codgerism |magazine=Time |date=November 16, 1962 |via=content.time.com}}</ref></poem>}}

For more than four decades&nbsp;— throughout his entire career in politics&nbsp;— Bayh continued to manage the growing of [[Maize|corn]] and [[soybean]]s on his family farm.<ref name="Goodheart" />