1. sports
2. football

BSTM
R
Blake
Griffin
L.A. Clippers’
Human Highlight
Film
Celebrating Black
History Month
The Negro Leagues
Photo Gallery
Joseph Bramlett &
Shasta Averyhardt
Make Golfing History
February 2011 Vol. 2
HBCU
Report
1970s Heisman
Trophy Winners
“Jim” Plunkett
Johnny Rodgers
Archie Griffin
“Tony” Dorsett
Earl Campbell
Billy Sims
Charles White
Yolanda
Holder
The
“Walking Diva”
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE
COVER STORY
40
Spotlight on Blake Griffin: The L.A. Clippers’ Human Highlight Film
SPECIAL
1970s Heisman Trophy Winners
6
“Jim” Plunkett
7
Johnny Rodgers
8
Archie Griffin
9
11
12
“Tony” Dorsett
Earl Campbell
Billy Sims
13
Charles White
BLACK HISTORY
16
The Negro Leagues
17
Atlanta Black Crackers
17
Baltimore Black Sox
17
Baltimore Elite Giants
18
Birmingham Black Barons
19
Brooklyn Royal Giants
21
Chattanooga Black Lookouts
21
Chicago American Giants
21
Cincinnati Tigers
22
Cleveland Buckeyes
22
Dayton Marcos
22
Detroit Stars
23
Detroit Wolves
23
Hilldale
26
Homestead Grays
27
Houston Eagles
27
28
28
28
31
31
31
32
32
33
34
36
37
38
38
Indianapolis ABC’s
Indianapolis Clowns
Jacksonville Red Caps
Kansas City Monarchs
Memphis Red Sox
Montgomery Grey
Newark Eagles
New York Black Yankees
New York Cubans
Nashville Elite Giants
Philadelphia Stars
Pittsburgh Crawfords
Saint Louis Stars
Seattle Steelheads
Washington/Wilmington Potomacs
FEATURES
PHOTO GALLERY
4
Joseph Bramlett, Second Black Golfer, Joins the
Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour
5
Former Jackson State University Golfer, Shasta
Averyhardt, is the First Black Member on the Ladies
Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour Since 2001
MARATHON
14
Yolanda Holder: The “Walking Diva”
15
Yolanda Holder: Breaks 2 Guinness World Records
HISTORICAL BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
44
45
46
47
48
Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association [CIAA]
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference [MEAC]
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association [SIAC]
Southwestern Athletic Conference [SWAC]
Other HBCUs
Cover photo by
wikipedia
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© Copyright 2004 BSTMLLC
Photo Gallery
Winter Garden, Florida - On the final hole of the
final round of the final stage of the PGA Tour’s
qualifying school, Joseph Bramlett delivered a
putt that had him roaring, pumping his fist and
high-fiving his caddie in celebration. Bramlett
earned a PGA Tour card, joining Woods as the
only players on tour of Black descent. Bramlett
shot a 4-under 68 on the Crooked Cat Course at
Orange County National, rallying from 33rd at
the start of the day to make the cutoff for a tour
card by two strokes. He finished 11 under at the
grueling, six-round final stage of qualifying school
to tie for 16th. The top 25 scores and ties earned
PGA Tour cards for 2011. The next 50 received
cards on the Nationwide Tour.
Photo provided by StandfordPhoto.com
Joseph Bramlett, Second Black Golfer, Joins the
Professional Golfers’ Association
(PGA) Tour
Photo Gallery
Former Jackson State University Golfer, Shasta
Averyhardt, is the First Black Member on the Ladies
Professional Golf Association (LPGA)
Tour Since 2001
Shasta Averyhardt won nine tournaments while playing for the
Jackson State University Tigers. She’s now on 2011’s LPGA
Tour. She earned partial exemption on the nation’s best
women’s golf tour at the tour’s qualifying school. She’s the
first Black member on the tour in a decade. A Michigan native,
she shot a 4-over-par 364 and finished in a tie for 22nd place
at the five-round LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament in Daytona
Beach, Florida. Her final-round 79 was her worst score of the
week and could put her back thousands of dollars. If she would
have shot 77, she would have finished inside the top 20 and
would have received full exemption on the tour. She will be
able to play in at least one quarter of the 25 or so tournaments
on the LPGA Tour. Averyahrdt is the first Black member on the
tour since LaRee Suggs in 2001. She is just the fourth Black
player in the 60-year history of the LPGA.
1970s Heisman Trophy
Winners
The Heisman Trophy, the highest individual award in American
college football, has been awarded 74 times since its creation in
1935, including 73 individual winners and one two-time winner.
The trophy is given annually to the most outstanding college
football player in the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA), and is awarded by the Downtown Athletic Club at an
annual ceremony in New York City.
Balloting for the Heisman is selective. The fifty states of the U.S.
are split into six regions, and six regional representatives are
selected to appoint voters in their states (the regions include the
Far West, the Mid Atlantic, Mid West, North East, South, and South
West). Each region has 145 media votes, for a total of 870 votes.
In addition, all previous Heisman winners may vote, and one final
vote is counted through public balloting. The Heisman ballots
contain a 3-2-1 point system, in which each ballot ranks the voter’s
top three players and awards them three points for a first-place
vote, two points for a second-place vote, and one point for a thirdplace vote. The points are tabulated, and the player with the
highest total of points across all ballots wins the Heisman Trophy.
“Jim” Plunkett
James William “Jim” Plunkett is a former quarterback who played
college football for Stanford University, where he won the Heisman
Trophy, and professionally for three National Football League
teams: the New England Patriots, San Francisco 49ers and
Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders. He led the Raiders to two Super
Bowl victories (XV and XVIII). He is the only eligible quarterback
to start (and win) two Super Bowls without being inducted into the
Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
Plunkett was born December 5, 1947, in San Jose, California, to
Mexican-American parents with an Irish-German greatgrandfather on his paternal side. His father was a news vendor
afflicted with progressive blindness, who had to support his
blind wife along with their three children. In an effort to aid the
family’s financial situation, Plunkett worked a series of odd jobs
while growing up, including serving as a gas station attendant,
grocery store clerk and as a laborer on construction sites. In an
acknowledgement of his Mexican roots, he chose the fictional
character of Zorro as his hero.
Prior to attending William C. Overfelt High School, then James
Lick High School in East San Jose, California, Plunkett showed
his talent for tossing the football by winning a throwing contest at
the age of 14 with a heave of over 60 yards. Once he arrived at
the school, he played quarterback and defensive end for the
football team, with his athletic ability also helping him compete in
basketball, baseball, track and wrestling.
Upon entering Stanford University, he endured a rough freshman
campaign after being weakened by a thyroid operation. His
performance originally caused head coach John Ralston to switch
him to defensive end, but Plunkett was adamant in remaining at
quarterback, throwing 500 to 1,000 passes every day to polish
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his arm. He earned the opportunity to start in 1968, and in his
first game, completed 10 of 13 passes for 277 yards and four
touchdowns, and never relinquished his hold on the starting
spot. His arrival ushered in an era of wide-open passing, prostyle offenses in the Pac-8, a trend that has continued to the
present.
His successful junior campaign saw him set league records for
touchdown passes (20), passing yards (2,673) and total offense
(2,786). This display of offensive firepower led Washington State
coach Jim Sweeney to call Plunkett “The best college football
player I’ve ever seen.” After his junior year, Plunkett became
eligible to enter the NFL draft, which would have given him a
chance to earn a large roster bonus for himself and his mother.
He passed up the chance at a paycheck, however, so that he
could set a good example to the chicano youth he had tutored. In
his senior year, he led Stanford to their first Rose Bowl appearance
since 1952, a game that ended with a 27-17 Stanford victory over
the favored Ohio State Buckeyes.
With eighteen passing and three rushing touchdowns added to
his 2,715 passing yards on the year (which broke his own
conference record), Plunkett was awarded the 1970 Heisman
Trophy, given annually to the top college football player in the
country. Though he had set so many records on the season, 1970
had been the “Year of the Quarterback,” and Plunkett beat out
Notre Dame’s Joe Theismann and Archie Manning of Ole Miss to
win the award. He was the first Latino to win the Heisman Trophy.
Aside from the Heisman, he captured the Maxwell Award for the
nation’s best quarterback, and was named player of the year by
February 2011
United Press International, The Sporting News, and SPORT
magazine. In addition, the American College Football Coaches
Association designated him as their Offensive Player of the Year.
He became the second multiple recipient of the W.J. Voit Memorial
Trophy, awarded each year to the outstanding football player on
the Pacific Coast. Plunkett received the Voit Trophy in both 1969
and 1970.
His excellent arm strength and precision made him attractive to
pro teams that relied much more heavily on the passing game
than most college teams of the late 1960s. In 1971, he was drafted
with the first overall pick in the NFL draft by the New England
Patriots (the team was still known as the Boston Patriots at the
time of the draft; the name change
to New England did not become
official until March 21st of that year).
Plunkett owns the distinction of
being the only player of Hispanic
heritage to be drafted with the first
overall pick in the NFL draft. The
Patriots finished the season at 6-8,
fourth place in the AFC East. His first
game was a 20-6 victory over the
Oakland Raiders, the Patriots’ first
regular-season contest at Schaefer
Stadium. New England also
influenced
the
AFC
East
championship race, as Plunkett’s
88-yard fourth-quarter touchdown
pass to former Stanford teammate
Randy Vataha on the final day of the
season dropped the Baltimore
Colts to a 10-4 record and into
second place in the division behind
the 10-3-1 Miami Dolphins. Two
weeks before the Patriots defeated
the Colts, Plunkett engineered a 3413 victory over the Dolphins.
victories, including the first-ever victory by a wild card team in the
Super Bowl, defeating the Philadelphia Eagles 27–10 in Super
Bowl XV. Throwing for 261 yards and three touchdowns, Plunkett
was named the game’s Most Valuable Player (MVP).
Subsequently, he has the distinction of being the first minority to
quarterback a team to a Super Bowl victory and the only Hispanic
to be named Super Bowl MVP. In addition to this, he became the
second of four players to win the Heisman Trophy and Super
Bowl MVP, Roger Staubach before him and Marcus Allen, and
Desmond Howard after him.
After returning to the backup role in 1983, Plunkett again
assumed starting duties, this time after an injury to Wilson. The
Raiders advanced to Super Bowl
XVIII, where they defeated the
Washington Redskins, 38-9.
Plunkett completed 16 of 25
passes for 172 yards and a
touchdown in the game.
He spent most of his last three
seasons either injured or as a
backup. He retired after the 1986
season, and is currently the fourthleading passer in Raiders history.
Plunkett does a post-game radio
show of Raiders games, and is a
co-host of several Raiders TV
shows.
Johnny Rodgers
Johnny Steven Rodgers, a former
college football player, was voted
the University of Nebraska’s “Player
of the Century” and the winner of
the 1972 Heisman Trophy.
He was born July 5, 1951, in
Omaha, Nebraska.
His touchdowns dropped, and his
interceptions rose in the following
seasons. He struggled with injuries
and a shaky offensive line for the
rest of his tenure in New England.
By 1975, the Patriots drafted
quarterback Steve Grogan, who
would become a fixture with the club for 16 seasons.
Nicknamed “The Jet” for his rapid
acceleration and speed on the
field, Rodgers was voted high
school Athlete of the Year as a
player for Omaha’s Tech High School.
In 1976, Plunkett was traded to the San Francisco 49ers, and led
the team to a 6-1 start before faltering to an 8-6 record. After a 59 season in 1977, the 49ers released him during the 1978
preseason.
Plunkett then joined the Oakland Raiders in 1978, serving in a
reserve capacity over the next two years, throwing no passes in
1978, and just 15 passes in 1979. However, five weeks into the
1980 NFL season, his career took a major turn when starting
quarterback Dan Pastorini fractured his leg in a game against the
Kansas City Chiefs. The 33-year-old Plunkett came off the bench
to relieve Pastorini, throwing five interceptions in a 31-17 loss.
The Raiders, however, believing that back-up Marc Wilson did
not have the experience they wanted, called on Plunkett to start
for the remainder of the year. In his first game as a starter, he
completed 11 of 14 passes with a touchdown and no interceptions.
He guided Oakland to nine victories in eleven games and a
playoff berth as a wild card. He led the Raiders to four playoff
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As a player with the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers, he
served as a punt return specialist, pass receiver, and running
back. He broke virtually every offensive team record, was twice
named to the College Football All-America Team, and won the
Heisman Trophy and the Walter Camp Award in 1972 for most
outstanding player in college football in the United States.
In his three years with the Cornhuskers, the versatile Rodgers
established an all-purpose NCAA yardage record of 5,586.
Former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne, who served as
Nebraska’s offensive coordinator in the early 1970s, wrote in
his 1985 book, More Than Winning, that Rodgers had the greatest
ability to return punts of any player he ever saw. Likewise, College
Football News has described him as “the greatest kick returner
in college football history.” Rodgers returned seven punts for
touchdowns in his college career, a feat that stood as the NCAA
record for decades.
In 1971, in what has become known as college football’s “Game
February 2011
7
of the Century,” Rodgers returned a punt 72 yards to score the
first touchdown which set the tone for his team’s 35-31 victory
over the University of Oklahoma Sooners. ESPN describes his
performance as “unforgettable.” However, some observers
consider his greatest single performance to be in the 1973 Orange
Bowl, when he led his team to a 40-6 victory over the University
of Notre Dame. Rodgers ran for three touchdowns, caught a 50yard pass for another touchdown, and threw a 54-yard touchdown
pass to a teammate. He did all this before leaving the game with
21 minutes still to play.
Although a 1973 first-round draft pick of the San Diego Chargers,
Rodgers signed a lucrative contract to play for the Montreal
Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL), where he was
affectionately known as the “ordinary superstar” (a nickname he
coined). Always a fan favorite, he won the CFL’s Most Outstanding
Rookie Award in 1973. In his four years with the Alouettes, he
won the Jeff Russel Memorial
Trophy twice and “AllCanadian” All-Star honors. He
helped lead his team to a Grey
Cup (CFL) Championship in
1974.
In 1977, Rodgers returned to
the United States, signing with
the Chargers. Hamstring
injuries kept him out of the
game for most of his first NFL
season. The following year, a
freak knee injury sustained
during team practice ended his
career after only 17 NFL games.
In 1999, Rodgers was selected
to the Nebraska All-Century
Football Team, via fan poll, and
named to the All-Century Nebraska football team by Gannett News
Service. In 2000, he was voted the University of Nebraska’s
“Player of the Century” by Sports Illustrated. In 2002, he was
named to the Athlon Sports Nebraska All-Time Team. He is one
of only sixteen Nebraska Cornhuskers to have his jersey retired
by the team.
In 1999, he was selected as a receiver by Sports Illustrated in
their “NCAA Football All-Century Team.” Other receivers selected
were Jerry Rice, Mike Ditka, Pat Richter, Tim Brown, Raghib Ismail,
Don Hutson, Bennie Oosterbaan, Howard Twilley, Ted Kwalick,
Anthony Carter, Keith Jackson and Desmond Howard. He was
one of six Nebraska Cornhuskers on this All-Century Team 85
man roster. The others were Rich Glover, Dave Rimington, Dean
Steinkuhler, Tommie Frazier and Aaron Taylor.
In 1999, he was selected as a starting receiver to the Walter
Camp Football Foundation College Football All-Century Team.
Other receivers selected were Fred Biletnikoff, Tim Brown, Bernie
Oosterbaan, Larry Kelley, Raghib Ismail, Don Hutson, Howard
Twilley and Keith Jackson. Rodgers was one of six Nebraska
Cornhuskers selected to this 83 man roster. The others were
Rimington, Steinkuhler, Will Shields, Frazier and Taylor.
On the College Football News list of the 100 Greatest Players of
All-Time, Johnny Rodgers was ranked #44. In 2007, he was ranked
#23 on ESPN’s Top 25 Players In College Football History list. In
2000, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame,
and was also voted the “Most Valuable Player” in the history of
the Big Eight Conference.
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Archie Griffin
Archie Mason Griffin, a former running back, is college football’s
only two-time Heisman Trophy winner. Griffin won four Big Ten
Conference Titles with the Ohio State Buckeyes. He was the first
player ever to start in four Rose Bowls.
Griffin rushed for 1,787 yards and scored over 170 points in 11
games, including 29 touchdowns, as a senior fullback at Eastmoor
High School (now Eastmoor Academy) in Columbus, Ohio. That
year, he led Eastmoor to the Columbus City League
Championship, rushing for 267 yards on 31 carries in the title
game against Linden-McKinley High School. In his junior year,
Griffin had also rushed for over 1,000 yards.
Griffin played for the Ohio State University Buckeyes from 1972
to 1975. Among Ohio State
University college football fans,
he holds a status akin to a living
folk hero. Former Ohio State
head coach Woody Hayes said
of Griffin, “He’s a better young
man than he is a football player,
and he’s the best football player
I’ve ever seen.”
In 1972, he was a T-formation
halfback, and from 1973
through 1975 he was the team’s
I-formation tailback. He led the
Buckeyes in rushing as a
freshman with 867 yards, but
his numbers exploded the
following year with the team’s
conversion to the I-formation.
He rushed for 1,428 yards in
the regular season as a
sophomore, 1,620 as a junior and 1,357 as a senior. Griffin is the
only back to lead the Big Ten Conference in rushing for three
straight years. Overall, he rushed for 5,589 yards on 924 carries
in his four seasons with the Buckeyes (1972-1975), then an NCAA
record. He had 6,559 all-purpose yards and scored 26
touchdowns. In their four seasons with Griffin as their starting
running back, the Buckeyes posted a record of 40-5-1. Griffin is
one of only two players in collegiate football history to start four
Rose Bowl games, the other being Brian Cushing.
Griffin introduced himself to Ohio State fans in his second game
as a freshman by setting a school single-game rushing record of
239 yards in the second game of the 1972 season, against North
Carolina, breaking a team record that had stood for 27 seasons.
Coincidentally, his only carry in his first game had resulted in a
fumble. He broke his own record as a sophomore with 246 rushing
yards in a game against the Iowa Hawkeyes. Over his four-year
collegiate career, Griffin rushed for at least 100 yards in 34 games,
including an NCAA record 31 consecutive games.
He finished fifth in the Heisman vote in his sophomore year. He
won the Award as a junior and senior. In addition to his two
Heisman Trophies, Griffin won many other College Awards. He is
one of two players to win The Big 10 Most Valuable Player Award
twice (1973-1974). United Press International named him Player
of the Year twice (1974-1975), and the Walter Camp Foundation
named him top player twice (1974-1975). He won the Maxwell
Award (1975), and Sporting News named him Man of the Year
(1975).
February 2011
The College Football Hall of Fame enshrined Griffin in 1986.
Ohio State enshrined him in their Varsity O Hall of Fame in 1981,
and officially retired his number, #45, in 1999. He was inducted
into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1990. In 2007, he was ranked
#21 on ESPN’s Top 25 Players in College Football History list.
In the 1976 NFL Draft, he was the first-round draft choice of the
Cincinnati Bengals, selected as the 24th overall pick in the draft.
He played 7 seasons in the NFL, all with the Bengals (1976-1982).
He was joined in the backfield with his college fullback teammate
Pete Johnson, who was drafted by the Bengals in 1977. During
his 7 NFL seasons, he rushed for 2,808 yards and 7 touchdowns,
and caught 192 passes for 1607 yards and 6 touchdowns. He
played in Super Bowl XVI with the Bengals after the 1981 season.
finished with a total of 290 yards. A year earlier, he had finished
with 303 yards rushing in Pitt’s 34-20 victory over the Irish. “They
even grew the grass high,” said Carmen DeArdo, a diehard Pitt
alumnus, “and everyone knew Tony would get the ball.” “They
didn’t let that grass grow long enough,” Dorsett said later. He
darted 61 yards on his first run of the season and tacked on 120
more by the end of the 31-10 Pitt win.
He was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys with the second pick of
the first round of the 1977 NFL Draft. The Cowboys traded the
24th pick in the draft and three second-round choices to the Seattle
Seahawks to move up to take Dorsett. He played with the Cowboys
through the 1987 season.
In Dorsett’s rookie year, he rushed
for 1,007 yards and 12 touchdowns.
He won the Rookie of the Year
honors. He was announced the
starter in the tenth game of the
Cowboys’ season, and he would stay
the starter for many years. He was
the first player to win the college
football championship one year, then
win the Super Bowl the next, when
the Cowboys beat the Denver
Broncos 27-10 to win Super Bowl XII.
In his second season, 1978, he
rushed for 1,325 yards and nine
touchdowns. The Cowboys once
again made the Super Bowl, and lost
35-31 to the Pittsburgh Steelers in
Super Bowl XIII. His most productive
season was in 1981, when he
recorded 1,646 yards.
After his career with the Bengals
ended, Griffin played briefly with the
Jacksonville Bulls of the United
States Football League.
He returned to Ohio State University
to receive a Masters of Business
Administration (MBA) Degree. Griffin
is currently the President and CEO
of Ohio State University Alumni
Association. He is also the current
spokesman for the Wendy’s High
School Heisman Award Program.
Formerly, he served as Assistant
Athletic Director for Ohio State
University, and still speaks to the
football team before every game.
He also serves on the Board of
Directors for Motorists Insurance
which has offices in downtown
Columbus and the National Football
Foundation and College Hall of
Fame, based in Irving, Texas.
Dorsett had a career total of 12,033
yards in Dallas before being traded
to the Denver Broncos in 1988, for a
conditional fifth-round draft choice.
He led the Broncos with 703 yards
and five touchdowns that year, but
injuries prior to the 1989 season led to his retirement.
“Tony” Dorsett
Anthony “Tony” Drew Dorsett is a former running back in the
National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys and Denver
Broncos.
He was born April 7, 1954, in Rochester, Pennsylvania.
Dorsett was a running back at the University of Pittsburgh. He
helped lead them to a national title in 1976, picking up the Heisman
Trophy, the Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp Award (Player of
the Year) and the UPI Player of the Year along the way, as he led
the nation in rushing with 1,948 yards. He was a three-time FirstTeam All-American (1973, 1975, 1976) and a Second-Team AllAmerican in 1974, by UPI and NEA. Dorsett finished his college
career with 6,082 total rushing yards, then an NCAA record. This
would stand as the record until it was surpassed by Ricky Williams
in 1998.
He is considered one of the greatest running backs in college
football history. In 2007, he was ranked #7 on ESPN’s Top 25
Players in College Football History list.
In the first game of the 1976 season, the Pittsburgh Panthers
faced off against Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. Dorsett
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He recorded 12,733 yards and 77 touchdowns in his 12-year
career. He also had 13 receiving scores and even a fumble
recovery for a touchdown. On January 3, 1983, during a Monday
Night Football game, Dorsett broke a 99-yard touchdown run
against the Minnesota Vikings, which is the longest run from
scrimmage in NFL history. Another notable fact about his record
breaking run was that the Cowboys only had 10 men on the field,
as fullback, Ron Springs was unaware of the play being called.
Dorsett made the Pro Bowl 4 times during his career (1978, 19811983), and rushed for over 1,000 yards in 8 of his first 9 seasons.
The only season that he did not reach the 1,000 rushing yards
milestone was the strike-shortened, 9-game season of 1982,
which he led the NFC in rushing with 745 yards. He was a FirstTeam All-Pro in 1981 and a Second-Team All-Pro in 1982 and
1983.
He was elected to both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the
College Football Hall of Fame in 1994. He was enshrined in the
Texas Stadium Ring of Honor the same year. In 1999, he was
ranked #53 on The Sporting News’ list of the 100 Greatest Football
Players. He is the only player in history who has won the Heisman
Trophy, the Super Bowl, the College National Championship and
February 2011
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The football stadium at Hopewell High School in Aliquippa,
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Earl Campbell
Earl Christian Campbell, nicknamed “The Tyler Rose,” is a former
running back. He is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As a collegiate
running back for the Texas Longhorns, he won the Heisman Trophy
in 1977.
career with 9,407 yards and 74 touchdowns rushing along with
806 yards on 121 receptions. In 1980, his best year in the NFL,
he ran for 1,934 yards, including four 200-yard rushing games,
and a personal best 206 yards against the Chicago Bears.
Despite playing against stacked defenses and being gangtackled nearly every time he carried the ball (a then-record 373
times), he managed to average 5.2 yards per carry and score 13
rushing touchdowns in 1980 alone.
In 1984, he was traded to the New Orleans Saints, reuniting him
with his former Oilers coach O.A. “Bum” Phillips. The trade was
controversial in New Orleans, as it was widely believed that
Campbell’s skills had diminished, and the Saints already had the
young George Rogers in the backfield. He played in a diminished
He was born March 29, 1955, in Tyler,
Texas, the sixth of eleven children. His
father died when he was 11 years old.
He began playing football in fifth
grade as a kicker, but moved to
linebacker and then to running back
in sixth grade. In 1973, he led John
Tyler High School to the Texas 4A
State Championship (4A then was the
largest classification in the State).
Then Oklahoma Sooners head coach
Barry Switzer, who unsuccessfully
recruited Campbell, said in his 1989
book that Campbell was the only
player he ever saw who could have
gone straight from high school to the
NFL and immediately been a star.
As a collegiate football player at the
University of Texas at Austin, he won
the Heisman Trophy in 1977, and led
the nation in rushing with 1,744 yards.
In 1977, he became the first recipient
of the Davey O’Brien Memorial Trophy
which was awarded to the most
outstanding player in the now-defunct
Southwest Conference. He was also
a consensus All-America choice in 1977. He was selected as the
Southwest Conference Running Back of the Year in each of his
college seasons and finished with 4,444 career rushing yards.
Also, while at the University of Texas, he was chosen as a New
Man in the Texas Cowboys student service organization in the
mid-70s. The Texas Cowboys are the student organization made
up of campus leaders. They are also responsible for taking care
of and firing ‘Smokey’ the Cannon at Texas football games.
Campbell was the first draft pick overall in the 1978 NFL Draft by
the Houston Oilers, and in that year, he was named the Offensive
Rookie of the Year by the Associated Press, as well as the Most
Valuable Player. The “Luv Ya Blue” era in Houston was due mostly
to his running ability and Head coach “Bum” Phillips’ “good ole
boy” personality.
He possessed a rare combination of speed and power, and
was a prolific running back from 1978 through 1985. His
outstanding single-season performance in 1979 earned him
All-Pro, Pro Bowl, and NFL Offensive Player of the Year honors. It
was also the second of three consecutive seasons in which he
led the league in rushing. Only Jim Brown had previously
accomplished that feat. Campbell led the NFL in rushing in 1978,
1979, and 1980. He played in five Pro Bowls, and finished his
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role in 1984 and 1985, and retired during the preseason of 1986,
feeling that the beating he had taken during his career had taken
too much of a toll, a toll which has become apparent in his life
today.
On July 27, 1991, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of
Fame.
Campbell is widely acknowledged as one of the best power backs
in NFL history. Described as a “one-man demolition team,” he
was a punishing runner. His 34-inch thighs, 5-11, 244-pound frame,
coupled with 4.5 speed, made him the most feared runner of his
time. Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame defensive tackle Joe
Greene claimed that Campbell could inflict more damage on a
team than any other back he ever faced.
Former Heisman Trophy winner and Miami Dolphins player Ricky
Williams was often compared to Campbell during Williams’ days
as a player with the University of Texas Longhorns. Even now,
short running backs that use powerful legs to their advantage are
occasionally nicknamed “Little Earl.”
The pride that prodded Campbell to stretch out every run over
eight grueling seasons for the Oilers and New Orleans Saints
also might have been responsible for his relatively short career.
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All of the pounding he absorbed, all of the bone-jarring blows
from second, third and fourth tacklers wore down his body and
prompted a premature drop-off in performance. Debate still rages
as to whether Coach “Bum” Phillips hastened the end of
Campbell’s career by overworking him. Nevertheless, the
consensus is clear that during Campbell’s heyday, few running
backs were as productive or imposing.
In 1999, he was ranked #33 on The Sporting News’ list of the 100
Greatest Football Players, the highest-ranked player for the
Houston Oilers franchise. In 2007, he was ranked #12 on ESPN’s
Top 25 Players in College Football History list.
Campbell, the University of Texas’ first Heisman Trophy winner
in 1977, was honored at halftime against Ohio State on
September 9, 2006, including the unveiling of a 9-foot statue of
him in the southwest corner of Royal-Memorial Stadium.
In 1977, he became the
first recipient of the
Davey
O’Brien
Memorial Trophy which
was named after the
great TCU quarterback
Davey O’Brien. The
trophy was awarded to
the most outstanding
player in the Southwest
Conference.
He is now a prominent
businessman residing
in Austin, Texas, and
still actively participates
in University of Texas
Athletics.
After his retirement
from football, he has
suffered
from
debilitating injuries that
resulted from his NFL
career. He had surgery to remove three of his vertebrae, and he
suffers from drop foot and persistent knee pain.
Billy Sims
Billy Sims is a former college football and NFL running back. He
won the Heisman Trophy in 1978.
Sims was born September 18, 1955, in St. Louis, Missouri. He
grew up in St. Louis, but in the eighth grade he moved to Hooks,
Texas, to live with his grandmother. In three years of varsity
football at Hooks High School, he rushed 1,128 times (a state
record at the time) for 7,738 yards, including 441 carries in 1973
(another state record at the time). He continues to hold the state
record for most consecutive games with 100 yards or more, 38
(1972-1974).
In 1975, he was recruited to the University of Oklahoma by then
head coach Barry Switzer. Injuries kept him out of the line-up for
most of his freshman and half of his sophomore seasons,
rushing for only 545 yards in two seasons plus one game of
1976. In his junior season, he cut loose, picking up 1,762 yards
on 231 carries for an amazing average of 7.6 yards per carry
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(160.1 yards and 10.9 points per game) for the regular season.
Including the post-season, Sims had 1,896 yards, a total yardage
school record that stood until 2004, when freshman Adrian
Peterson tallied up 1,925.
In 1978, Sims was awarded the Heisman Trophy, becoming
only the sixth college junior to do so. He was runner up the
following season in 1979. He led the nation in rushing with
1,896 yards and had 22 touchdowns. He also became the first
running back in Big 8 Conference (now merged to form the Big
12 Conference) history to rush for 200-yards in three consecutive
games, and had four 200-yard games in a single season.
After losing to the University of Arkansas 31-6 in 1978, Sims led
the Sooners to two consecutive Orange Bowl Titles in three
straight appearances. In the Orange Bowl, following the 1978
season, he scored two touchdowns in a 31-24 win over the
University of Nebraska. In 1979, against then unbeaten
Nebraska, who had
the No. 1 rushing
defense in the country
at the time, he ran for
247 yards, and helped
the Sooners to a 1714 win. In his final
game as a Sooner, he
helped defeat Florida
State University, 24-7,
rushing for 164 yards.
He ended his career at
Oklahoma with 3,813
yards. Most of those
yards came in his final
two seasons.
Sims was the first
overall pick in the 1980
NFL Draft. He spent
five years with the
Detroit Lions, making
the Pro Bowl in 1980,
1981, and 1982. He
led the Lions to the playoffs in 1982 and 1983, but they lost in the
first round both times. He finished his career with 1,131 carries
for 5,106 yards (4.5 yards per carry), and 186 receptions for
2,072 yards (11.1 yards per catch). His career ended midway
through the 1984 season when he suffered a knee injury in a
game against the Minnesota Vikings.
He remains a beloved former sports figure in Detroit, where his
number 20 would be worn five years after his retirement by Barry
Sanders. He was given the nickname “Kung Fu Billy Sims” by
ESPN’s Chris Berman, after a game where the Detroit Lions
played the Houston Oilers. In the NFL Films highlight, rather
than be tackled during a rushing attempt, Sims ran at, jumped,
and, while fully airborne, kicked the Oiler’s tackler in the head.
He now serves as a vice president with AmericaCan, a nonprofit organization.
In 2007, a bronze statue of Sims was dedicated on the University
of Oklahoma campus in Heisman Park, commemorating his
1978 award. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of
Fame in 1995. A hero in his hometown of Hooks, Texas, there is
a city road named Billy Sims Road, and the local library wall is
adorned with his photos.
February 2011
Charles White
Charles White was a former running back. He had a
distinguished college career, and later played in the National
Football League for the Cleveland Browns and the Los Angeles
Rams.
White was born January 22, 1958. He graduated from San
Fernando High School in San Fernando, California, where as a
track and field athlete, he won the 330 yard low hurdles at the
CIF California State Meet over future Olympic Gold Medalist Andre
Phillips.
He played for the University of Southern California (USC). In 1978,
he won the W.J. Voit Memorial Trophy as the outstanding college
football player on the Pacific Coast. In 1979, he received the
Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Award, and was
named UPI Player of the Year.
White was selected in the 1st round, 27th overall pick in the 1980
NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns. After four disappointing
seasons in Cleveland, where he rushed for a total of 942 yards
and had a 3.4 yards per carry average, he was released before
the start of the 1985 season. He later acknowledged that he
struggled with substance abuse problems during this period.
After his release from the Browns in 1985, he reunited with his
college coach, John Robinson, who was now coaching the Los
Angeles Rams. He would play for the Rams for three seasons,
1985-1987. In 1987, he enjoyed his finest year as a pro, rushing
for a league-leading 1,387 yards and 11 touchdowns, which
earned him a Pro Bowl selection and the NFL Comeback Player
of the Year Award.
He finished his NFL career with 3,075 rushing yards and 23
touchdowns, along with 114 receptions, 860 passing yards and
23 touchdowns.
In 1993, White joined USC as running backs coach (1993-97),
and today is a computer consultant. In his free time, he umpires
for youth baseball in Chino Hills, California.
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Yolanda Holder
The “Walking Diva”
By Danica Kooiman
You never know who you are running next to
during a race. Look beside you the next time
you are out on a trail or during a road race.
Your fellow runner may be running their first
race ever. They may have trained for over a
year, overcoming what no one ever thought
possible. If you are lucky, you may be looking
at a gorgeous, bright eyed, smiling 5’9'’ Diva,
the “Walking Diva” to be exact. If you find
yourself graced with this Diva’s presence, you
are in for a treat. Yolanda Holder is also known
as the “Walking Diva,” and has walked herself
right into the Guinness Book of World Records
by year’s end.
Yolanda Holder
Keeping up a great pace with an average
finishing time of under six hours, Yolanda
takes walking seriously. When she started, it
was just walking with friends for fun and
fitness. Now, she has made it into the record
books with her tenacious spirit and strong will.
She walked 106 marathons in 2010, and has
walked an outrageous 275 marathons in her
lifetime. When I first met her, I told her about
taking the full marathon plunge at the San
Diego Rock and Roll. Little did I know who I
was talking to at the time. I asked her if she
had ever done a full marathon, and a small
chuckle escaped her bright smile. The craziest
thing I have ever heard came out of her mouth
next.
“Last year, I wanted to do 50 marathons for my
50th birthday.” She was 50? She looked like
she was barely entering her 30s! She finished
2008 with 65 marathons. Who is maniac
enough to take on this task? The one and only
Marathon Maniac Queen Bee, The “Walking
Diva!” Traveling all over the 50 contiguous
states, she has made quite a name for herself.
Her appearances, humble spirit and strength
make her quite the celebrity at races. Walking
both Ultra Marathons and Full Marathons, her
weekends are full of walking. On the paths
she walks, she inspires countless people. She strives to make
the impossible look possible, with hope to give runners and
walkers encouragement to do a marathon or two as well. “I want
to encourage and motivate women over 40 to get off the couch
and start walking,” she said about why she decided to go for the
World Record.
Not only is she walking all over the United States, she is also
walking her way into everyone’s hearts. Her blog that she keeps
with her race report is bursting with encouraging words from
bloggers and anonymous commentators who have met her out
on the course, every single one emphasizing what a great goal
she is accomplishing and how incredibly inspiring she is.
Everyone just loves seeing the “Walking Diva” and her
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encouraging attitude. With thumbs up to everyone, waves and
the grin on her face, she is a welcomed sight to many while they
are on the course. When many meet her, they are first astounded
at her goals and the fact that she has achieved everything that
she has set out to do thus far in her walking career. Marathon
Maniac Female Maniac of the Year in 2008 and 2009, and now
walking into record books is no small feat.
Her perseverance to continue to walk 26.2 miles in marathons
throughout the United States is a solid testimony that anyone
can marathon, whether it is walking or running. You can do
anything you set your heart to doing. Though the soles of her
shoes may be weary and worn by year’s end, it seems like the
“Walking Diva” has much more soul than anyone else out there!
February 2011
Yolanda Holder
Breaks 2 Guinness World Records
By Yolanda Holder & RJ Holder
My name is Yolanda Holder. However, in the marathon community,
I am known as the “Walking Diva.” Although this is not a recognition
I can share on my resume, the recognition reminds me that my
confidence, ability and devotion to active performance is evident
in the marathon community. 2010 was an exceptional year, as I
broke two Guinness World Records. On December 5, 2010, I
became the current titleholder for most marathons completed
by a woman in a calendar year, surpassing the previous titleholder
in Italy. On December 31, 2010, I concluded my athletic journey
by completing 106 marathons throughout America, distinguishing
me as the marathoner who completed the most marathons in a
year.
My unconventional path to Guinness started in 2008.
Overwhelmed with anxiety, I wanted to do something extravagant
for my 50th birthday. I derived a plan called 50/50, a blueprint to
complete 50 marathons at the age of 50. I started with a goal of
50 marathons but ended up completing 65, becoming 2008’s
Marathon Maniac of the Year. In 2009, I continued to walk
marathons and ended up completing in 77 marathons, once
again becoming Marathon Maniac of the Year.
Throughout my journey in 2010, I endured various geographical
conditions creating serious problems. Extreme temperatures,
heavy rain, and humid weather persisted. However, my
unyielding courage to reach the finish line gave me the strength
to continue. My races were not limited to traditional marathons. I
walked 23 ultra marathons, a 50 miler, three triples, and a quad.
The quad was special because it included four marathons in four
states in three days. I also walked 3 events that totaled to 107
miles in under 29 hours. I believe these accomplishments testify
to the tenacity of my current athletic momentum and commitment
to fitness.
Throughout the duration of my journey, I met some amazing
people. Each person seemed to have a unique story of
perseverance and happiness. Ernie, a 64-year-old friend of mine,
weighed 487 pounds in 2003. Diagnosed with serious health
problems, including diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart
disease, Ernie took control of his health and naturally lost over
300 pounds by 2006. One step at a time, Ernie became a
marathoner. He has competed in thirty events, ranging from 20k’s
to 50k’s. Ernie enjoys a completely new life thanks to his strive
for change.
Its normal individuals like Ernie that inspired me to continue on
my journey to Guinness. He is the everyday hero that you do not
read about or watch on television. He is not chasing fame or a
star on Hollywood Boulevard. His gratification comes from being
hope for someone else. During the marathons I participate in, I
am constantly passed by the undiscovered American heroes.
While on this journey, I have learned so much about myself. I
have a new found sense of purpose and inner drive. I have
learned to believe in myself. I have learned that if I set my mind,
I can do anything! I have learned to trust God. I have also realized
that I am a strong, determined, focused, motivated and a well
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Yolanda Holder
organized woman. I had faith and courage to do something so
huge and impossible. I now know that the impossible is possible.
I like to look at myself as the new generation of athletes. Everyday
people that choose to promote and advocate the maintenance of
health and fitness for adults, necessary to keep us thriving. There
is no time limit on what you can accomplish. Regardless of age
or race, combining a positive attitude with ambition can lead to
incredible capabilities.
I hope I have inspired others to lace their shoes and hit the
pavement, indulge in the journey and reach the euphoric state of
accomplishment. It is still possible for 50-year-old adults to place
their name in the record books. My motto: Keep Believing in
yourself and your dreams. When your dreams become your life
and your life becomes your dreams, you begin to see God all
over them.
February 2011
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The Negro Leagues
American Negro League 1929 (ANL)
o After the collapse of the ECL in the spring of 1928, the member teams reemerged in 1929, as the American Negro League.
Eastern Colored League 1922-1928 (ECL)
o On December 16, 1922, the Eastern Colored League (chartered as the Mutual Association of Eastern Colored Baseball
Clubs) is formally organized.
o The league will complete five seasons before folding in midsummer of 1928
Independent Club (IND)
o No league affiliation.
League of Colored Baseball Clubs (LCBC)
o Formed in 1887, and consisted of eight teams in Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia,
Pittsburgh and Washington.
o The league is recognized as an official minor league, and protected under baseball’s National Agreement, but it folded 13
games into its only season.
Middle States League (MSL)
o 1889, a mixed color league (reorganized as the Eastern Interstate League in 1890) had the New York Gorhams and the
Cuban Giants as member clubs.
o Unfortunately, the Eastern Interstate League died mid-season with the Cuban Giants resurfacing in the Connecticut State
League.
o That league also folded (1891), and the Cuban Giants returned to independent status.
Negro American League (NAL)
o 1937-1950.
Negro National League (NNL)
o 1920-1948
Negro Southern League (NSL)
o 1932 - The Negro Southern League was the only major circuit to complete its schedule in 1932.
o The NSL was a minor league before and after the 1932 season.
Negro East West League (NEWL)
o Formed in 1932, and folded during its only season.
West Coast Negro Baseball League (WCNBL)
o 1946
Chicago Giants
Atlanta Black Crackers
NAL 1938
The Atlanta Black Crackers was a professional baseball team
which played in the Negro League. The Crackers were founded
in 1919, and folded in 1952. During the 1920s, they shared Ponce
de Leon Park with their Southern League counterparts, the Atlanta
Crackers. The Black Crackers won the Negro American League
second half pennant in 1938, but scheduling problems and umpire
controversies caused their series with the Memphis Red Sox to
be canceled.
Following Jackie Robinson’s breaking of Major League Baseball’s
color barrier in 1947, the Negro League, as well as the Black
Crackers, continued to exist for only a short time thereafter, finally
disbanding in 1952.
On June 28, 1997, the Atlanta
Braves hosted the Philadelphia
Phillies at Turner Field. In honor
of the 50th anniversary of Jackie
Robinson breaking professional
baseball’s color-line, the Braves
hosted a Turn Back the Clock
game.
On September 6, 2007, the
Baltimore Orioles wore Black Sox
uniforms in commemoration of the
75th anniversary of the Black Sox’
1932 championship season.
Baltimore Black Sox
Leagues
o Independent (1916 - 1922,
1930 - 1931)
o Eastern Colored League
(1923 - 1928)
o American Negro League (1929)
o East-West League (1932)
o Negro National League
(1933 - 1934)
Significant Players
o Satchel Paige
o Jud “Boojum” Wilson
o Frank Warfield
o Ben Taylor
o Oliver “Ghost” Marcelle
o Sir Richard Lundy
o Leon Day
The Braves wore 1938 Black
Crackers home uniforms and the
Phillies wore 1938 Philadelphia
Stars road uniforms.
Atlanta Black Crackers
Leagues
o Independent
o Negro Southern League
(1920-1937)
o Negro American League (1938)
In 1933, Joe Cambria took over ownership of the team, and
moved it into Gus Greenlee’s new Negro National League. During
that same year, the team moved its home games to Bugle Field.
The team only lasted one year, and disbanded. In 1934, another
team entered the league using the Black Sox name, but it did not
meet with much success, and disbanded after only one year.
Baltimore Elite Giants
NNL 1938-1948, NAL 1949-1950
Nat Peeples
The Baltimore Elite Giants were a professional baseball team that
played in the Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1950. The team was
established by Thomas T. Wilson in Nashville, Tennessee, as the
semi-pro Nashville Standard Giants on March 26, 1920. The team
was renamed the Elite Giants in 1933, and would move to
Baltimore, Maryland, in 1938, where it played until its final season
in 1950. The team pronounced the word “Elite” to rhyme with
“light.”
Significant Players
o Nat Peeples
o Roy Welmaker
o James “Red” Moore
Baltimore Black Sox
ECL 1923-1928, ANL 1929,
NEWL 1932, NNL 1933-1934
The Baltimore Black Sox were a professional baseball team based
in Baltimore, Maryland, which played in the Negro Leagues. The
Black Sox started as an independent team in 1916, by George
Rossiter and Charles Spedden. They were one of the original six
teams to make up the Eastern Colored League in 1923.
In 1929, The Black Sox boasted the “Million Dollar Infield” of Jud
“Boojum” Wilson (first baseman), Frank Warfield (second
baseman), Oliver “Ghost” Marcelle (third baseman) and Sir
Richard Lundy (shortstop). The nickname was given to them by
the media because of the prospective worth had if they were
White players. The Black Sox won over 70% of their games during
the 1929 season, and won the American Negro League
Championship. During their only season in the East-West
League, the Black Sox won the league championship.
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Jud “Boojum” Wilson
The Nashville Standard Giants was formed as an amateur allNegro team in Nashville, Tennessee, in the early 1900s. Tom T.
Wilson took control of the club in 1918. On March 26, 1920, the
team was chartered as a semi-professional team. The Standard
Giants welcomed any and all competition, including white-only
teams. The team was renamed the Nashville Elite Giants in 1921.
This team would play independently, that is to say that they did
not play in an organized league, through 1929.
Also in 1929, Wilson built a new ballpark for his team to play at,
Tom Wilson Park, which also served as a spring training site for
other Negro League teams, as well as white-only minor league
teams. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Roy Campanella are known
to have played at the park. The 8,000 seat facility featured a singledecked, covered grandstand. The ballpark was centrally located
in Nashville’s largest black community, known as Trimble Bottom,
near the convergence of Second and Forth Avenues. Before his
death in 1947, Wilson converted the park into a dog racing track
and later the Paradise Ballroom, a popular Black nightclub that
February 2011
17
attracted top musical talents of the day, including Duke Ellington
and Louis Armstrong. The structure was later demolished and
is presently the site of semi-truck loading dock.
Rookie of the Year), and Joe Black (1952 National League Rookie
of the Year) were both former ‘Elites,’ and won consecutive
Rookie of the Year honors for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the early
1950’s.
National League - In 1930, the team gained admission into their
first organized league, the Negro National League. The Elite Giants
finished in seventh place with a 39-47 record.
The following season, 1931, Wilson moved the team to
Cleveland, Ohio, and renamed the team the Cleveland Cubs,
remaining in the same league. The team finished in seventh
place with a 25-28 record.
Southern League - The Negro National League collapsed after
the 1931 season, and the team moved back to Nashville, reverted
to being called the Elite Giants, and joined the Negro Southern
League, where they played in 1932.
Baltimore Elite Giants
1920–1950
(1920–1930, 1932–1950)
Baltimore, Maryland
Leagues
o Independent (1920–1929)
o Negro National League (1930)
o Negro Southern League (1932)
o Negro National League (1933–1948)
o Negro American League (1949–1950)
Name
o
Nashville Standard Giants
(1920)
o
Nashville Elite Giants
(1921–1930 1931–1934)
o
Cleveland Cubs (1931)
o
Columbus Elite Giants
(1935)
o
Washington Elite Giants
(1936–1937)
o
Baltimore Elite Giants
(1938–1950)
Second National League - A second
incarnation of the Negro National
League was formed in 1933, where
the Elite Giants played for the
following two seasons. Nashville
finished the 1933 season in fifth
place with a 29-22 record and tied
as winners of the second half of the
season with the Pittsburgh
Crawfords. Nashville lost a threegame playoff with Pittsburgh for a
spot in the league championship
game. In 1934, the Elite Giants
finished in fourth place with a 2028 record.
Ballpark
o
Tom Wilson Park
(1929–1930, 1932–1934)
Titles (League Titles)
o
1939, 1949
In 1935, the team moved to
Columbus, Ohio, and became the
Columbus Elite Giants. They played
only one season in Columbus,
1935, finishing in fourth place with
a 16-17 record.
In 1936, the team moved to
Washington D.C., and became the
Washington Elite Giants. In their
first season, they finished in fifth
place with a 21-24 record. In 1937,
the Elites finished in third place with a 27-17 record.
Roy Campanella
The team moved again in 1938, to Baltimore, Maryland, and
became the Baltimore Elite Giants. In 1939, the Elites won the
Negro National Title, defeating the Homestead Grays. In 1948,
they won the first half, but lost the championship to second half
winners, the Homestead Grays.
American League - In 1949, the Negro National League ceased
operations, so the Elite Giants joined the Negro American League.
In their first season with the new league, Baltimore captured the
Eastern and Western Division titles, earning them a second Negro
National Title. In thirteen seasons in Baltimore, of the eleven which
have available standings, the Elite Giants finished in the top three
during nine of those seasons. In dire financial straits, the club
played one final season in 1950, before dissolving.
Notable players - A number of future major leaguers wore the
uniform of the Elite Giants, including Hall of Famers Roy
Campanella and Leon Day. Junior Gilliam (1953 National League
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Birmingham
Black Barons
NNL 1924-1925,
1927-193
NAL 1937-1938,
1940-1950
The Birmingham Black Barons played professional baseball for
Birmingham, Alabama, in the Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1960,
when the Major Leagues successfully integrated. They alternated
home stands with the Birmingham Barons in Birmingham’s
Rickwood Field, usually drawing larger crowds and equal press.
Drawing largely from a successful ACIPCO Industrial League
team, the Black Barons were organized in 1920, for the inaugural
season of Rube Foster’s Negro Southern League. They played
in that league for three years before making the leap to the larger
Negro National League.
They were unable to keep their position due to irregularities with
the team finances and returned to the Southern League for three
more years. Their return to the National League was marked by
the emergence of star pitcher Satchel Paige, who led the Black
Barons to the second half pennant. They lost the Negro National
League title to the Chicago American Giants in four straight
games.
February 2011
For the next decade or so, they
alternated leagues before being
bought by Memphis, Tennessee,
funeral home director Tom Hayes, and
joined the Negro American League in
1940. Early in the decade, the team
was sold again to Abraham
Saperstein, who also owned the
Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.
In 1943 and 1944, they won back-toback pennants. Starting in 1945, they
became full members of the Negro
American League, and continued their
success, winning a third pennant in
1948, with the help of teenage
outfielder Willie Mays. They ended up
losing three Negro League World
Series to the Homestead Grays that
decade, forging a notable rivalry. As the
Major Leagues started signing
talented African American players, the
Black Barons tried to form a new Negro
Southern League (NSL) with three
other Southern teams.
The franchise was owned by William
Bridgeforth from 1952 to 1955, and by
Sid Lynor and Floyd Meshac in 1955.
Dr. Anderson Ross purchased the
franchise in 1956 and renamed the
team the Birmingham Giants.
The new NSL played from 1956 to 1960
before folding. The Black Barons played
their last game in 1960.
The 1999 Rickwood Classic honored
the Black Barons, with the Birmingham
Barons and Huntsville Stars wearing
throwback uniforms. Some 35 former
Negro Leagues players, including
former Black Baron Charley Pride
attended.
Willie Mays
and Roy Campanella
On February 26, 2006, ESPN Classic broadcasted a throwback
game from Rickwood Field featuring amateur players in the
uniforms of the Birmingham Black Barons and fictitious “Bristol
Barnstormers.” The style of play, the equipment and the umpires
all reflected the 1940s game. Willie Mays and Charley Pride
were both in attendance. The Black Barons rallied to break an
eighth inning tie and win the game, 9-8.
Name
o
Brooklyn Royal Giants
ECL 1923-1927
The Brooklyn Royal Giants were a professional baseball team
based in Brooklyn, New York, which played in the Negro Leagues.
They were one of the premier professional teams before World
War I, winning multiple championships in the East.
Birmingham Black Barons
1920–1960
Birmingham, Alabama
Leagues
o
Negro
o
Negro
o
Negro
o
Negro
Titles (League titles)
o
1943, 1944, 1948
Southern League (1920–1927)
National League (1927-31)
American League (1937-38) (1940-55)
National League (1956-60)
During the 1920s, under the ownership of Nat Strong, a White
New York City booking agent, the team fell into somewhat of a
decline, and did very poorly while in the Eastern Colored League.
The Giants played their home games while part of the Eastern
Colored League at Dexter Park in Queens, New York.
The Giants returned to independent play in 1928, and rebuilt the
roster, but the quality of the rebuilt team never matched that of
the early years. By the mid-1930s, the quality was no better than
that of a minor league team. In the early 1940s, the team had
Birmingham Giants (1956-60)
Ballpark
o
Rickwood Field
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February 2011
19
BASEBALL HALL OF FAME
Nominations
Nominations
Being
BeingAccepted
Acceptedfor
for
Baseball
BaseballHall
HallofofFame’s
Fame’s
Buck
BuckO’Neil
O’Neil
Lifetime
LifetimeAchievement
AchievementAward
Award
— First O’Neil Award Bestowed Upon its Namesake in 2008 —
(COOPERSTOWN, NY) – His likeness greets thousands of visitors a week at the Baseball Hall of Fame,
with a smile on his face and a Kansas City Monarchs cap in hand.
John Jordan O’Neil’s legacy is alive in Cooperstown, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s
Buck O’Neil Award is an unflagging reminder of what its namesake meant to baseball.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is now accepting nominations for the Buck O’Neil Award.
The Award honors an individual whose extraordinary efforts enhanced baseball’s positive impact on
society, broadened the game’s appeal, and whose character, integrity and dignity are comparable to the
qualities exhibited by O’Neil.
Nominations may be submitted by anyone to the Hall of Fame at any time in writing, and should detail
how the proposed candidate carries O’Neil’s extraordinary traits. Nominations may be submitted to:
Buck O’Neil
Achievement
Award, Award,
Buck Lifetime
O’Neil Lifetime
Achievement
National
Baseball
Hall
of
Fame
and
Museum,
National Baseball Hall of Fame
and Museum,
25 Main25
Street,
NY 13326.NY 13326
Main Cooperstown,
Street, Cooperstown,
Only submissions received by mail will be considered.
Created in 2007 to honor the contributions of a man who
spent eight decades in baseball, the Buck O’Neil Award
was first presented in 2008, to O’Neil as a tribute to
one of the game’s great ambassadors. The Award,
bestowed by the Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors not
more frequently than once every three years, is
symbolized by a life-sized statue of O’Neil – created by
nationally renowned sculptor William Behrends – on the
Museum’s first floor along with glass-panel etchings
commemorating O’Neil’s contributions to the National
Pastime.
For more information
visit Baseball Hall of Fame’s website at:
baseballhall.org
or call
888-HALL-OF-FAME (888-425-5633)
fallen to a semi-professional status. The team disbanded in
1942.
Brooklyn Royal Giants
Leagues
o
Independent (1910–1922,
1928–1942)
o
Eastern Colored League (1923–1927)
Giants.” Playing in spacious Schorling Park (formerly the home
field of the American League’s Chicago White Sox), Foster’s
club relied on fielding, pitching, speed, and “inside baseball” to
dominate the young Negro National League (NNL), winning
championships in 1920, 1921, and 1922. When the Kansas City
Monarchs displaced the American Giants beginning in 1923,
Foster tried rebuilding. But, by 1926, his health (physical and
mental) was failing, and his protégé Dave Malarcher took over
on-field management of the team.
Malarcher followed Foster’s pattern,
emphasizing pitching and defense, and led
the American Giants back to the pinnacle of
the Negro Leagues, winning pennants in
1926 and 1927. Both seasons also saw the
American Giants defeat the Bacharach Giants
of Atlantic City, champions of the Eastern
Colored League, in the Negro League World
Series.
Chattanooga Black
Lookouts
NSL
The Chattanooga Black Lookouts was a
professional baseball team based in
Chattanooga, Tennessee, which played in the
Negro Leagues. They were established in 1920,
only to play for one season. They were reestablished in 1926 to play for two seasons,
serving as a farm team of the Homestead Grays
of the Negro Northern League. In 1926, the
team purchased the contract of Satchel Paige
from the semi-pro Mobile Tigers. On May 1,
1926, Paige made his Negro League debut.
Chattanooga Black Lookouts
The NNL collapsed in 1931, and in 1932, the
team won the Negro Southern League
pennant as Cole’s American Giants. The next
season, the American Giants joined the new
Negro National League, narrowly losing the
pennant to the Pittsburgh Crawfords in a
controversial decision by league president
Gus Greenlee (owner of the Crawfords).
In 1934, the American Giants won the NNL’s
second-half title, then fell to the Philadelphia
Stars in a seven-game playoff for the championship. In 1937,
after a year spent playing as an independent club, the American
Giants became a charter member of the Negro American League.
Satchel Paige
Leagues
o
Negro Southern League (1920, 1926-27)
Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe was appointed manager in 1950.
The team’s owner, Dr. J.B. Martin, was concerned about Black
players joining major league teams so he instructed Radcliffe to
sign White players. Radcliffe recruited at least five young White
players (Lou Chirban, Lou Clarizio, Al Dubetts, Frank Dyall, and
Stanley Miarka).
Chicago American Giants
NNL 1920-1931, 1934-1936,
NSL 1932, NAL 1937-1950
Chicago American Giants were a Chicago-based Negro League
baseball team, owned and managed from 1911 to 1926 by playermanager Andrew “Rube” Foster. From 1910 until the mid-1930s,
the American Giants were the most dominant team in Black
baseball. Charter members of Foster’s
Negro National League, the American
Giants won five pennants in that league,
along with another pennant in the 1932
Negro Southern League and a secondhalf championship in Gus Greenlee’s
Negro National League in 1934. The
team was disbanded in 1952.
In 1910, Foster, captain of the Chicago
Leland Giants, wrested legal control of
the name “Leland Giants” away from the
team’s owner, Frank Leland. That
season, featuring Hall of Fame
shortstop John Henry Lloyd, outfielder
Pete Hill, second baseman Grant
Johnson, catcher Bruce Petway, and
pitcher Frank Wickware, the Leland
Giants reportedly won 123 games,
while losing only 6. In 1911, Foster
renamed the club the “American
Cincinnati Tigers
NAL 1937
The Cincinnati Tigers were a
professional baseball team based in
Cincinnati, Ohio, which played in the
Negro Leagues. The Tigers were
founded in 1934, by William DeHart
Hubbard, the first Black to win an
individual Olympic Gold Medal when he
won the long jump during the 1924
Summer Olympics. In 1937, the Tigers
joined the Negro American League in
its inaugural season. Using Cincinnati
Reds hand-me-down uniforms, the
Tigers played at Crosley Field, often
outdrawing the Reds. The Tigers folded
after the 1937 season.
Andrew
“Rube”
Foster
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February 2011
Cincinnati Tigers
Leagues
o Independent (1934-1936
o Negro American League (1937)
21
During this time, the Marcos did play against some heavy
competition, including that of Satchel Paige.
Cleveland Buckeyes
NAL 1943-1948, 50
The Cleveland Buckeyes were a professional baseball team
that played in the Negro Leagues. They were established in
1942, in Cincinnati, Ohio (Ohio being the Buckeye State). The
following season, the team moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where
they played their games at League Park. While in Cleveland, the
team achieved great success, including winning a pair of Negro
American League championships (1945, 1947) and a Negro
League World Series Title in 1945. In 1949, the team moved
again, to Louisville, Kentucky. But, it was to no avail, and the
Louisville Buckeyes disbanded at the end of the season.
On May 20, 2006, in Cleveland, the
Pittsburgh Pirates and Cleveland
Indians honored the Negro
League teams by wearing the
uniforms of the Homestead Grays
and the Cleveland Buckeyes,
respectively, during an interleague game, as well as
displaying the names on the
scoreboard. The Pirates won the
game 9-6.
The Marcos survived until the Second World War. Dayton did not
have a baseball team again until 2000, when the Dayton Dragons
formed.
Detroit Stars
NNL 1920-1931,
1933,
NAL 1937
The Detroit Stars were a United
States baseball team in the Negro
Leagues and played at historic
Mack Park. Founded in 1919, by
Tenny Blount with the help of Rube
Foster, owner and manager of the
Chicago American Giants, the
Detroit
Stars
immediately
established themselves as one of
the most powerful teams in the
West. Foster transferred several
of his veteran players to the team,
including player-manager Pete
Hill and legendary catcher Bruce
Petway.
Left-hander
John
Donaldson, Frank Wickware,
Dicta Johnson, and Cuban great
José Méndez took up the pitching
Pete Hill
duties, and Texan Edgar Wesley
was brought in to handle first base,
a job he would hold for several years.
The League Park Society (LPS) in
Cleveland planned to field a new
Cleveland Buckeyes team in
2010, calling League Park home.
LPS secured the blessings of the
Negro
Leagues
Baseball
Museum and others before
securing the rights to the name.
The new team will wear a slightly
updated version of the famous
Buckeyes uniforms.
Cleveland Buckeyes
Leagues
o Negro American League
Dayton Marcos
NNL 1920
The Dayton Marcos were a Negro League baseball team that is
now defunct along with the Negro League. They were based in
Dayton, Ohio.
The Dayton Marcos history does go back farther than the Negro
League though. As an Independent Team and also in the OhioIndiana League, they played Black and White teams all over the
country throughout the 1910s.
According to the Negro League Baseball Players Association
Website, old newspaper accounts and fading memories are the
only sources of information on the Marcos even as they burst
into the Negro League. They played in the then newly formed
Negro National League, which was formed by Rube Foster. The
Marcos were one of those first eight teams to play in the first
Negro League to survive a full season.
22
Dayton left the league after one year and a last place finish, and
played independently until the mid 20s. They then rejoined briefly
for part of 1926, when they finished in second-to-last and left the
league once again. Although, they were a significant part of Dayton
sports history, too little is known about them to factor them in too
highly.
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The Stars became a charter member of the Negro National
League (NNL) in 1920. New outfielder Jimmie Lyons enjoyed a
brilliant season at bat, and Detroit came in second with a 35-23
record. The next season, Lyons was transferred to the American
Giants, and the team slumped to 32-32 and fourth place. This
would be their low point for some time. For the rest of their
tenure in the NNL, the Stars were consistently good (finishing
under .500 only twice), but not brilliant (finishing as high as
second place only twice).
The mainstays of the Detroit Stars during
the 1920s were Hall of Fame center fielder
Turkey Stearnes, who ranks among the alltime Negro League leaders in nearly every
batting category; Hall of Fame pitcher Andy
Cooper, a workhorse southpaw; pitcher Bill
Holland; and first baseman Wesley, who
led the league in home runs twice and Turkey Stearnes
batting average once. Pete Hill left after the 1921 season. Bruce
Petway took his place as manager until 1926, when Candy Jim
Taylor briefly held the position. Bingo DeMoss, yet another Rube
February 2011
Foster protege, took over in 1927, and finally led the team to its
first postseason berth in 1930. The Stars won the second-half
season title, only to lose the playoff series to the St. Louis Stars.
After the collapse of the Negro National League at the end of
1931, the Stars returned to independent play for most of the
1930s. However, in 1933, the team participated in the newly
reformed Negro National League, and was a charter member of
the Negro American League in 1937.
During the 1920s the Stars made their home at Mack Park, moving
to Hamtramck Stadium in 1930 and, finally, to DeQuindre Park
for their single season in the Negro American League.
In 1958, Detroit Stars owner Ted Rasberry renamed his team
“Goose Tatum’s Detroit Clowns” after Reece “Goose” Tatum, a
famous member of basketball’s Harlem Globetrotters and a Negro
League superstar.
The team ceased operations in 1960.
Notable players
o
o
o
o
o
o
Joe “Prince” Henry
Pete Hill
Bruce Petway
Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe 1928–1930
Norman “Turkey” Stearnes
John Donaldson 1919
Detroit Wolves
NEWL 1932
Cumberland Posey
The Detroit Wolves were a Negro Leagues baseball club that
played for just one year (1932). In 1931 the Negro National League
collapsed. It reformed in 1933, but in the interim, Detroit was left
without a Negro Leagues team, as the Detroit Stars had been
members of the NNL. In 1932, the city placed the Wolves in the
new East-West League. They played in Hamtramck Stadium,
where the Stars had played.
The Wolves posted the best record in the league, behind the play
of stars like Willie Wells, Cool Papa Bell, Mule Suttles, Quincy
Trouppe, Ted Trent, Ray Brown and Judy Johnson.
The team was owned by Cum Posey, who also owned the
Homestead Grays, and shuffled players between the two teams.
Posey was the founder of the East-West League.
By May 1932, the Wolves were about to collapse, but Posey kept
pumping money into the club. By June, however, not only the
Wolves, but all the other teams except the Grays were going broke,
so Posey shut down the league.
Hilldale
Inedpendent, ECL 1923-28
ANL 1929, EWL 1932
The Hilldale Athletic Club (also known as Hilldale Daisies, Darby
Daisies) was an African-American professional baseball team
based in Darby, Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia.
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Established as a boys team in 1910, the Hilldales were
developed by their early manager, then owner Ed Bolden to be
one of the powerhouse Negro League baseball teams. They
won the first three Eastern Colored League (ECL) pennants
beginning 1923 and in 1925, won the second Colored World
Series. Hall of Fame player Judy Johnson was a Hilldale regular
for most its professional era with twelve seasons in fifteen years
1918–1932. Pitcher Phil Cockrell played for Hilldale throughout
those years. Oscar Charleston, Biz Mackey, Louis Santop,
Chaney White, Jud Wilson, and Jesse “Nip” Winters all were
team members for shorter terms.
Ed Bolden founded the team in 1910 as an amateur athletic club
for local young men. Devere Thompson was the first manager,
but Bolden took over as manager himself before the end of the
first season. The club incorporated November 1916, as Hilldale
Baseball and Exhibition Company, and began to hire some
established players. Spot Poles and Bill Pettus led the 1917 team
to a 23-15-1 record.
Hilldale and the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants played as eastern
“Associates” of the western Negro National League in 1920 and
1921. In the latter season, they held a four game series in
September with the winner to face the NNL Champion Chicago
American Giants. After both teams won two games, the American
Giants traveled east to play one series each. Chicago defeated
the Bacharach Giants 2-1-1, but Hilldale beat Chicago 3-2-1.
Hilldale was a charter member of the Eastern Colored League in
1923, and won the first-place pennants in 1923, 1924, and 1925.
They lost the inaugural 1924 Colored World Series to the Kansas
City Monarchs five games to four (with one tie). Next season they
February 2011
23
won a rematch with the Monarchs five games to one. The 1925
club featured star catcher and cleanup hitter Biz Mackey, third
baseman Judy Johnson, and outfielder Clint Thomas. Playermanager Frank Warfield’s pitching staff was led by left-handed
ace Nip Winters and spitballer Phil Cockrell. Hilldale dropped to
third in 1926 and fifth in 1927.
Frustrated by the league’s lack of organization, Bolden withdrew
his club from the ECL prior to the 1928 season. When the
American Negro League was organized in 1929, Hilldale joined,
but the league lasted only one season. Bolden was subsequently
forced out of club management, and Hilldale corporation member
Lloyd Thompson assumed control of the club in 1930. He had
been a 14-year-old infielder on the original
boys team twenty years earlier, when his older
brother had been the manager. After a single
season, the team was purchased by John
Drew, who ran the club until its final collapse
in 1932.
the listed seasons. Santop also played post-season with the
team in 1917 and 1919, as Charleston did in 1926.
On October 14, 2006, over 500 individuals gathered for the
dedication of a Pennsylvania Historical market at the site of
Hilldale’s ballpark at Chester and Cedar Streets in Yeadon. The
ceremony was attended by Philadelphia Phillies hitting coach Milt
Thompson, former Phillies player Garry Maddox, and Gene Dias,
Phillies director of community relations. Also attending were the
four living members of the Negro League Philadelphia Stars,
Bill Cash, Mahlon Duckett, Stanley Glenn, and Harold Gould,
along with Ray Mackey, great grandnephew of former Hilldale
and Stars player Biz Mackey. Area businessman John Bossong
led the effort for the historical marker. The
marker is titled, “The Hilldale Athletic Club
(The Darby Daisies)” and the text reads,
“This baseball team, whose home was here
at Hilldale Park, won the Eastern Colored
League Championship three times and the
1925 Negro League World Series. Darby
fielded Negro League teams from 1910 to
1932. Notable players included baseball Hall
of Fame members Pop Lloyd, Judy Johnson,
Martin Dihigo, Joe Williams, Oscar
Charleston, Ben Taylor, Biz Mackey, and Louis
Santop. Owner Ed Bolden helped form the
Eastern Colored League.”
During the Great Depression, Black urban
unemployment hit as high as 50%. This
negatively impacted attendance in the Negro
Leagues in the 1930s. Drew disbanded the
ballclub in July 1932 after the combined
attendance of two subsequent Saturday
afternoon games at Hilldale Park totaled 295.
The Negro National League was formed in
1920. An official League business-card from
that year lists the club as one of two
“Associated Members” and identifies the club
as “Hilldale, Darby, PA. ” Unlike other teams
listed with both location and team-name, no
nickname is identified with Hilldale. (Hilldale
was the club name, Darby the locale.)
Bossong originated the idea for the marker in
the summer of 1999, after visiting the Negro
Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City,
Missouri.
While various nicknames were informally
applied to the club, including “Daisies” and
“Clan Darbie”, the team was most commonly
known simply as Hilldale or the Hilldales.
Honors
Biz Mackey
Eastern Colored League Pennants
o 1923
o 1924
o 1925
The African American Museum in Philadelphia maintains the
“William Cash/Lloyd Thompson Collection” of Philadelphia Stars
and Hilldale scorebooks, photographs, and correspondence.
Negro League World Series Championships
o 1925
Hilldale Athletic Club
1910–1932
Darby, Pennsylvania
No-Hitters
o Phil Cockrell, September 10, 1921, vs. Detroit Stars
Leagues
o Independent (1916-1922 and 1930-1931)
o Eastern Colored League (1923-1928)
o American Negro League (1929)
o East-West League (1932)
Hall of Famers
o
o
o
o
o
o
Oscar Charleston, 1928–1929 (captain)
Martin Dihigo, 1929–1931
Pop Lloyd, 1923 (captain)
Judy Johnson, 1918, 1921–1929, 1931–1932
(captain ‘31–32)
Biz Mackey, 1923–1931
Louis Santop, 1918, 1920–1926
Name
o Darby Daisies (1929-1932)
These Hall of Fame players were Hilldale team members during
24
The year 2010 marks the centenary of the
club’s founding. Bossong was working with
the Darby Historical Commission to construct
a Walk of Fame alongside the site of the
Historical Marker. The celebration was being
organized by the Hilldale 100 committee. The
Walk of Fame would honor former-Hilldale
owners Bolden and Drew, as well as team
batboy and contemporary area-resident Ed
Bacon.
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Ballpark
o Hilldale Park
o Baker Bowl (exhibition games)
o Shibe Park (exhibition games)
February 2011
Links to Heritage, Inc.
P.O. Box 1824
Bowie, MD 20717
Phone: (410) 70-6271
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.LinksToHeritage.com
Homestead Grays
ANL 1929, NEWL 1932,
NNL 1935-1948
The Homestead Grays were a professional baseball team that
played in the Negro Leagues in the United States. The team was
formed in 1912, by Cumberland Posey, and would remain in
continuous operation for 38 seasons. The team was based in
Homestead, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.
The Grays grew out of an earlier industrial team. In 1900, a group
of African-American players had joined together to form the
Germantown (PA) Blue Ribbons, an industrial league team. For
ten years, the Blue Ribbons fielded a team every season and
played some of the best sandlot teams in the area. In 1910, the
managers of the team retired. The players reorganized the team
and named themselves the Murdock Grays. In 1912, they became
the Homestead Grays, the name they retained for the remainder
of the franchise’s history.
The Grays did join the Negro American League in 1929, but that
league lasted only one season. The team operated independently
again until 1932, when Posey organized the ill-fated East-West
League. That league also collapsed before completing its first
and only season.
Posey entered his Grays in the Negro National League in 1935.
With the near-collapse of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, Josh Gibson
returned to the Grays in 1937, combining with slugger Buck
Leonard to power the Grays to nine consecutive (and a total of
ten) Negro National League Championships and three Negro
League World Series (NLWS) Titles. Vic Harris managed the
Grays during their years in league play, between 1935 and 1948,
and piloted Homestead to eight pennants. He guided his team to
six consecutive pennants from 1937 through 1942; in 1945 and
1948, and led the 1948 team to the Negro League World Series
Championship. The 1943 and 1944 NLWS Titles came under
Candy Jim Taylor.
Following the collapse of the Negro National League after the
1948 season, the Grays struggled to continue as an independent
club, and ultimately disbanded at the close of the 1950 season.
From the late 1930s through the 1940s, the Grays played their
home games at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, home of the Pittsburgh
Pirates. However, during this same period, the club adopted the
Washington, D.C. area as its “home away from home” and
scheduled many of its “home” games at Washington’s Griffith
Stadium, the home park of the Washington Senators.
Honors
Baseball Hall of Famers
o Cool Papa Bell, OF, 1932, 1943-46
o Ray Brown, P, 1937-45
o Oscar Charleston, OF, 1930-31
o Martín Dihigo, P, 1927-28
o Bill Foster, P, 1931
o Josh Gibson, C, 1930-31, 1937-46
o Judy Johnson, 3B, 1930, 1937
o Buck Leonard, 1B, 1934-50
o Cum Posey, Founder-Owner, 1912-46
o Willie Wells, SS, 1932
Josh Gibson
o Smokey Joe Williams, P, 1925-32
o Jud Wilson, 3B, 1929-31, 1941-46
Gibson and Leonard are listed on the Washington Hall of Stars
display at Nationals Park in Washington.
On July 11, 2002, the Homestead High-Level Bridge which crosses
the Monongahela River at Homestead was renamed the
Homestead Grays Bridge in honor of the team.
When the Montreal Expos moved to Washington, “Grays” was
one of the three finalists (along with “Senators” and the eventual
winner “Nationals”) for the relocated team’s new name, reflecting
Washington’s baseball history. “Grays” was the personal choice
of the D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams.
The DC Grays, a collegiate summer team based in Washington,
D.C., are named in honor of the team.
Homestead Grays
Leagues
o Negro American League (1929)
o East-West League(1932)
o Negro National League (1935-48)
Houston Eagles
NAL 1949-1950
New franchise, disbanded during season. Relocated from Newark
Eagles.
Indianapolis ABC’s
NNL 1920-1924, 1925-1926,
1931, NSL 1932
Ben Taylor
The Indianapolis ABCs were a Negro League baseball team that
played both as an Independent Club and as a charter member of
the first Negro National League (NNL). They claimed the Western
Championship of Black baseball in 1915 and 1916, and finished
second in the 1922 NNL. Among their best players were Hall of
Famers Oscar Charleston and Ben Taylor.
Originally organized by the American Brewing Company (thus
“A.B.C.s”) in the early 1900s, the team was purchased by Thomas
Bowser, a White bail bondsman, in 1912. Two years later, C. I.
Taylor, formerly of the Birmingham Giants and West Baden
Sprudels, purchased a half-interest in the ABCs, and became the
team’s manager. Taylor stocked the ABCs with his brothers Ben,
John and Jim, all among the best African-American players in
baseball. Taylor was a noted judge of young talent; some of the
well-known players he brought to the big time included center
fielder Charleston, second baseman Bingo DeMoss, third
baseman/outfielder Dave Malarcher, outfielder George Shively,
and pitchers Dizzy Dismukes, Jim Jeffries and Dicta Johnson.
By 1915, the ABCs were already challenging Rube Foster’s
Chicago American Giants for supremacy in Black baseball. That
year, they defeated the American Giants in a series for the Western
Black Championship, though Foster disputed the title. That year,
Taylor cut a deal to use the park left when the city’s entry in the
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Federal League dissolved. Bowser disagreed with the deal, and
the two owners parted company, each organizing a rival ABCs
squad. Taylor had the better of the contest for talent, retaining the
core of the 1915 team, and again claiming a disputed
championship over the American Giants.
In 1917, Bowser sold his club, generally known as Bowser’s ABCs,
to a Black businessman named Warner Jewell. Jewell’s ABCs,
playing at Northwestern Park, continued as a sort of farm club to
Taylor’s team. Federal League Park was torn down, and Taylor
turned to Washington Park, the home of the minor league
Indianapolis Indians. The Chicago American Giants were generally
recognized as Western Champions for 1917, finally ending the
ABCs’ two-year claim on the title.
In 1920, after a year-long absence from baseball, Taylor
reorganized the ABCs and entered them in the new Negro National
League (NNL), finishing in fourth place with a 39-35 record. The
following season Oscar Charleston left for the St. Louis Giants,
and the ABCs sagged to 35-38 and fifth place, despite a great
season from Ben Taylor.
During the off season in 1922, C. I. Taylor died, and his widow
Olivia continued as the club’s owner. Ben Taylor became the
playing manager. He reacquired Charleston, who led a
rejuvenated ABCs squad to a 46-33 record and second-place
February 2011
27
finish. The young catcher, Biz Mackey, enjoyed a breakout season
in 1922, and with Taylor, Charleston, and third baseman Henry
Blackman, keyed a prolific offense.
Both Ben Taylor and Biz Mackey jumped to the Eastern Colored
League for the 1923 season, but Charleston continued to hit (.364,
11 home runs, 94 RBI in 84 games), and the ABCs finished 4431, good for fourth place. Charleston, however, jumped east
himself in 1924, joining the Harrisburg Giants. 1924 saw the ABCs
struggle to a 4-17 record before they were dropped by the league
at mid-season.
Warner Jewell organized a new version of the ABCs for 1925,
which finished a dismal 17-57 in the NNL. In 1926, they improved
to 43-45, but folded at season’s end. Five years later, Candy Jim
Taylor returned to Indianapolis, and organized another new
franchise called the ABCs, which played in the NNL’s last season
in 1931, then joined the Negro Southern League for 1932. In 1933,
Taylor brought the ABCs into Gus Greenlee’s new Negro National
League. But, low attendance led Taylor to move the club to Detroit
shortly after opening day.
The name “Indianapolis ABCs” would also be used by a Negro
American League team in 1938 and 1939.
Indianapolis Clowns
NAL 1944, 1946-1950
After many years of operation as a barnstorming team, the Clowns
finally disbanded around 1988.
Jacksonville Red Caps
NAL 1938
The Jacksonville Red Caps were a team in Negro League Baseball
in 1938 and 1941-1942, playing in Jacksonville, Florida, at J. P.
Small Memorial Stadium in the Negro American League. They
moved to Cleveland in 1939, and became the Cleveland Bears.
They returned to Jacksonville in 1941, for two seasons. After the
war, the Red Caps apparently continued as an unaffiliated Negro
League team playing at Durkee Field.
On June 28, 2008, in Pittsburgh, the Tampa Bay Rays and
Pittsburgh Pirates honored the Negro Leagues by wearing
uniforms of the Jacksonville Red Caps and the Pittsburgh
Crawfords, respectively, in an interleague game. The Pirates won
the game, 4-3 in 13 innings.
Kansas City Monarchs
NNL 1920-1927, 1929-1930,
NAL 1937-1950
The
Indianapolis
Clowns
were
a
professional baseball
team in the Negro
American League. They
began operation in
Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1943,
and operated between
Cincinnati
and
Indianapolis in 1944 and
1945, before officially
moving in 1946. The
team won the league
championship in 1950.
While still fielding a
legitimate team, the
Clowns also toured with
several members known
for comic acts - sort of a
baseball version of the
Hank Aaron
Harlem Globetrotters,
including Joe “Prince”
Henry. After the decline of the Negro Leagues, the team continued
operations on barnstorming tours into the 1960s.
The Clowns’ best known player was Hank Aaron, who played for
them in 1952, before being sold for $10,000 to the Boston Braves
organization.
The Clowns fielded such stars as Buster Haywood, DeWitt
“Woody” Smallwood, showman “Goose” Tatum, and future Major
Leaguers John Wyatt (Kansas City Athletics), Paul Casanova
(Washington Senators), and Choo-Choo Coleman (New York
Mets).
The Clowns were the first professional baseball team to hire a
28
female player. Toni Stone played second base with the team in
1953, in which she batted .243. The following year the Clowns
sold her contract to the Kansas City Monarchs. They hired two
women replacements: Mamie “Peanut” Johnson, pitcher, and
Connie Morgan, second base. Women also served as umpires
for the team.
BSTM
The Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in
the history of baseball’s Negro Leagues. Operating in Kansas
City, Missouri, and owned by J.L. Wilkinson, they were charter
members of the Negro National League from 1920 to 1930. In
1930, the Monarchs became the first professional baseball team
to use a portable lighting
system to play games at
night, five years before any
major league team did. The
Monarchs won ten league
championships
before
integration, and triumphed in
the first Negro League World
Series in 1924. After sending
more players to the major
leagues than any other Negro
League franchise, the team
was finally disbanded in
1965.The Monarchs were
formed in 1920, primarily from
two sources. Owner J.L.
Wilkinson drew players from
his All Nations barnstorming
team, which had been
J.L. Wilkinson
inactive during World War I,
and the 25th Infantry
Wreckers, an all-Black team recruited into the U.S. Army almost
exclusively for their playing talent. He put together a formidable
collection of talent, including pitcher/outfielder Bullet Rogan, an
eventual Hall of Famer who established himself as one of the
February 2011
most popular stars of the new league; sluggers Dobie Moore, first league title. They took four consecutive league
Heavy Johnson, George Carr, and Hurley McNair; and pitchers championships from 1939 to 1942, winning the renewed Negro
Reuben Currie and Cliff Bell.
League World Series in 1942 in four
K.C. Monarchs
Immediate contenders, the Monarchs
straight games against the Homestead
became bitter rivals to Black
Grays.
baseball’s reigning power, Rube
At the start of this run, the Monarchs
Foster’s Chicago American Giants.
acquired their most famous player, Hall
After three years of failing to break the
of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige, who had
Giants’ hold on the pennant, Wilkinson
since his rookie season in 1927, built
fired manager Sam Crawford in mida reputation as the best hurler in Black
1923, replacing him with veteran
baseball for the Birmingham Black
Cuban star José Méndez, who
Barons, Pittsburgh Crawfords, and
sparked the Monarchs to the league
several other teams. Suffering from an
championship.
arm injury and generally thought to be
done, Paige joined the Monarchs’ B
Repeating in 1924, the Monarchs
team in 1939. By 1940, he had
participated in the first Negro League World Series, defeating
recovered, and been called up to the Monarchs’ main squad,
the Eastern Colored League Champion Hilldale team from
where he became their top drawing card. Paige led another
Darby, Pennsylvania, in a thrilling ten-game series (five wins,
superb Monarchs’ staff that included fellow Hall of Famer Hilton
four losses, and one tie). Motivated by the Monarchs’ runaway
Smith, the veteran Chet Brewer,
pennant victory, NNL president Rube Foster changed the league
Booker McDaniels, Jim LaMarque,
schedule to a split-season format for 1925. Kansas City
and several others. They won one
nevertheless took the league title again in 1925, but lost the
last NAL pennant in 1946, but lost
World Series to Hilldale, when Rogan was injured just before
Satchel
a seven-game World Series to the
the series began. Among the team’s regulars during these years
Paige
Newark Eagles.
were the brilliant-fielding second baseman/shortstop Newt Allen,
solid third baseman Newt Joseph, and Frank Duncan, one of In 1945, UCLA football star and
the best-regarded defensive catchers in Negro League history. Army lieutenant Jackie Robinson
hit .387 as the Monarchs’
In 1926, manager Méndez returned to Cuba, and Rogan took shortstop. He became the first
over as player/manager. He kept up the Monarchs’ tradition of Monarch to make the jump to White
fine pitching, as the team’s staff over the next few years featured baseball, signing with the Brooklyn
such Negro League greats as Chet Brewer, William Bell, lefty Dodgers in 1946. He broke the
Army Cooper, and Hall of Fame southpaw Andy Cooper. The minor league color line in 1946
club traded for legendary Cuban outfielder Cristóbal Torriente, with the Montreal Royals, and integrated the major leagues with
but also permanently lost the services of star shortstop Dobie the Dodgers in 1947. As baseball gradually desegregated in the
Moore, whose career ended
late 1940s and 1950s, the Monarchs developed a niche as the
that year due to a severe off-theforemost developer of Black talent for the major leagues. The
field injury. After winning the firstteam sent more players to the majors than any other Negro
half pennant, the Monarchs
League franchise, including Robinson, Paige, Ernie Banks, Elston
dropped a best of nine playoff
Howard, Hank Thompson, and Willard Brown.
to the Chicago American Giants
when Rogan lost both games
Newt Allen succeeded Cooper as
of
a
series-closing
manager in 1941, and was followed by
doubleheader to the young Bill
Frank Duncan in 1942. Duncan stayed
Foster (another eventual Hall of
at the helm through the 1947 season
Famer). In 1928, the Monarchs
winning two league titles and one world
narrowly missed a second-half
title.
title. They made up for this by
After Duncan stepped down, longtime
copping another NNL Title in
first baseman Buck O’Neil took over. After
1929, winning both halves with
a second-place finish in 1948, the
the best overall single-season
Monarchs won the league’s Western
record ever compiled by a
Willard Brown
Division first-half pennant in 1949, but
Negro League team (62 wins,
17 losses). Unfortunately, no World Series was played that year declined to participate in a playoff with
between the Monarchs and the Baltimore Black Sox, Champions the Chicago American Giants, as their
roster was depleted by player sales to
of the eastern American Negro League.
major league clubs. They won the NAL
Following the death of the original league, the Monarchs spent West Division title in 1950, but did not
Jackie Robinson
several years as an independent team, mostly barnstorming meet
the
Eastern
Champion
through the Midwest, West, and western Canada. They frequently Indianapolis Clowns that year. They won a half-season pennant
toured with the House of David baseball team. Hall of Famers in 1951, but lost a playoff. O’Neil won his only two league titles in
Hilton Smith, a pitcher, and Willard Brown, a slugging shortstop/ 1953 and 1955, with a last-place finish sandwiched between in
outfielder, became Monarch mainstays during this time. With 1954, as the Negro American League of the 1950s declined in
Andy Cooper now at the helm, the Monarchs became charter quality and shrank in size, while in the process grooming a
members of the Negro American League in 1937, winning the number of eventual major league players.
BSTM
February 2011
29
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The Monarchs played their home games in the minor league
Kansas City Blues’ Association Park from 1920 to 1923, and
moved to the Blues’ new park, Muehlebach Field, in mid-1923.
They mostly barnstormed in the early to mid-1930s, but used
Muehlebach (later known as Ruppert Stadium or Blues Stadium
at different times) from 1937 until 1954, when they went to fulltime barnstorming in response to the arrival of the Kansas City
Athletics in 1955. The team was sold to Ted Rasberry and moved
its base to Grand Rapids, Michigan, though retaining the name
“Kansas City Monarchs.” The Negro American League ceased
operations in 1962, and the Monarchs
finally disbanded in 1965.
ballpark.
Notable players
o Larry Brown
o Bill Foster
o Larry LeGrande
o Ernest McBride, Sr.
o Charley Pride
o Neil Robinson
o Satchel Paige
Leagues
o Negro National League (1920–31)
o Independent (1932–36)
o Negro American League (1937–61)
o Independent (1962–65)
Charter franchise, disbanded with
league.
The Montgomery Grey Sox were a
Negro Southern League (NSL) baseball
team based in Montgomery, Alabama.
While the NSL was regarded as a
minor league throughout most of its
existence, with the collapse of the first
Negro National League in 1932, the
league is considered a major league
for that one season.
Ballpark
o Association Park (1920–23)
o Blues Stadium (1923-1954)
-- a.k.a. Muehlebach Field
(1923–36)
-- a.k.a. Ruppert Stadium
(1937–42)
Buck O’Neil
•
•
•
•
Marlin Carter
Joe “Prince” Henry
Verdell Mathis
Buck O’Neil
Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe
Joe B. Scott
Montgomery Grey
Sox
NSL
Kansas City Monarchs
1920–1965
Kansas City
League titles
o 1923 • 1924
o 1929 • 1937
o 1940 • 1941
o 1946 • 1950
o 1955
o
o
o
o
o
o
1925
1939
1942
1953
In 1920, the Grey Sox made it into the
league pennant race with a 3-0 perfect
game win over Atlanta. When the NSL
became a major league for one year in
1932, Montgomery finished last at 920.
Newark Eagles
NNL 1936-1948
Negro World Series titles
o 1924 • 1942
Memphis Red Sox
NNL 1924-1925, 1927,
1929-1930, NSL 1932,
NAL 1937-1940, 1943-1950
The Newark Eagles was a professional Negro League baseball
team that played in the second Negro National League from
1936 to 1948. The team featured future Hall-of-Famers Larry
Doby (the first Black player in the American League), Ray
Dandridge, Leon Day, Monte Irvin, Biz Mackey, and Willie Wells,
as well as other stars such as Don Newcombe. The Eagles
shared Ruppert Stadium with the minor-league Newark Bears.
The Memphis Red Sox were a professional Negro League baseball
team based in Memphis, Tennessee, from the 1920s until the
end of segregated baseball.
The Red Sox played in the Negro National League for most of the
League’s existence, although they also played independently, and
in the Negro Southern League, before becoming charter members
of the new Negro American League in 1937. The team did not
perform as well in the new league as its roster would suggest.
For the greater part of its history, the team was owned by J. B.
Martin and B.B. Martin of Memphis, brothers who both maintained
dental practices and other business enterprises. The brothers built
Martin Park on Crump Boulevard for their club, making the Red
Sox one of the few clubs in the Negro Leagues with their own
BSTM
“The Eagles were to (Black)
Newark what the Dodgers were to
Brooklyn.” - Eagles star Max
Manning
The Eagles were formed when Abe
Manley and his wife Effa Manley,
founders of the Brooklyn Eagles,
purchased the Newark Dodgers
Monte
franchise and merged the teams.
Team management was left to Effa,
Irvin
making the Eagles the first
professional team owned and
operated by a woman, and under
her guidance the 1946 team won the Negro League World
February 2011
31
came on July 28, 1934, a face-off that saw Hall-of-Famers Josh
Gibson, Judy Johnson, James “Cool Papa” Bell, and Oscar
Charleston all play in regular-season tilt.
Rain ended the game after 7½ innings, but not before Crawfords’
star Gibson and Yankee Bob Clark had both hit powerful home
runs, Gibson’s contributing to his League championship home
run record for that year. On July 13, 1935, Elmer McDuffy pitched
an 8-0 no-hitter at Hinchliffe Stadium against the House of David.
According to the Paterson Evening News, it was “the first time
such a feat had ever been turned in by the Negro club in this
territory.”
The team played its last season, 1948, in Rochester, New York,
using Red Wing Stadium, home of the International League
Rochester Red Wings, as their home park. After an opening day
doubleheader sweep of the Newark Eagles on May 25, 1948,
the team did not fare well and finished the last Negro National
League season with a record of 8-32.
Notable players
o Satchel Paige
o Fats Jenkins
o George “Mule” Suttles
Effa Manley
Series, upsetting the Kansas City Monarchs in a 7-game series.
New York Cubans
NNL 1935-36, 1939-48,
NAL 1949-50
New York Black Yankees
NNL 1936-1948
The New York Black Yankees was a professional baseball team
based in New York City, NY, Paterson, NJ, and Rochester, NY,
which played in the Negro National League from 1936 to 1948.
The Black Yankees played in Paterson, New Jersey, from 19331937 and then from 1939-1945. The 1938 season saw the Black
Yankees trying their fate at New York’s Triborough Stadium.
Paterson’s strong fan support returned the Black Yankees to
Paterson’s Hinchliffe Stadium.
The team was founded in Harlem by financier James “Soldier
Boy” Semler and dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson.
The team’s left fielder, Fats Jenkins, was chosen by fans to play
on the East Team in the first East-West All-Star Game in 1933. A
succession of other players were sent to the big game in 1937–
1942, 1947 and 1948.
The team’s schedule could be punishing. In the 1930s, they played
two doubleheaders 350 miles apart on successive days. They
left Pittsburgh after the first two games at about 10:00 PM to cross
the Allegheny Mountains for South Orange, New Jersey. One of
the two cars broke down so nine of the 16 players crowded into
the other car to ensure that play would start on time. They arrived
just twenty minutes behind the scheduled start time. They were
given five minutes to warm up. The other seven players arrived a
few minutes later so they were able to lunch and sleep before
taking two of their exhausted team mates to play the second
game. Despite their fatigue, the team won both games.
In September 1933,the New York Black Yankees played the
Philadelphia Stars for the Colored Championship of the Nation at
Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey. They lost the
Championship, but not their momentum, opening the following
season with an eight-game winning streak at Hinchliffe Stadium.
The streak-ending ninth game with the Pittsburgh Crawfords
32
BSTM
o Kenny Blank
o Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe
o Willie Wells
The New York Cubans were a Negro Leagues baseball team
that played during the 1930s and from 1939 to 1950. Despite
playing in the Negro Leagues, the team occasionally employed
White-skinned Hispanic baseball players as well, because
Hispanics in general were largely ignored by the major league
baseball teams before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier
in Major League Baseball.
In 1899, the All Cubans became
the first All-Hispanic team to travel
to the United States and stage
exhibition
games
against
established
Negro
League
powerhouse teams. The All
Cubans kept traveling to the United
States each year until 1905.
Beginning in 1907, they were
replaced by the Cuban Stars, which
became
accepted
as
an
independent Negro baseball team.
In 1916, the team was struck by
controversies and competition
regarding booking, which led to the
Alex Pompez
creation of a new Cuban Stars
carrying the same name. To differentiate between the two teams,
we refer to the newer team as the Cuban Stars (East), which
was owned by Alex Pompez and competed in the New York city
area. The older team (which was owned by Abel Linares and
Tinti Molina and previously had competed in the New York area)
moved to the mid-western region and is known as the Cuban
Stars (West).
About 1930, both Cuban Stars teams folded, but in 1935, Pompez
was able to re-create a Cuban team under the new name New
York Cubans. In 1935 and 1936, the New York Cubans called
February 2011
historic Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey, home. Unlike
what the teams’s name may lead some to believe, the team
was not composed exclusively of Cuban players. There were
players from other Hispanic nationalities and the United States
as well. In 1941, Perucho Cepeda, father of National Baseball
Hall of Famer Orlando Peruchin Cepeda and a legendary player
around the Caribbean himself, became the first Puerto Rican to
play for the New York Cubans. Apart from Cepeda, there were
also players from Mexico and the Dominican Republic who played
for the New York Cubans. From 1941 to 1944, the Cubans had
the services of well known utility player Tetelo Vargas.
Only one other team of the era, the Indianapolis Clowns, boasted
a line-up with as many international players as the Cubans did.
With a team that included such notables as
Luis Tiant, Sr., Minnie Miñoso and Martín
Dihigo, the New York Cubans won their only
Negro League World Series Title in 1947,
defeating the Cleveland Buckeyes.
Giants welcomed any and all competition, including White-only
teams. The team was renamed the Nashville Elite Giants in
1921. This team would play independently, that is to say that they
did not play in an organized league, through 1929.
Also in 1929, Wilson built a new ballpark for his team to play at,
Tom Wilson Park, which also served as a spring training site for
other Negro League teams, as well as White-only minor league
teams. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Roy Campanella are known
to have played at the park. The 8,000 seat facility featured a
single-decked, covered grandstand. The ballpark was centrally
located in Nashville’s largest Black community, known as Trimble
Bottom, near the convergence of Second and Forth Avenues.
Before his death in 1947, Wilson converted the park into a dog
racing track and later the Paradise Ballroom, a popular Black
nightclub that attracted top musical talents
of the day, including Duke Ellington and
Louis Armstrong. The structure was later
demolished and is presently the site of
semi-truck loading dock.
Joe Black
In 1930, the team gained admission into
their first organized league, the Negro
National League. The Elite Giants finished
in seventh place with a 39-47 record.
The Cubans did not win another
Championship, and, because of many
different reasons, which included
economical strain and exodus both from
African-American and Hispanic players to
the Major Leagues, the Negro League
stopped playing in 1950.
One of the New York Cubans, Martín Dihigo,
holds the distinction of being in three
different baseball Halls of Fame; the Cuban,
Mexican and United States ones. Another,
Tetelo Vargas, is a member of the Puerto
Rican and Cuban baseball Hall of Fames,
despite never having played a single game
in Cuba. His election to the Cuban baseball
Hall of Fame has been credited to his participation with the New
York Cubans.
On May 29, 2010, the New York Mets wore Cubans uniforms in a
game in Milwaukee against the Brewers, who wore Milwaukee
Bears uniforms.
Nashville Elite Giants
NNL 1930, 1933-1934
NSL 1932
The Negro National League collapsed after
the 1931 season, and the team moved back
to Nashville, reverted to being called the
Elite Giants, and joined the Negro Southern
League, where they played in 1932.
A second incarnation of the Negro National League was formed
in 1933, where the Elite Giants played for the following two
seasons. Nashville finished the 1933 season in fifth place with a
29-22 record and tied as winners of the second half of the season
with the Pittsburgh Crawfords. Nashville lost a three-game playoff
with Pittsburgh for a spot in the league championship game. In
1934, the Elite Giants finished in fourth place with a 20-28 record.
In 1935, the team moved to Columbus, Ohio, and became the
Columbus Elite Giants. They played only one season in Columbus,
1935, finishing in fourth place with a 16-17 record.
Disbanded after 1934, became Columbus Elite Giants in 1935.
The Baltimore Elite Giants were a professional baseball team that
played in the Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1950. The team was
established by Thomas T. Wilson, in Nashville, Tennessee, as
the semi-pro Nashville Standard Giants on March 26, 1920. The
team was renamed the Elite Giants in 1933, and would move to
Baltimore, Maryland, in 1938, where it played until its final season
in 1950. The team pronounced the word “Elite” to rhyme with
“light.”
The Nashville Standard Giants was formed as an amateur allNegro team in Nashville, Tennessee, in the early 1900s. Tom T.
Wilson took control of the club in 1918. On March 26, 1920, the
team was chartered as a semi-professional team. The Standard
BSTM
The following season, 1931, Wilson moved
the team to Cleveland, Ohio, and renamed
the team the Cleveland Cubs, remaining in
the same league. The team finished in
seventh place with a 25-28 record.
In 1936, the team moved to Washington D.C., and became the
Washington Elite Giants. In their first season, they finished in
fifth place with a 21-24 record. In 1937, the Elites finished in third
place with a 27-17 record.
The team moved again in 1938, to Baltimore, Maryland, and
became the Baltimore Elite Giants. In 1939, the Elites won the
Negro National Title, defeating the Homestead Grays. In 1948,
they won the first half, but lost the Championship to second half
winners, the Homestead Grays.
In 1949, the Negro National League ceased operations, so the
Elite Giants joined the Negro American League. In their first
season with the new league, Baltimore captured the Eastern
and Western Division Titles, earning them a second Negro
National Title. In thirteen seasons in Baltimore, of the eleven
February 2011
33
which have available standings, the Elite Giants finished in the
top three during nine of those seasons. In dire financial straits,
the club played one final season in 1950, before dissolving.
Notable players
o
o
0
o
Roy Campanella
Leon Day
Junior Gilliam (1953 National League Rookie of the Year)
Joe Black (1952 National League Rookie of the Year)
After Bolden’s death, his ownership passed to his daughter,
Hilda Bolden Shorter. She ran the club through 1952.
Philadelphia Stars
NNL 1934-1948, NAL 1949-1950
The Philadelphia Stars were a Negro League baseball team
from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The
Stars were founded in 1933, when
Ed Bolden returned to professional
Black baseball after being idle since
early 1930. The Stars were an
Independent ball club in 1933, a
member of the Negro National
League from 1934 until the League’s
collapse following the 1948 season,
and then affiliated with the Negro
American League from 1949-1952.
In 1934, led by 20-year-old lefthander Slim Jones, the Stars
defeated the Chicago American
Giants in an exciting playoff series,
four games to three, for the Negro
National League pennant. At their
high point in mid-30s, the team
starred such greats as Biz Mackey,
Jud Wilson, and Dick Lundy. After
being released by the Cleveland
Indians, famed Negro Leaguer and
Major Leaguer Satchel Paige signed
with the Stars in July 1950, before
returning to the Majors with Bill Veeck
and the St. Louis Browns.
The team was financed, and owned in part by sports promoter
Eddie Gottlieb, who also owned the Philadelphia Sphas and
Philadelphia Warriors basketball teams. Gottlieb leased Penmar
Park from the Pennsylvania Railroad for use by the Stars. In
addition to the Stars, Gottlieb was the booking agent for all the
Negro League teams in the Northeast, taking 10-percent of gate
receipts for his work.
The team played at Passon Field
during the 1934 and 1935 seasons.
Passon Field was located at the
current site of West Philadelphia
High School’s athletic field (baseball
and football) now called Pollock
Field, and was the former home of
the Philadelphia Bacharach Giants.
In 1936, the Stars moved to Penmar
Park where they played the majority
of their home games through 1947,
when they lost their lease. The Stars
often played on Monday nights at
Shibe Park, which had a higher
seating capacity and which was
located in North Philadelphia. The
New York Times reported that the
Stars had their largest crowd at
Shibe Park in June 1943, when they
beat the Kansas City Monarchs in
front of 24,165.
After 1947, the Stars played home
games at area ballparks including
Wilmington Park in Delaware, home
of the Wilmington Blue Rocks minorleague team. The club disbanded
after the 1952 season.
Oscar
Charleston
Ed
Bolden
organized
the
Philadelphia Stars, who played their
first season in 1933. The Negro
National League was composed
primarily of mid-western teams in
1933, and many east-coast clubs
were Independent. The Stars were
originally one such unaffiliated club,
and primarily played against local
White semi-professional and professional teams. For example,
by June 1933, the Stars’ only games against Black teams had
been against the Philadelphia Bacharach Giants and the
Pittsburgh Crawfords.
The Negro National League used a split-season playoff system
in 1934, with the season’s first-half winner playing the secondhalf winner for the championship. The Chicago American Giants
won the first-half. The Stars won the second-half with a record of
11-4. The Stars won the 1934 Negro National League
Championship by beating the Chicago American Giants 4-3-1 in
a best of seven game series.
The Stars were founded and organized by Ed Bolden. Bolden
34
had owned the Hilldale Daisies Negro League ballclub that won
the Eastern Colored League pennant in 1923, 1924, and 1925,
and which beat the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro League
World Series in 1925. He was also a founder of the ECL. Bolden
was instrumental in building the Stars’ 1934 championship club,
and ran the team until his death in 1950.
BSTM
Honors
Negro National League
Championships
o 1934
Negro National League Rookie of the Year
o 1940 Mahlon Duckett
Hall of Famers
While none of these players were enshrined in Cooperstown
with a Stars cap, each of them was a part of the Philadelphia
Stars franchise at one point in his career.
o
o
o
o
o
Oscar Charleston, 1941, 1942-1944, 1946-1950
Biz Mackey, 1933-1935
Satchel Paige, 1946 and 1950
Turkey Stearnes, 1936
Jud Wilson, 1933-1939, managed 1937
February 2011
Philadelphia Stars
1933–1952
Philadelphia
Leagues
o Independent, 1933
o Negro National League, 1934-1948
o Negro American League, 1949-1952
Ballpark
o Passon Field (1934-1935)
o Penmar Park (1936-1947)
o Shibe Park (Monday nights)
Cool Papa
Bell
Pittsburgh Crawfords
Independent 1931-32
NNL 1933-1938
The Pittsburgh Crawfords were a professional Negro
League baseball team based in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. Named after the Crawford Grill, a club in
the Hill District of Pittsburgh owned by Gus Greenlee,
the Crawfords were originally a youth semi-pro team
sponsored by the Crawford Bath House and
Recreation Center. The Crawfords were acquired in
1931, by Gus Greenlee, a numbers operator. Stepping
into an organizational vacuum, as the major AfricanAmerican leagues of the 1920s, the Negro National
League and the Eastern Colored League, had fallen
apart by late that year, he signed many of the top AfricanAmerican stars, most notably Satchel Paige. The next
year, 1932, saw Greenlee hire Hall of Famer Oscar
Charleston as playing manager, and added Hall of
Famers Josh Gibson, Judy Johnson, and Cool Papa
Bell, along with other notable players, such as William
Bell, Rap Dixon, and Ted Radcliffe. Playing as an
Independent club, the Crawfords immediately
established themselves as perhaps the best Black
team in the United States.
The Crawfords played in the new Greenlee Field, one
of the few parks built specifically for the Negro Leagues
and owned by the team’s owner. Greenlee also operated one of
Black Pittsburgh’s favorite nighttime gathering spots, the
Crawford Grill, where the likes of Lena Horne and Bill “Bojangles”
Robinson entertained, and players like Paige and Gibson
unwound.
In 1933, Greenlee founded a new Negro National League, and
enrolled the Crawfords as charter members. The club narrowly
lost the first-half title to the Chicago American Giants. Both teams
claimed the second-half title, and Greenlee as league president
awarded it to his Crawfords. The matter of the overall pennant
was apparently never decided. The next season, as Gibson led
the league with 16 home runs and Paige won 20 games, the
Crawfords were near the top of the overall standings, but won
neither half. Records of all games against league opponents, not
just those considered official league games, show the Crawfords
with far and away the best record for 1934.
In 1935, Paige skipped most of the NNL season to play for a
semi-pro team in North Dakota. Despite his absence, the
Crawfords finally lived up to their promise, taking the first-half
title with a 26-6 record, then defeating the New York Cubans in a
36
BSTM
close seven-game series for their only undisputed NNL pennant.
In retrospect, many historians consider this edition of the
Crawfords to be the greatest Negro League team of all time,
featuring the four Hall of Famers, plus left-handed pitcher Leroy
Matlock, who won 18 games without a defeat.
After a mediocre first half (16-15) in 1936, the Crawfords rallied
to win the NNL’s second half with a 20-9 record. Paige had
returned, and contributed an 11-3 record. The playoff with the
first-half winners, the Washington Elite Giants, apparently only
lasted one game (the Elite Giants winning, 2 to 0) before it was
called off for unknown reasons. Greenlee awarded the pennant
to the Crawfords, over Washington’s protests.
In 1937, Paige led several Crawfords players, including Gibson
and Bell, to the Dominican Republic to play for the dictator Rafael
Trujillo’s team. The Crawfords plunged to fifth place out of six
teams with a 12-16 record. They partly recovered the next season,
finishing third with a 24-16 record, but, with the exception of the
41-year-old Charleston, whose playing career was nearly over,
the heart of the old Crawfords’ team—Paige, Gibson, Bell—had
all moved on to other teams. Greenlee sold the club, Greenlee
Field was demolished, and the Crawfords moved to Toledo for
February 2011
the 1939 season.
Pittsburgh Crawfords
1930–1938
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Leagues
o Second Negro National League (1933-1938)
Ballpark
o Forbes Field
o Greenlee Field
League titles
o 1935, 1936
Saint Louis Stars
NNL 1920-1931, 1943
NAL 1937,39,41
The St. Louis Stars were a Negro League baseball team that
competed in the Negro National League from 1922 to 1931.
Founded when Dick Kent and Dr. Sam Sheppard took over the
St. Louis Giants franchise from African-American promoter Charlie
Mills, the Stars eventually built one of the great dynasties in Negro
League history, winning three pennants in four years from 1928
to 1931.
Mule Suttles
The club played in Stars Park, completed in mid-season 1922 as
one of the few ballparks built expressly for the Negro Leagues.
The park became famous for its 269 foot left field wall, built to
accommodate a trolley car barn. Despite special rules that in some
seasons counted home runs hit over the car barn as ground-rule
doubles, the park proved very friendly to power hitters over the
years.
The Stars inherited almost the entire roster of the 1921 Giants
(who had finished in second place), with the exception of Hall of
Fame center fielder Oscar Charleston. Without Charleston, the
Stars dropped to fourth place in 1922, though with a creditable
35-26 record. In 1923, they slipped badly, finishing with 28 wins
and 44 losses, good for only sixth place. Midway through the year,
they acquired several players from the Toledo Tigers when that
team folded, including new manager Candy Jim Taylor. A 37-yearold third baseman, Taylor tied for the 1923 league lead with 20
home runs (19 hit in St. Louis).
More importantly, over the next few years Taylor put together one
of the most impressive assemblages of talent in Negro League
history, including Cool Papa Bell, whom Taylor converted from a
left-handed pitcher into a brilliant defensive center fielder and
leadoff man; Mule Suttles, first baseman and all-time Negro
League home run king; Willie Wells, considered by many
historians to be John Henry Lloyd’s only serious rival as the
greatest shortstop in Negro League history; and Ted Trent, pitcher
and wielder of one of the most effective curve balls in the league.
In 1924, the Stars improved to 42-34 and fourth place. The next
year, they won the second-half title with an impressive 38-12
record after only narrowly losing the first half (69-27 overall), but
lost the playoff series to Bullet Rogan and the Kansas City
Monarchs. When Taylor left to manage the Detroit Stars and
Cleveland Elites in 1926, the Stars slumped to 49-30, good for
BSTM
third place overall, though Mule Suttles enjoyed an historic
season at bat. According to John Holway’s Complete Book of
the Negro Leagues, he hit .498, and led the NNL in doubles
(27), triples (21), and home runs (27, the all-time Negro League
single season record). He returned in 1927, and in 1928 the
Stars took over the league, winning the first half going away, and
compiling the best overall record by a good margin (66-26).
They defeated the Chicago American Giants, second-half winners
(and Negro League World Champions for two years running) in
an exciting playoff series, 5 games to 4.
The Stars continued their winning ways in 1929, but were just
edged out in both halves of the season by the Kansas City
Monarchs, despite Willie Wells’s 27 home runs (tying Suttles’s
1926 record). The following year, they took their second NNL
pennant, defeating the Detroit Stars in the playoff. In 1931, the
Stars were awarded the pennant when the league disintegrated
partway through the season, unfortunately, the club folded along
February 2011
37
with the league.
In 1937, another club named the St. Louis Stars joined the Negro
American League as a charter member, and played in that circuit
until 1939, but this was an entirely different organization.
The St. Louis Cardinals have honored the Stars by wearing replica
uniforms during regular-season baseball games on several
occasions, including July 4, 1997 (at home vs. Pittsburgh), August
1 and 2, 1998 (at Atlanta), June 29, 2003 (at Kansas City), August
12, 2006 (at Pittsburgh), and August 14, 2007 (at Washington).
Stars Park is a former baseball ground located in St. Louis,
Missouri, at the southeast corner of Compton and Laclede
avenues. The ground was home to the St. Louis Stars of the Negro
National League from 1922 to 1931. The stadium was one of the
few ballparks purposely built for a negro league team. It had a
capacity of 10,000 people.
Seattle Steelheads
WCNBL 1946
The Seattle Steelheads were a Negro League baseball team from
Seattle, Washington, and played in the West Coast Negro
Baseball League. Their primary home ballpark was Sick’s Stadium.
They also played home games in Tacoma, Bremerton, Spokane,
and Bellingham. The league folded after a month of play.
The Steelheads played their first game on June 1, 1946, against
the San Diego Tigers before 2,500 fans at Sick’s Stadium.
The Seattle Mariners honored the Steelheads when they wore
1946 Steelheads uniforms on September 9, 1995, at home against
the Kansas City Royals. The Royals wore Kansas City Monarchs
uniforms. The uniforms were made by local Seattle company
Ebbets Field Flannels. The Mariners beat the Royals 6-2 in front
of 39,157 fans at the Kingdome. The game was attended by former
Steelhead player Sherwood Brewer who chatted with players
before the game.
John Henry Lloyd
Seattle Steelheads
1946–1946
Seattle
Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, both associate members of
the midwest-based Negro National League (NNL), broke with
the NNL and allied with the White promoter Nat Strong to form an
east coast league. The charter members were: Hilldale, the
Bacharach Giants, the Brooklyn Royal Giants, the Cuban Stars
(East), the Lincoln Giants of New York, and the Baltimore Black
Sox. In 1924, the Harrisburg Giants and Washington Potomacs
joined, bringing the circuit to eight clubs. The ECL raided the
NNL for players, including Hall of Famers Oscar Charleston, Biz
Mackey, and John Henry Lloyd, starting a war that lasted for two
years.
Leagues
o West Coast Negro Baseball League
Name
o Steelies
Ballpark
o Sick’s Stadium
Washington/Wilmington
Potomacs
ECL
At the end of the 1924 season, the two leagues made peace and
arranged for a Negro League World Series between their
Champions. This series was played each year from 1924 through
1927. The only ECL club to win the World Series was Hilldale in
1925.
The Mutual Association of Eastern Colored Clubs, more
commonly known as the Eastern Colored League, was one of
the several Negro Leagues, which operated during the time
organized baseball was segregated. The ECL was founded in
1923 when the Philadelphia-area Hilldale Club and the
38
BSTM
In 1925, the Washington Potomacs moved to Wilmington,
Delaware, but still disbanded in July. Their 1926 replacement,
the Newark Stars, folded after only 11 games.
Note: This article does not purport to present all the teams of the
Negro Leagues. A special thanks to wikipedia for its content.
February 2011
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Spotlight on
Blake Griffin
The L.A. Clippers’ Human Highlight Film
by Tonya M. Huffman
NBA player Blake Griffin is a great role
model, a great sport, a great basketball
player, a great recruiter and a great
achiever. But he is a terrible lounger.
“The way I look at it is, if I’m not out here
working, there’s somebody else out
there who is working,” said Blake.
As a junior, during the 2004-2005
season, in 26 games, Blake averaged
21.7 points per game, 12.5 rebounds,
4.9 assists, and blocked 49 shots with
45 steals. He was named to the Tulsa
World “Boys All-State First-Team.” He
and Taylor led the basketball team to yet
another State championship. Blake was
named State Tournament MVP and
“Player of the Year” by The Oklahoman.
Blake’s problem is one that most
coaches wish other basketball players
had. With his strong work ethic, Blake
has been described as a beast on the
court, a title fitting for someone of his
ilk. But working hard is in his blood, and
is the ethic that would take him to the
top, a truth he’s known and followed
since his days of youth.
During his 2002-2003 freshman year, the power forward helped
lead his high school basketball team to a State championship.
During Blake’s 2005-2006 senior season,
as Taylor headed to the University of
Oklahoma to play with the Sooners, he
led the Saints to a 26-3 record by
averaging 26.8 points per game, 15.1
rebounds, 4.9 assists, 2.9 blocks, and 1.6
steals, while shooting .718 from the field.
He helped lead the team to another State
championship. Blake was named the
Class 2A State Tournament MVP, “Player
of the Year” by both Tulsa World and The
Oklahoman, and Gatorade’s “Oklahoma
Player of the Year.” He was named to the
2006 Jordan Brand Team and to the
McDonald’s All-America Team, where he
won the Powerade Jam Fest slam-dunk
contest. Stellar playtime yields stellar
press time, and trailing Blake were welldeserved accolades. He was named a
Second-Team EA Sports, a Third-Team
Parade All-American, a five-star recruit by
both Scout.com and Rivals.com, and he
was ranked as the country’s 7 th best
power forward by Scout.com, 6 th by
Rivals.com, and 3rd by HoopScoop. And,
with national ratings of high school
seniors, Blake was ranked #23 by
Rivals.com, #20 by Scout.com, and #13
by HoopScoop. While he was honored
and humbled to receive accolades and
honorable rankings, they were building
blocks to get to the collegiate level. “It was
good and nice to get those along the way,
but it was all part of the process,” said
Blake about earning his honors. “The goal was to get to college
and play at that level.”
He and Taylor first played organized basketball together during
his 2003-2004 sophomore year. During this season, Blake
averaged 13.6 points per game, was named to the “Little All-City
All-State” Team. Taylor was named “Player of the Year” by The
Oklahoman, and they both helped to lead the team to another
State championship.
Blake was definitely under the microscope, for the country and
nation were on the edge of their seats in awe of his next move.
Already a Sooner, Taylor raved to Blake about the direction of the
Sooners’ basketball program under their newly hired coach,
mentioned the benefits of staying close to home, and vehemently
added that they could play organized basketball together again
Blake Austin Griffin was the second child
born to Tommy and Gail Griffin on March
16, 1989, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Growing up, Blake and his older brother
Taylor’s work ethic was so strong, that it
added a competitive edge to their
demeanors. As children, they would race
to be the first to tie shoes, complete
chores, and finish schoolwork. When it
came to sports, they often fought so
fiercely that their mother often had to
separate them - one was sent to the
backyard, while the other was sent to the
front.
The boys were finally reunited in high
school at Oklahoma Christian High
School in Edmund, home of the
Saints, and it really became a family
affair, for their father was the
head basketball coach. Blake was
comfortable and felt good being
surrounded by family who helped him
excel. “It felt pretty good. To be around
my family and to learn from my dad was
a great experience,” said Blake.
40
Blake Griffin
BSTM
February 2011
just like nostalgic times in high school. “I think if you
want to, Oklahoma would be a great place for you to be.
I’d love to get the chance to play with you again,” Taylor
said when recruiting Blake to attend the University of
Oklahoma. He was immediately sold, and hence, chose
Oklahoma over the other distinguished schools such as
Connecticut, Duke, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan
State, North Carolina, and Oklahoma State. “Taylor is
such a good salesperson,” said the boys’ father Tommy.
“He sold him on Oklahoma University.” In fact, Blake
was the 6th McDonald All-America signee in Oklahoma
history. “Staying close to home and the fact that my
brother went to the University of Oklahoma was
important. I also had a great relationship with the coach,
so that helped,” said Blake in defending his college
choice. In preparing for college basketball, Blake wanted
to wear a jersey number that represented the Sooners’
great history and that foreshadowed greatness. He
asked Sooner alum Wayman Tisdale for permission to
wear #23, the first Oklahoma player in any sport to have
his jersey number retired. Tisdale granted Blake his
blessing, and Blake proudly donned the #23 jersey, and
knew he would live up to Tisdale’s reputation by shining
on the court.
Blake Griffin
Happy to be playing alongside Taylor, who was a junior,
Blake’s 2007-2008 freshman season was awesome. He
twice earned Big 12 Player of the Week during the weeks
of December 31st and January 28th. On January 14,
2008, he won Rookie of the Week. He was a First-Team
All-Big 12 selection by league coaches and the
Associated Press, and was named to the Big 12 AllRookie Team. Blake was ranked 9th in Big 12 in scoring,
4th in rebounding, and 3rd in field goal percentage. The
last Oklahoma University true frosh to average as many
points and rebounds was Tisdale in 1983. Blake was a
First-Team All-District pick by the United States
Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) and the
National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).
As a Freshman, in an overtime game against Baylor,
Blake scored a high 29 points and grabbed 15 rebounds.
He grabbed a high 17 rebounds versus Texas Tech.
Playing in 33 games with 28 starts, he averaged 14.7 points per
game, 9.1 rebounds, and 1.8 assists in 28.4 minutes as he led
the Sooners to a 23-12 record. His game shined so bright, that
he was highly touted by NBA scouts, and he put Oklahoma’s
basketball program on the map, hence, indirectly recruiting
basketball players to a school that was known for just football.
Knowing they would receive a good education, but also wanting
to excel at their game, more and more basketball player hopefuls
applied to Oklahoma to get trained to make it to the next level.
Blake was happy and humbled that he helped to exalt the Sooners’
basketball reputation and feels that putting their basketball
program on front street was a team effort. “It was nice to come in
and help out. We had a great team and we all did our part in
trying to change the culture a little bit,” said Blake. And, as good
a player that he is, modesty encouraged Blake to pass up the
opportunity of a lifetime - to leave Oklahoma after his freshman
season to be an NBA lottery pick. Instead, he continued learning,
maturing, and improving his game as a sophomore with the
Sooners.
Still happy to be playing with his brother who was a senior, Blake
radiated during his 2008-2009 season with the Sooners. Starting
BSTM
35 games, he averaged 22.7 points per game, 14.4 rebounds,
2.3 assists, 1.2 blocks, and 1.1 steals in 33.3 minutes. He led the
team in rebounding 31 times in his 35 games. He was the first
Sooner to grab at least 18 rebounds in his first four consecutive
games, and his rebound total was the highest in a season by an
NCAA Division I player since Indiana State’s Larry Bird in the late
1970s. Blake set both an Oklahoma University and a Big 12 single
season record with 504 rebounds, and with 30 double-doubles
for a season by a Sooner, ranking him #1 nationally in rebounding
and double-doubles. He and Taylor helped lead Oklahoma to the
Elite Eight of the 2009 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Throughout his sophomore season, he earned a record-tying six
Big 12 Player of the Week awards. Perhaps his best game was
on Valentines’ Day, February 14, 2009, against the Texas Tech
Red Raiders, where he notched his best career stats to date: 40
points, and 23 rebounds in 31 minutes. These stats made him
the third player in the history of Sooners basketball to score at
least 40 points and get at least 20 rebounds in a game after Tisdale
in 1983 and Alvan Adams in 1975. He joined both Tisdale and
Adams as the only Sooners to reach 1,000 career points during
their sophomore season. It was evident that Blake made the
correct decision to stay with the Sooners his sophomore year, for
his game greatly improved and his list of accolades grew. He won
February 2011
41
Blake Griffin
the Naismith Award, John Wooden Award, Adolph Rupp Trophy,
Oscar Robertson Trophy, Unanimous AP All-American Award, AP
Big 12 Player of the Year, Big 12 Conference Men’s Basketball
Player of the Year, the Sporting News Player of the Year,
FoxSports.com Player of the Year, Athlon Sports Player of the
Year, and SI.com Player of the Year. He also appeared on the
cover of NCAA Basketball 10 video game by EA Sports and in an
advertising campaign for Subway restaurants. Blake was honored
and humbled to receive such awards, but still credits his team
victories as outstanding and memorable. “It was great to be
recognized, for the personal awards are great, but the victories
and accomplishments we made as a team were what was most
important to me,” said Blake.
With all the recognition and accolades Blake earned, especially
while in college, on the flip side, he’s had his share of adversities.
Blake has endured many injuries and lengthy recovery periods
that have kept him out of games, such as a sprained medical
collateral ligament just five minutes into a game, torn cartilage
and other knee injuries, a concussion, a bloody nose, and many
of these injuries were consecutive. He has also endured umpteen
players who have played unfair to get a rise out of him, whether
they tripped, elbowed, or undercut him. Blake, as well as his
brother, have the mental discipline of robots, allowing them to
stay in control. This mental control concept was taught to them
by San Francisco trainer Frank Matrisciano, who has said that on
the court, basketball players are either puppets or puppet-masters.
And of course, Blake is the puppet-master because rather than
be controlled like a puppet, he controls. So in appropriately
handling these disappointing injuries and competitive opponents,
his character continues to be built, and has made his
sportsmanship shine.
Blake’s game, coupled with his level head, gave him the
opportunity to head to the NBA or return to Oklahoma for his junior
year. The opportunity to earn a generous paycheck, receive
endorsements, and most important, to accomplish his lifelong
dream of being a potential pick in the NBA draft was too good an
offer for him to refuse. So he did not. He was selected 1st overall
in the 2009 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers. Taylor was
selected in the second round, 48th pick by the Phoenix Suns. Taylor
currently plays with the Belgacom Liege in Belgium.
42
BSTM
Blake was happy his brother got drafted and ecstatic himself to
make it pro, for playing in the NBA has been his longtime dream
that finally came true. “I was very happy. Making it to the NBA has
always been a goal of mine. When I made it, it really was a great
feeling,” said Blake. Also true and a good feeling is that Blake
and his brother would be playing organized basketball together
again - but not as teammates. In fact, in a 2009 Los Angeles
Clippers Summer League game versus the Phoenix Suns, just
two minutes into their initial game as opponents, with the
assistance of about 20 vocal Clippers fans, it was quite obvious
that the Griffin brothers were no longer teammates. But, both Blake
and Taylor ignored the trash talk, played their hearts out, and after
Phoenix pulled an 87-70 victory, the brothers who enjoyed
competing against one another exchanged hugs. Being reunited
with his brother was a treat for Blake. “It was cool just with both of
us being out there. It was fun,” said Blake.
Blake continued playing for the Clippers’ 2009 Summer League
Team and was one of the stars of the tournament, being named
Summer League MVP. But, unfortunately, adversity struck that
put Blake’s playing days on hiatus. The day before the 20092010 NBA season began, it was confirmed that he had a stress
fracture in his left knee, putting off his NBA debut for several
weeks. On January 13, 2010, after tests revealed that his knee
was not recovering properly, it was reported that Blake would
require surgery to repair the fracture and that he would be out for
the season. Donning jersey #32, during the 2009-2010 NBA
season, in the few 7 games that he was able to play, he started 5
and averaged 13.7 points per game, 8.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists, in
28 minutes. He spent basketball’s 2010 off-season recovering and
training for the 2010-2011 season with the Clippers, and hopes
to remain healthy and productive throughout the season.
Because his injury put his playing days on hiatus, the 2010-2011
season is Blake’s true rookie season. He is really shining, playing
with a strong start and finish. The mile long smile he displays
before playing games and his high-octane performance shows
his happiness to return to the court.
Because of Blake’s 6’10, 251 pound size, dominance on the court,
how he handles his emotions, while gracing his trademark blank
facial expression, he has full advantage on the court, and hence,
continued success for Blake Austin Griffin is definitely in the BAG.
February 2011
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CIAA
Bowie State University, MD - Chowan University, NC - Elizabeth City State University, NC
Fayetteville State University, NC - Johnson C. Smith University, NC - Lincoln University, PA
Livingstone College, NC - St. Augustine’s College, NC - St. Paul’s College, VA - Shaw University, NC
Virginia State University, VA - Virginia Union University, VA - Winston-Salem State University, NC
WSSU’s Turner Named
2010 CIAA Cross Country Coach of the Year
Hampton, VA – The accolades just keep coming for the Winston-Salem State University cross country teams as WSSU head men’s
and women’s cross country coach Inez Turner was named the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Coach of the Year
by the CIAA Cross Country Coaches Association. The honor marks the first time in school history that a WSSU cross country has
taken home the prestigious honor.
In her first season as coach of the Rams and Lady Rams cross country teams, Turner led the teams to a sweep if the 2010 CIAA
Cross Country Championships, the first in school history. Turner will be formally recognized at the CIAA Coach of the Year Luncheon
scheduled for May, 2011.
Saint Aug’s Mortimer Wins
2010 CIAA Volleyball Coach of the Year Award
Newport News, VA - After much success as an assistant coach, Covance Mortimer of Saint Augustine’s College was recognized for
his works as a head coach. The CIAA named Mortimer the 2010 women’s volleyball coach of the year for directing the Lady Falcons
to the Southern Division championship. It was their first division title since 2003, when Mortimer was an assistant for the Lady
Falcons.
“I attribute winning the award to the players and assistant coaches,” Mortimer said. “It is as much their award as it is mine.”
Mortimer, a 2000 graduate of Saint Augustine’s College, was honored along with his team at the Volleyball Championship Banquet
held at Newport News Marriott at the City Center. Awards were also handed out to the league’s player and rookie of the year in
addition to the All-CIAA teams. The Lady Falcons placed a league-high six student-athletes on the All-Conference squads, including
five on the first team.
The All-CIAA student-athletes from Saint Augustine’s College were Kathryn Tokarski (Jr./Saskatchewan, Canada), Brittany Hicks
(So./Louisburg, N.C.), Nicolette Campbell (Jr./Nassau, Bahamas), Keisha Parris (Jr./St. Catherine, Jamaica), Roxanne Smith (Jr./
St. Catherine, Jamaica) and Stephony Newkirk (Sr./Greenville, N.C.). The Lady Falcons also received a plaque for winning the
Southern Division crown.
The Lady Falcons finished the regular season 22-8 overall, marking the second consecutive year they reached the 20-win plateau.
They were 10-0 against Southern Division opponents – one of two CIAA teams to finish unbeaten in the division - and 7-0 at home
in Emery Gymnasium. Their CIAA record was an impressive 15-2 which was third-best in the league.
Since Mortimer took over the program, the Lady Falcons have placed 12 student-athletes on the All-CIAA Team and four studentathletes on the All-CIAA rookie squad. The Lady Falcons also won the CIAA team highest grade point average award in volleyball.
In three seasons, Mortimer has collected eight CIAA volleyball coach of the week awards, and the Lady Falcons have earned 16
CIAA volleyball player of the week honors.
Chowan Claims Second
CIAA Championship with Five Set Win Over St. Augustine’s
Hampton, VA – It was an epic battle that played out to the end at the 2010 CIAA Volleyball Championships as defending champion
Chowan University beat Saint Augustine’s College 3-2 to capture the 2010 CIAA Volleyball Championship. Chowan claimed their
second championship in as many years in the league. Chowan’s Victoria Lewis was named the 2010 Tournament MVP after
putting down 18 kills and getting 19 digs.
These two teams met twice during the year, each coming away with a win. Chowan downed the Lady Falcons in a CIAA cross over
match in September and Saint Augustine’s clipped the Hawks in pool play on day one of the championships. But, it was the Hawks
who came away with the win.
Chowan grinded out the five set match win with final set scores of 25-15, 19-25, 25-16, 29-27, and 15-8.
Members of the All Tournament Team
Victoria Lewis
Callie Armistead
Achari Manor
Octavia Wynn
Kathryn Tokarski
Chowan (MVP)
Chowan
Fayetteville State
Fayetteville State
Saint Augustine’s
Karina Monroe
Nicholette Campbell
Whitney Green
Samantha Meeks
Copyright (c) 1997 - 2006 The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association
44
BSTM
February 2011
Chowan
Saint Augustine’s
Elizabeth City State
Fayetteville State
MEAC
Bethune Cookman University, FL - Coppin State University, MD - Delaware State University, DE
Florida A&M University, FL - Hampton University, VA - Howard University, DC
University of Maryland Eastern Shore, MD - Morgan State University, MD - Norfolk State University, VA
North Carolina A&T State University, NC North Carolina Central University, NC
Savannah State University, FL - South Carolina State University, SC
2010 MEAC Relocates Offices To Norfolk, Virginia
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference announced that it has purchased a commercial building and relocated the Conference’s
office to Norfolk, Virginia.
“This is an exciting achievement in the history of our conference,” said MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas. “As a part of our long
range and strategic plan to own our own building was one of my main goals as Commissioner. I am elated that this goal has finally
come to fruition.”
The Conference’s new headquarters is located on 2730 Ellsmere Avenue in Norfolk. It is an 8,500 square feet single story office
building located three minutes from the Norfolk International Airport.
This marks the fourth move in the Conference’s history, but the first time the MEAC has purchased its own building. The Conference
office was previously based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, at the Armada Hoffler Building for five years. Prior to that move, the MEAC
called Greensboro, North Carolina, home for over 23 years. The Conference was founded in Durham, North Carolina, in 1970.
Norfolk State Men Win 2010 MEAC Men’s Cross Country Title
Norfolk State men’s cross country teams won the 2010 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Cross Country Championship
titles at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, Maryland. The Norfolk Spartans, who won their 10th title in 11
years, had five athletes finish among the top 15 and earn All-MEAC honors. They scored a total of 34 points and as a team averaged
25:24.00 on the 8K course.
Florida A&M sophomore Shuaib Winters won the men’s race to earn Outstanding Performer honors. Winters set a course record
and ran a personal best time of 24:31.30. The previous mark 24:52.70 was held by St. Francis’ Chris Mills at this year’s UMES
Cappy Anderson Invite. “I am really happy with my performance. I ran a good race and I am very excited,” explained Winters. “My
goals coming in were to run a personal best time and win the race and fortunately I was able to do both”.
Norfolk State’s Kenneth Giles earned Outstanding Coaching honors for the 10th time in his career.
“We punched all the right buttons to have the team prepared for today,” said Giles. The team did an outstanding job.”
In team results, Maryland Eastern Shore totaled 85 points for a second place finish. Howard (92), Hampton (112) and Florida A&M
(12) rounded out the top five.
Hampton Wins 2010 MEAC Women’s Cross Country Title
Hampton’s women’s cross country teams won the 2010 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Cross Country Championship titles at the
University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, Maryland. The Hampton Lady Pirates scored 52 points to win their third
cross country title and first since 2006.
Howard senior Ashley Hodges crossed the tape first with a time of 18:19.70 to earn Outstanding Performer honors. As a team, the
Lady Bison finished in sixth place. “My strategy was to go out and be one of the top eight runners to put myself in a good position for
later in the race,” said Hodges. “During the last kilometer, I really tried to kick it into a higher gear to push through.”
Hampton’s Maurice Pierce earned Outstanding Coach accolades in cross country for the third time in his career. “We didn’t back off
our training, we ran two outstanding meets prior to the championship and that helped us perform today,” said Pierce.
Second place accolades went to South Carolina State (85), Norfolk State (92), Delaware State (113) and Maryland Eastern Shore
(121) completed the top five finishes.
South Carolina State Wins 2010 MEAC Volleyball Championship
South Carolina State University won the 2010 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Volleyball Championship with a 3-1 win over
Delaware State University at the Physical Education Complex on the campus of Coppin State University in Baltimore, Maryland. The
championship title was the first time for the Lady Bulldogs since the 1990 season.
S.C. State’s Jarne Gleaton, the 2010 MEAC Player of the Year, was named the Tournament Outstanding Performer.
S.C. State’s Millicent Sylvan was named the Outstanding Coach.
In addition to Gleaton, UMES’ Maline Vaitai, Florida A&M’s Katherine Huanec and Martina Ferrari and Sarah Wheatcroft of Delaware
State earned All-Tournament honors.
© Copyright 2005 meacsports.com
BSTM
February 2011
45
SIAC
Albany State University, GA - Benedict College, SC - Claflin University, SC - Clark Atlanta University, GA
Fort Valley State University, GA - Kentucky State University, KY - Lane College, TN
Lemoyne Owen College, TN - Miles College, AL - Morehouse College, GA - Paine College, GA
Stillman College, AL - Tuskegee University, AL
SIAC Announces Football Academic All-Conference Team
Atlanta, GA— The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference announced the 2010 Football Academic All-Conference Team.
These 37 student-athletes have maintained a grade point average of 3.2 or better throughout their academic career, led by Miles
College junior Michael Johnson. Johnson, a defensive back from Miami, FL, is an accounting major with a grade point average
of 3.878.
Lane College led all schools with seven selections followed by Fort Valley State University, and Morehouse College, who all had
six selections.
School
Name
HT
ASU
ASU
ASU
Benedict
Benedict
Benedict
Benedict
Clark Atlanta
Clark Atlanta
FVS
FVS
FVS
FVS
FVS
FVS
Lane
Lane
Lane
Lane
Lane
Lane
Lane
Miles
Miles
Miles
Miles
Miles
Morehouse
Morehouse
Morehouse
Morehouse
Morehouse
Morehouse
Tuskegee
Tuskegee
Earnest Seay
6-0
Mario Fuller
6-1
Shaka Andrews
6-0
Jordan Kelly
6’3
Dominic Silvera
5’8
Aaron Standberry
6’2
Rakim Trapp-Jackson 6’2
Aramide Adefemiwa 6’6
William Jordan
5’9
Kiivis Middlebrook
6’2
Micah Baisden
5’8
Demetrius Johnson 5’10
Emmanuel Williams 6’3
Curley Williams
6’4
Reginald Goodrum
5’9
Phil Ancar
5’8
Marcus Woods
5’8
Kevin Bass
5’7
Micah Blount
6’6
Leonard Jackson
5’11
Ezekiel Johnson
6’0
Milton Meeks
5’11
Brandon Johnson
6’2
Ryan Dinardo
6’0
Armon Wright
6’3
Cantrell Daniels
6’0
Michael Johnson
5’10
Nikolas Howell
6’0
Jordan Jones
5’11
Marcus Jones
6’0
Clifford Mpare
5’10
Donnay Ragland
6’1
DaJuan Thigpen
6’0
Reginald Davis
6’3
Thomas Wilder
5’10
WT
Pos CL
Hometown
GPA
Major
235
230
225
205
175
272
183
276
180
260
235
180
225
175
220
170
185
175
215
160
200
215
200
210
300
225
180
260
225
180
165
185
175
160
160
LB
DB
LB
WR
DB
DL
WR
DT
RB
DL
OL
DB
DE
WR
LB
RB
RB
RB
DE
DB
RB
LB
WR
TE
DE
LB
DB
OL
DL
DB
WR
QB
QB
WR
WR
Quitman, GA
Jesup, GA
Bristol, VA
Swampscott, MA
Miami, FL
Jacksonville, FL
Jacksonville, FL
Lagos, Nigeria
Atlanta, GA
Scottsdale, GA
Albany, GA
Miami, FL
Baxley, GA
Savannah, GA
Griffin, GA
New Orleans, LA
Seale, AL
Canal, OH
Stone Mountain, GA
Chicago, IL
Alexandria, LA
Stone Mountain, GA
McDonough, GA
Covington, GA
Inglewood, CA
Orange Park, FL
Miami, FL
Loganville, GA
Sugar Land, TX
Lizella, GA
Chapel Hill, NC
Paramount, CA
Baton Rouge, LA
Fayetteville, NC
Hoover, AL
3.22
3.47
3.54
3.34
3.82
3.24
3.47
3.48
3.62
3.44
3.66
3.22
3.50
3.60
3.31
3.569
3.625
3.244
3.172
3.620
3.281
3.414
3.875
3.625
3.625
3.529
3.878
3.69
3.32
3.46
3.70
3.67
3.43
3.54
3.41
Management
Chemistry
Biology
Accounting
Accounting
Chemistry
Studio Art
Computer Info. System
Business Administration
Education: Spec. Ed
Health and Physical Ed
Criminal Justice
Agricultural Science
Computer Info. Systems
Middle Grades Education
Biology
Physical Education
Biology
Business Management
Mass Comm.
Computer Science
Business
Mathematics
Secondary Education
Business Administration
Criminal Justice
Accounting
Biology
Economics
Physics
Political Science
Kinesiology, Sports Studies&P.E.
Health & Phy. Ed.
Aerospace Science Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
SR
SR
SO
SO
SO
FR
JR
JR
SO
FR
SO
FR
JR
JR
JR
JR
SO
SR
FR
SR
SO
FR
SO
SO
SO
JR
JR
SO
JR
SO
JR
SO
SR
JR
SO
Kentucky State Wins 2010 SIAC Volleyball Championship
Frankfort, KY— In a rematch of the 2009 championship match, Kentucky State defeated Albany State in straight sets, 25-20, 25-12,
and 25-22, to claim the 2010 SIAC Volleyball Championship.
ASU, Morehouse Win 2010 SIAC Cross Country Championship
Atlanta, GA - Morehouse College and Albany State University claimed the men’s and women’s title, respectively, at the 2010 SIAC
Cross Country Championship.
The Maroon Tigers ran a total time of 2:21:39.07. Benedict College finished in second place, with a time of 2:26:16.59, followed by
Kentucky State University.
The Lady Rams ran a total time of 1:46:14.81. Defending champion Clark Atlanta University finished second with a time of
1:46:53.47. Fort Valley State University finished in third place.
@Copyright 2004 thesiac.com
46
BSTM
February 2011
SWAC
Alabama A&M University, AL - Alabama-State University, AL - Alcorn State University, MS
Arkansas-Pine Bluff College, AR - Grambling State University, LA - Jackson State University, MS
Mississippi Valley State University, MS - Prairie View A&M University, TX
Southern University, LA - Texas Southern University, TX
Alabama A&M Wins 2010 SWAC Volleyball Championship
Montgomery, AL - Alabama A&M won its fourth consecutive SWAC Volleyball Championship with a 3-2 (21-25, 25-22, 13-25, 25-15,
15-12) victory over Jackson State at Dunn-Oliver Acadome. The title was the 10th in 11 years for Alabama A&M. “I knew we’d face
Jackson State coming in and I knew it would be tough,” said Bulldogs head coach Nedra Brown. “Credit goes out to Jackson State
for playing a great match.”
All-Tournament Team: Karensa Beckford (MVP)-Clarissa Moore-Rose Corneille (Alabama A&M), LaToya Clark-Chyna Coleman
(Jackson State), Cheri Lindsay-Breanna McNeil (Prairie View A&M), Maura Moed (Mississippi Valley State),
Britta Wilmers (Arkansas-Pine Bluff)
Alcorn State Wins 2010 SWAC Softball Championship
Irondale, AL – Alcorn State won its first Conference championship since 1997, when they were co-champions with Grambling State.
ASU claimed the 2010 softball title with a 6-3 win over Mississippi Valley State.
2010 All-Tournament Team: Jasmine Hubbard, Adriana Harrington and Christine Garcia (Alcorn State); Ashley Hobbs and Alexandria
Robertson (Miss. Valley State); Delyse Montgomery (Alabama State); Kiara Dedeaux (Grambling State); Mercedes Frazier (Alabama
State); Shawntall Steamer and Victoria Stewart (Southern). Most Valuable Player: Adriana Harrington, Alcorn State
Grambling Captures 2009-10 SWAC All-Sports Title
Birmingham, AL - Grambling State University captured the Southwestern Athletic Conference All-Sports Title, the 2010 James Frank
Award, outdistancing Jackson State by 7.0 points in the cumulative totals for 18 varsity men’s and women’s sports the league
sponsors. Alabama State finished third overall.
The 2009-10 Sadie Magee/Barbara Jacket Award for women’s sports ended in a tie, and the league crowned two champions;
Jackson State University and Prairie View A&M University.
Jackson State Wins First Ever SWAC Soccer Championship
Pine Bluff - The Tigers defeated Mississippi Valley State, 2-0 at UAPB Pumphrey Field and earned its first ever SWAC Soccer
Championship.
All-Tournament Team: Jessica Smith (Texas Southern), Lenna Lamas-Chelsea Nash (Alabama State), Erika Forbes-Rachel
Harker (Arkansas-Pine Bluff), Shelby Willcocks-Mandi Quirk-Jency Jose (Mississippi Valley State), Patricia Cartwright-Yamala
Ebru-Brittany Renner/MVP (Jackson State), Coach of the Year: Niji Olagbegi, Jackson State
Grambling State Women Win
2010 SWAC Cross Country Championship
Clinton, MS - Grambling State claimed the SWAC Women’s Cross Country Championship titles at the Choctaw Trails. The victory
marked the ninth title for the Lady Tigers. Arkansas-Pine Buff had 54 points to place second. Alabama State took third in the
standings with 60 points.
Mississippi Valley State Wins
2010 SWAC Men’s Cross Country Championship
Clinton, MS - Mississippi Valley State claimed the SWAC Men’s Cross Country Championship title. The win ended a 16-year drought
for MVSU, who last won the title in 1994. Grambling State took runner-up honors with 59 points. Alabama State finished third with 77
points. Mississippi Valley State’s Charles Ruth earned Coach of the Year honors.
Northern Replaces Frazier at Prairie View
Prairie View A&M Director of Athletics Fred Washington announced that defensive coordinator Heishma Northern, who was named
head coach in-waiting this past October, will become the 31st head coach in University history effective immediately. Northern will
replace Henry Frazier III, who stepped down as head football coach to pursue other opportunities.
“These are exciting times on the “Hill” and we were definitely not looking forward to separating from Coach Frazier,” said Washington.
“He brought our football team to a point of stability on the field and in the classroom, and you just can’t ask a coach for any more than
that. He came to Prairie View and did what we asked him to do, and we will always appreciate him. He is and will always be a
Panther.”
Copyright © 2001-06 Southwestern Athletic Conference
BSTM
February 2011
47
Other HBCUs
Featured This Month
Erik Williams, Others, Inducted into CSU Sports Hall of Fame
Central State University inducted four people into its Athletic Hall
of Fame at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Dayton, Ohio.
The inductees included the late track and field runner Martin
McGrady, Olympic Silver medalist Catherine Scott, two-time NAIA
football all American Hugh Douglas, and former Dallas Cowboy
lineman Erik “The Big E” Williams.
“It feels great, really great,” Williams said. “You don’t have to go
to a major university to achieve success.”
The 23rd annual Hall of Fame dinner overflowed with good food
and high spirits. Emcee Edwin Clay, interim manager of WCSU
Radio, spoke highly of CSU athletes past and present. “We have
to acknowledge the outstanding work of CSU athletes,” Clay
said. Central State President John W. Garland agreed. “They
(inductees) worked hard on and off the field,” he said.
Guests at the dinner included Vice President for Student Affairs
Jerryl Briggs, Provost Juliette Bell, Auxiliary Corps Director Sylvia
G. Kelley, and Director of Athletics Kellen Winslow.
Winslow said that induction into the Hall of Fame is a high honor.
“This is a way for us
to recognize and pay
homage.” Winslow
said. “The induction
is
the
highest
reward an individual
can receive from the
university.”
Erik Williams
“It is not easy to get
inducted into the
Hall of Fame. Anyone can be nominated. Those selected must
be true sports legends, show integrity, and add value to the
university. We have a responsibility to keep standards high and
to make sure the process is done with integrity,” Winslow said.
Football star Williams, a lineman who played on three Super
Bowl championship teams, is thrilled to be in Central State’s
Hall of Fame. “I’ll be a part of the school’s history forever,” he
said.
Cheyney’s Simone Carter is a Provisional Qualifier
Simone Carter placed second in the 60 meter dash at the Gulden Relays in a time of
7.70. She was 0.01 behind the Gold Medalist. The time provisionally qualifies her for
the NCAA Championships in March. The meet was contest at the Bucknell University in
the Gerhard Field House.
The 4x200 meters relay squad finished second to the host. The squad of Carter, Dymesha
Bolden, Ayasha Lyke and Veronica Sweet finished in a time of 1:50.83.
“It’s always good to go back to my alma mater and have a good showing. Simone
Carter hit a provisional mark and the relay represented us well,” commented Coach
Marc Harrison.
Dymesha Bolden was in the consolation final of the 60 meters.
Simone Carter
Tigers Schedule 2011 Football Season Without Atlanta Classic
Tennessee State University (TSU) Athletic Director Teresa Phillips
has released the tentative 2011 football schedule without the
Atlanta Classic against perennial opponent Florida A&M
University.
“The Atlanta Classic is sponsored by the 100 Black Men of Atlanta,
and they decided to bring in another opponent to face Florida
A&M,” said Phillips. “We are in active negotiations to schedule
an FBS or prominent FCS team to replace that game this year.”
She concluded saying, “We expect to complete our schedule by
the end of the month.”
The Tigers and Rattlers have played each other for twenty-eight
consecutive years with FAMU holding a 26-25-1 edge in the alltime series. TSU beat FAMU 29-18 last year in Atlanta in front of
a crowd of 54,202.
Phillips added, “Considering our long-standing rivalry with Florida
A&M, we are looking to negotiate future home-and-home games
with the Rattlers to renew and sustain our series.”
48
BSTM
February 2011
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