158 days required to qualify for the five-year minimum for the pension. On August 12, Atlanta Braves owner William Bartholomay agreed to sign him as an adviser. On February 26, 1969, the league and the players' association altered the pension requirements, with one of the requirements stating that any player that had played at least four years could qualify for the pension, including players that had played during 1959. At any rate, Paige worked the year as an assistant trainer. Bowie Kuhn replaced William Eckert as the Commissioner of Baseball in 1969. In the wake of Ted Williams' 1966 Hall of Fame induction speech urging the induction of Negro leaguers, and on the recommendation of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, Kuhn empowered a ten-man committee to sift through hundreds of names and nominate the first group of four Negro league players to go to the Hall of Fame. Because Paige pitched in Greensboro in 1966, he would not have been eligible for enshrinement until 1971, as players have to be out of professional baseball for at least five years before they can be elected. All of the men on the committee agreed that Paige had to be the first Negro league player to get elected. On February 9, 1971, Kuhn announced that Paige would be the first member of the Negro wing of the Hall of Fame. Because many in the press saw the suggestion of a "Negro wing" as separate-but-equal and denounced Major League Baseball for the idea, by the time that Paige's induction came around on August 9, Kuhn convinced the owners and the private trust of the Hall of Fame that there should be no separate wing after all. It was decided that all who had been chosen and all who would be chosen would get their plaques in the "regular" section of the Hall of Fame. Paige took a job with the Tulsa Oilers minor league team in 1973 as their pitching coach. During the mid-to-late 1970s he finally slowed down his traveling, making only occasional personal appearances at mostly minor league stadiums and banquets. In 1980, Paige was named vice-president of the Triple-A Springfield Cardinals, although it was mostly an honorary position. Paige was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2001. Personal life On October 26, 1934, Paige married his longtime girlfriend Janet Howard. They separated a few years later