Joe Lillard: Under An Assumed Name

Joe Lillard is arguably one of the greatest all-around athletes of the early 20th century.  How many other athletes of that era, or any era, could boast about having played at the highest level in three different sports in a single year?  Lillard did it multiple years in a row.

In 1932-1933, Lillard played professional football in the NFL for the Chicago Cardinals.  He was a halfback and back-up quarterback for the Cardinals and led the team in rushing, passing and scoring in 1933.  His NFL career however was cut short, not by an injury or declining skills, but by an unofficial league ban on African American players which lasted for twelve seasons.

In the summers, Lillard played baseball in the Negro Leagues for the Chicago American Giants, one of the strongest African American teams at that time.  Lillard was a pitcher and outfielder for the club between 1932-1934.  During those years, the team won the Negro Southern League pennant and came in second in the NNL II the following year.  

And, as if that wasn't enough, Lillard played semi-pro basketball for the legendary Savoy Big Five in Chicago - considered to be one of the best teams in the city.  He had been a guard on the team since their beginnings in 1927 and continued to play with the club until 1933.   Several of the players from the Savoy team would go on to form the first Harlem Globetrotters team. 

In the years prior to his three-sport professional career however, Joe Lillard spent several summers playing baseball for Gilkerson's Union Giants.  For most of that time, Lillard played under a pseudonym - Joe Johnson.

After the fact, Lillard would explain that his mother had been married to a man named Johnson and that he had an older half-brother named Ben Johnson who was also a ball player in North Dakota.  He claimed there was nothing deceptive about his use of the name.  He was known as Ben's younger brother and so he became known as Joe Johnson, simple as that.  Despite Lillard's insistence, the use of the name would help bring an abrupt end to his college playing days.

In the fall of 1930, after playing for Gilkerson most of the summer, Lillard had enrolled at the University of Oregon where he quickly became a sensation on the football field.  His running, passsing and kicking skills made him a triple threat on the gridiron. 

In his sophomore year, the night before a big game against the University of Southern California, Lillard was ruled ineligible by the Pacific Coast Conference for having broken rules of amateurism.  The official reason given was that Lillard had played semi-professional baseball under an assumed name, specifically, he had played for Gilkerson's Union Giants as Joe Johnson.  This quickly became a national news story.  

Lillard admitted to travelling with the Union Giants as the chauffeur and "filling in" on the diamond only when necessary.   He maintained that he was paid for driving the team vehicle and not for playing baseball.

As I'll show below, this was not entirely accurate.  Lillard's tenure with Gilkerson lasted longer than anyone at the time likely realized.   He may have driven the bus at times, but he was also a regular part of the Union Giants' roster on and off for more than two seasons.  He was undoubtedly paid as a ballplayer.

Still, it was not uncommon for college athletes to play semi-professional sports in the offseason and to be paid for doing so.  The West Coast colleges already had a "gentleman's agreement" to look the other way on this matter and so this alone wouldn't have been enough to remove Lillard from the team.  Hence the added charge of having "played under an assumed name," which was ultimately used to justify his ineligibility.  Why exactly that mattered was never explained.

Of course, the real reason Lillard was singled out and essentially banned from playing college sports was no mystery.    Lillard was never given a chance to defend himself to the conference officials.  Without Lillard, USC defeated Oregon 53-0.

Here we'll focus on the four summers that Lillard spent barnstorming with the Union Giants.  It seems he first joined up with Gilkerson in late June of 1928 as the Union Giants were passing through North Dakota on their annual tour.  Earlier that summer, Lillard had been playing (already as Johnson) with the Johnnie Baker post,  American Legion team of Minneapolis, an African American all-salaried club that traveled around Minnesota and North Dakota.

Once he was on the Union Giants, Lillard was quickly inserted into the pitching rotation.  On non-pitching days, he often played the outfield.  In a big July 4th game in Breckenridge, Minnesota against the House of David team, Lillard pitched a complete game, giving up six runs and eight hits, striking out seven and walking four.  The Union Giants however were only able to muster four hits and lost the game 6-1.

Four days later he pitched the first game of a doubleheader against the Bismarck Grays.  This time he allowed only two runs on nine hits, striking out four in a seven-inning complete game.  The Union Giants won that game 7-2 as well as the second game, 10-2.

Lillard pitched again on July 11th in Wadena, Minnesota, his third start in eight days.  He allowed just six hits with seven strike outs and had a shutout going into the eighth.  The Union Giants won the game 5-4.   

For the second half of July and part of August, Gilkerson's team travelled north to Canada.  In Winnipeg, they played several series against the House of David team as well as Happy Felsch's All Stars of Plentywood, Montana.  Lillard pitched in several of these contests.   

When Gilkerson's team returned to the States they headed to Montana and then back through the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa.  It is unclear when Lillard parted ways with the team but he doesn't show up in any of the available box scores from mid-August or September.  The Union Giants ended the season with a record of 103 wins, 23 losses and 3 ties.

With the 1929 baseball season,  Lillard shows up on the Gilkerson squad from the beginning.  In an early exhibition game on April 27, 1929, Lillard pitched for the Union Giants against the Davenport Blue Sox in Davenport, Iowa.  The Union Giants won the game 7-4.  Lillard faced 23 different players that day, giving up just six hits.  

In the Davenport Democrat and Leader  box score Lillard was listed under his own name - a rare occurrence.   He would be listed as "Johnson" in all future box scores that year.

Lillard would pitch and play the outfield for the Union Giants for the entire summer of 1929.  Like the year before, the team traveled to Canada for a series of tournaments and exhibition games.   

On August 15th, during a series in Winnipeg against a local all-star team, Lillard pitched a shutout in the opening game of a doubleheader.  The Winnepeg Evening Tribune wrote, "In the first tussle, Joe Johnson had his fast ball working to perfection and scored his second shut-out of the series.  He allowed only six singles, struck out seven and just one All-Star player got as far as third during the nine rounds."  

The Union Giants won both games of the doubleheader that day, capping a seven-game winning streak over local teams in Winnepeg.   In fact, the Union Giants won every tournament they were in while in Canada that year, most of which came with a prize of $500 or more.  

By the end of August, the Union Giants were back in Iowa where Lillard pitched yet another shutout, this time against the Hanford India Owls.   "Joe Johnson twirling airtight ball for the winners" commented the Sioux City Journal.  In mid-September, Lillard continued to dominate, pitching a complete-game shutout against the Oakland (Nebraska) team in Arlington, NE.   He had a two-run homer in the game as well.

The Union Giants closed out the 1929 season by winning the Eastern Nebraska baseball tournament which came with a purse of $1,000.  They finished the year with a a record of 122-26-4.

At the start of the 1930 season, "Joe Johnson" was right back in the lineup for the Union Giants, once again pitching and playing the outfield.  For 1930, Gilkerson had been contracted to headquarter his team in Bismark, North Dakota and represent the city in local competition.   According to the Bismark Tribune, Gilkerson was paid $350 for keeping his team in the city for the month of June.  In truth, Gilkerson's team continued to barnstorm most of the summer.  While they did play in Bismark regularly, they also traveled on off days, including several trips to Canada and other parts of North Dakota.  

Before the end of June however, Lillard and pitcher Fred Sims had left Gilkerson for Bismark's rival, the Jamestown, ND team.  In fact, Lillard was pitching for Jamestown when the two teams met at the fair grounds in Mandan, ND on July 2nd.  "Smoky Joe Johnson," as the Bismark Tribune often referred to him, and the Jamestown team defeated the Union Giants that day, 7-3.

The next day Hurley McNair pitched for the Union Giants and they won easily, 11-5.  Swede Risberg pitched for Jamestown.

Lillard and the Jamestown team faced off against the Union Giants again later in the month.   Once again, Jamestown won, largely due to Lillard's pitching.  He struck out seven and gave up just two runs on eight hits.

At the end of July, the Union Giants' contract with Bismark came to an end and the team headed back to Canada.    Gilkerson had strengthened his starting rotation with ? Young (possibly Maurice Young).  Before the end of of the month both Sims and Lillard were back with the Union Giants.  Lillard however appears to have lost his spot in the pitching rotation to Young.  Instead, he shows up playing right field in most box scores in late August and into September.

In the championship game of the Southwestern Iowa tournament on September 2nd, Lillard did relieve Sims on the mound in the 4th inning.   Lillard pitched 4 2/3 innings of shutout ball against the Kari-Keen Karriers of Sioux City but it was not enough.  The damage was done in the first couple innings and the Union Giants failed to rally in the 9th, losing out on the $1,000 purse by a score of 6-5.

The Union Giants would get their revenge on the Kari-Keens later in the month by defeating them in the Eastern Nebraska tournament.  Lillard however had already left the team by that point and was headed to Minnesota to prepare for the football season.  There he played a few football games for the Good Samaritan team in Minneapolis but in October it was announced that he had enrolled at the University of Oregon and would be playing on their freshman football team.

In fact, during his freshman year, Lillard starred in both football and basketball at Oregon.  Before the end of his first year there were already articles being written about how Lillard would likely be named team captain of the varsity football team the following season.  Regarding his basketball skills, the yearbook referred to him as the "most outstanding man" on the freshman squad who "displayed the most heady, and consistent brand of basketball that was shown this year."

Curiously, Lillard did not play baseball for the University in the spring.  One article mentioned a conflict with early football practice.  He did remain in Oregon however and in June it was announced that Lillard would be pitching for the local team, the Eugene Townies, that summer.

In his first game, Lillard struck out 10 men and the Townies won easily.  In his second game pitching, he struck out 8, giving up just three hits for another Townies' victory.  At the plate in his first two games, Lillard had four hits in nine at-bats.  

In early July it was reported that Lillard would not be with the team for their next game.  A few days later however it was announced that Gilkerson's Union Giants were coming to Eugene and Lillard would be back on the mound for the Townies when they arrived.    

The Union Giants had started the 1931 season off in mid-April.  In May and June they barnstormed throughout Iowa and into South and North Dakota.  By the end of June, they were headed west, playing in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and into Washington.

Lillard's sudden absence from the Townies was the result of him joining back up with the Union Giants in Washington.  As early as July 9th, Lillard was playing the outfield for the Union Giants.  On July 14th, "Johnson" pitched in Kelso, WA, where the Union Giants defeated the Timber Wolves 4-3.

On July 18th when the Union Giants arrived in Eugene, Lillard was back on the mound for the Townies as promised.  The game reportedly drew the biggest crowd in two years for a baseball game in Eugene.  Lillard pitched well but the Union Giants were able to defeat him and the Townies, 4-3, in a close game.

Soon after, the Union Giants left Oregon and were headed back east.  Once again, Lillard went with them.  He shows up in box scores in Salt Lake City and Ogden, UT.  In Casper, Wyoming, Lillard pitched in an easy 20-4 victory over the Yesness Clothiers.

The team reached Nebraska just in time for tournament season.  At the beginning of September, Gilkerson's team was eliminated in the Southwestern Iowa tournament in a controversial loss to the Sioux Falls Canaries.  Lillard played centerfield.  It was likely one of the last games he would ever play for Gilkerson.  

With the University of Oregon football season scheduled to start September 25th, Lillard soon returned to Eugene.  The Webfoots won their first three contests easily but Lillard suffered a knee injury early on and had yet to make a big impact on the field.    

Still, efforts to prevent him from playing in the Pacific Coast Conference were starting to take shape.   Rumors about Lillard having played semi-professional baseball, possibly under an assumed name, were now being openly discussed in newspapers up and down the West Coast.  An anonymous protest was filed with the PCC and as a result Lillard was temporarily deemed ineligible two days before a game against the University of Washington.  The conference hired an investigator.  

As more details were being gathered, Lillard was temporarily reinstated before the game which Oregon won 13-0.  In the contest, Lillard rushed for a touchdown and had two key interceptions.   The next game on the schedule however was with the University of Southern California.   Earlier in the month, USC officials publicly denied being behind the rumors and formal protest against Lillard (It would be proven later on to have been them all along).  On the eve before the big game between the two schools, the PCC handed down their final ruling.  Lillard was out.  

The Chicago Defender, in response to the whole affair, were convinced that USC was to blame for Lillard's treatment: "the Trojans with the idea of a Pacific coast title and only Lillard standing in their path.  They feared Lillard and admitted it to the tune of sending a man to Spring Valley where Gilkerson was questioned about Lillard's having played with the Spring Valley Giants."  

The newspaper did not report on Gilkerson's response or ask him for any kind of statement.  If Gilkerson provided any official testimony to the PCC officials, it was never made public.  Once the verdict was in, newspapers across the Great Plains and Upper Midwest were quick to point out that Lillard had indeed played in their town under an assumed name.

 

Barred from college sports, Lillard would soon turn pro.  As a result, there would be no reunion between Gilkerson and Lillard in 1932.  In early June of that year, the Chicago Defender reported that Lillard had joined the Chicago American Giants and would finish the season with the team.

The 1920 Season

The winter of 1920 brought great changes to Black baseball in the Midwest.   Under the leadership of Rube Foster, owner and manager of the Chicago American Giants, the first Negro National League was formed in Kansas City after a three-day meeting of team owners at the Paseo YMCA.

Robert Gilkerson did not attend in person, however according to a February 21st article in the Freeman, he and his team were represented at the meeting by Attorney Elisha Scott of Topeka, Kansas.  When it was all said and done, the new league consisted of eight clubs but Gilkerson’s was not one of them.  Instead, it would mean that some of Gilkerson’s best players would be leaving for a chance to play in the new league.

In an article in the Chicago Defender on May 1st, Gilkerson addressed the issue saying, “After losing Boyd, Jack Marshall, Rube Currie, Cunningham, Harris and McNear in the new circuit, we still will be able to put out a team that will not suffer in comparison with the teams in the new circuit, who are as yet only great on paper.”

New additions to the Union Giants included William "Happy" Evans (cf), William "Peewee" Lowe (3b), H. Williams (ss), ? Poole (2b), John Fields (of), and ? Ellison (rf).  New pitchers for 1920 included H. Smith, ? Harris, and ? Hoskins.  Returning from the previous season was catcher and team captain Clarence "Pops" Coleman,  Edgar Burch (p), George Harney (p), Jess Turner (1b), and B.R. Jones (2b, of).  

Gilkerson’s team spent two weeks “spring training” in Spring Valley at Hicks Park before getting on the road.  This ritual would be repeated nearly every year of the team’s existence.  

An early game scheduled for May 16th in Dixon, Illinois promoted Gilkerson’s team, once again, as the Chicago Union Giants.   Before the game could happen, W.S. Peters wrote a letter to the Dixon Telegraph objecting to the use of the name, just as he had done in Omaha the year before.  

“Manager W.S. Peters of the Chicago Union Giants states that his team will play in Chicago Sunday and the organization coming to Dixon is made up of players from Spring Valley, who are traveling under the same name as the Windy City organization which has been playing baseball for 36 years.”

By June, Gilkerson's club would fully embrace the use of the name Gilkerson’s Union Giants.  Although, “of Chicago” or "from Chicago" was often added erroneously by newspapers when mentioning the team.

For the 1920 season the club was based in Lake View, Iowa with regular games scheduled there on Sundays.  During the week, like the year before, they would travel around the state playing local town and company teams.  On a few occasions they played other African American barnstorming teams such as the Tennessee Rats and Swift's Colored Giants from St. Joseph, Missouri.  On at least one occasion they crossed the state line and into Omaha, NE for a series against their recent rivals, the Armours.   The Union Giants swept them in a three game series.

In fact, the Union Giants dominated most teams in the Hawkeye state.  Based on a letter that Gilkerson had written to the Dubuque team at the close of the season, Gilkerson’s Union Giants finished the year with 91 wins, 20 loses and 4 ties.    According to an article in the Dubuque Times Journal in April 1921, Gilkerson’s team outscored their opponents 846-398 in 1920 with 14 shutouts.

This would be the last year that the Union Giants would spend the majority of their season in Iowa however.   By 1921 and with each subsequent year, Gilkerson would push farther north and west eventually reaching Canada and the West Coast by the end of the decade.

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After the team had returned from their tour of Iowa, Gilkerson booked one final game in nearby Dixon, Illinois on October 10, 1920.  Several of his players however had already split off from the team and were headed home.  As a result, Gilkerson recruited three white players from his hometown of Spring Valley, two of which had played for him on the Spring Valley Giants in 1918.

The Ternetti brothers (listed as Ternetter in the box score), John and Pete, along with ? Quinn intergrated the Union Giants for one afternoon.  Gilkerson's team defeated the Dixon Browns by a score of 6-1 in front of more than 1,100 fans, reportedly the biggest crowd for a baseball game in Dixon that year.  Peter Ternetti would eventually become the mayor of Spring Valley, Illinois.

Dick Tate's Summer of 1929

Richard J. "Dick" Tate doesn't appear in any books or articles about the Negro Leagues.  His stats are nowhere to be found on Seamheads or anywhere else for that matter.  And yet, for a few months in 1929 he shared a uniform with some of the top African American and Cuban players of the era while barnstorming in Canada and the Upper Midwest with Gilkerson's Union Giants.

A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Tate was a star athlete in both football and baseball at Bloomington High School.  In the summers he played baseball for several town teams including the Bloomington Colored Giants.  With Tate in the outfield, the Colored Giants won the Bloomington city championship in 1922.

At nearby Illinois State Normal University, Tate was considered one of the best outfielders in the "Little Nineteen" state conference.  At the plate, he typically batted leadoff because of his speed but was also capable of hitting home runs, including two against ISNU's crosstown rival, Illinois Wesleyan, in the big game of the 1927 season.

In football at ISNU, Tate was a speedy halfback known as the "Colored Flash" with a reputation for being a hard tackler as well.  As a junior, Tate was named the University's team captain, a distinction rarely given to Black athletes in Illinois at that time.  It is worth noting, he was the only African American on both the baseball and football teams at ISNU.

After the 1928 football season, Tate dropped out of college for work, making him ineligible to play baseball that spring.  In April 1929, the Daily Pantagraph announced that Tate had signed a contract with Gilkerson's Union Giants and would join the club on their annual tour. 

The other players on Gilkerson's initial squad for 1929 included future hall-of-famer Cristóbal Torriente, Hurley McNair, ? Clark, George Giles, Rogelio Crespo, "Red" Haley, Charley Akers, Frank Cárdenas and "Pops" Coleman.  Additional pitchers on the team included Owen Smaulding,  "Black" Wax and Joe Lillard (aka Joe Johnson).

Lillard, who played basketball in Chicago the previous winter for the legendary Savoy Big Five, pitched in at least one exhibition game in late April in Davenport, IA where he was credited as himself in the box score.  After that he used the pseudonym Joe Johnson.  

Lillard, like Tate, was a multi-sport talent and would eventually go on to play football in the NFL for the Chicago Cardinals.  His time with the Union Giants however would be the source of great controversy and ultimately got him disqualified from playing football in college at Oregon (more on this in a later post).     

In late May, Wax left the Union Giants and joined the Auto Kary-All Stars team in Sioux City, IA.  By early July, pitcher Earl "Iron Horse" Harrison and pitcher/catcher Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe would join the Union Giants.  Later in the season, Gilkerson would also add Eddie Dwight to the roster.

The Union Giants spent the majority of May and June in Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota.  By July and into August, the team was playing mostly in Canada.  During this period, Tate sent multiple correspondence back home.  The Daily Pantagraph reported on May 28th that Tate was "making good" with the team according to friends.  Less than two weeks later the newspaper reported, "The Union Giants have won 28 out of 30 games played this year and Tate has been hitting the ball consistently."

In August the Sioux City Journal reported that the Union Giants had "returned recently from Canada where they swept all opposition aside to win five tournaments, each having a first money prize of $500."  One of the teams that the Union Giants faced in Canada was Felsch's All-Stars, a team based in Virden, Manitoba that included former White Sox players "Happy" Felsch and Swede Risberg.  Banned from Major League Baseball for their roles in the Black Sox Scandal of 1919, both men had been playing semipro ball in the Upper Midwest and Canada for years.  The Union Giants defeated Felsch's team three out of five games.

Dick Tate however did not get a chance to play against the two former big leaguers.  Instead, he was replaced at center field by Eddie Dwight, who had been playing with the Kansas City Monarchs before coming to the Union Giants.   Tate, it appears, left Canada and the team before the end of July and returned to Bloomington.  

Perhaps he was hoping to start back up at ISNU in the fall semester and play football one more year.   If so, he would be disappointed.  He was ruled ineligible again because of his incomplete classes from the previous year.  He spend the rest of the summer playing baseball for Cooksville, a local town team, as well as the Colored Giants of Bloomington.

As for the Union Giants, they finished the season with a record of 122-26-4.  In September the team won yet another tournament, this time in Eastern Nebraska with a purse of $1,000.  Third baseman "Red" Haley had a reported 41 home runs on the year.

In early April 1930, the Daily Pantagraph reported that Tate had once again signed with Gilkerson for the coming season.  Even though he had not been in school, he had been consistently working out with the ISNU team.

The Union Giants were even scheduled to play in Bloomington against the local Three-I League team, the Bloomington Bloomers (renamed the Cubs that year), in an exhibition game on April 20th.   The game however was rained out.  With no arrangements made for a make up game, the Union Giants promptly left for Iowa to begin their annual tour.

Tate however, for reasons unknown, never joined Gilkerson and the Union Giants in 1930.  Instead, he went back to playing with the local Cooksville team and the Bloomington Colored Giants that summer.  

In 1931, Tate was still looking to play baseball at the semipro level.  He even took out an ad in the Indianapolis Recorder, hoping to "get in touch with some strong semi-pro baseball club."

In 1935, Tate returned to ISNU to revive his college baseball career.  Despite being over 30 years old at that point, he technically still had two years of eligibility left.  In the season opener against the University of Wisconsin however, Tate broke a bone in his ankle on a hard slide.  He was out for almost the entire season.  His year-end totals show just four at bats with one hit on the season.   His college baseball days, it seems, were over.

Even though his career came to a disappointed end, Tate's impressive skills in both baseball and football remain part of sports lore in Bloomington-Normal.  In 1972, Tate was inducted into Illinoi State University's Athletics Hall of Fame.

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Presumably because Tate dropped out of school during the 1928-29 school year, the University doesn't seem to recognize his accomplishments on the football field during the 1928 season - the year he was named team captain.  Below is the school newspaper's article honoring him at the time:

The Vidette, December 7, 1928

The Motorized Base Ball Club

For a time in the early 1920's, Gilkerson's team was promoted as a “motorized base ball club.”  

An article in the Freeport Journal-Standard from May 17, 1922 explains, “the colored boys are traveling about in their own automobiles and hence the name.  Practically every trip made by the Giants is made in automobiles.  This is done to eliminate the possibility of missing trains and to avoid lay-overs in small towns which often cause the team to cancel games because of poor train connections.”   

A promotional photo of the team taken around 1922 (see this website's header) even shows the team vehicles and trailers displayed in the background.

While the use of automobiles certainly gave Gilkerson and his team a lot of freedom and flexibility while barnstorming around the Upper Midwest, life on the road was not without risks, particularly in a time before paved roads and major highways.  As a result, the team was involved in a number of accidents and mishaps over the years.   

On the morning of July 8, 1921, several players were injured outside of Lancaster, Wisconsin when the axle on one of the team vehicles broke, causing it to roll over.  Players were bruised and cut by flying glass but first baseman Jess Turner was hurt the worst.  He suffered a broken collar bone and two broken ribs.  Turner's season was finished.  As for the rest of the Union Giants, they played later that same day.

Two years later, four players were involved in another serious accident in Wisconsin.  A car carrying Clarence "Pops" Coleman, John Taylor, George Harney and Frank Cárdenas ran off the road, crashed through a wooden railing and rolled over twice as it plummeted twenty feet to the bottom of a ravine.

Incredibly, none of the players were seriously hurt.  The local newspaper reported, "The players say their lucky star was in the ascendency and they owed their escape to an act of Providence.  It was explained that the driver was unaccustomed to handling cars.  The swerve into the railing was caused by another member grasping the wheel in an endeavor to steer away from trouble."

The vehicle didn't fair as well as the players.  It lost a wheel and suffered a bent axle and a smashed top.  The players were quoted as saying "She's a good old boat just the same."

The team was not slowed down by the crash however.  They were able to complete several already-scheduled games in the area while a local garage repaired the car.  A few days later the Union Giants were back on the road.

Early in the 1928 season, Robert Gilkerson himself was involved in a vehicle fire while out booking games near Dyersville, Iowa.  After fueling up at a local service station, his car started to smoke and eventually burst into flames.  The local newspaper reported,  "An alarm was sent in and a fire crew responded with the truck.  The special hand chemical tank was put into play and the flames were extinguished, but there was considerable damage done the car.  A short in the ignition system is thought to have been the cause of the blaze."  Gilkerson and an unnamed player that was travelling with him were unharmed.

Gilkerson must of quickly replaced the vehicle because a few weeks later a Minnesota newspaper mentioned that "the Union Giants are traveling in style this year using a Studebaker and a Packard."  The paper added, "Coleman left with the Studebaker packed with nine ball players for that city (Alexandria) about 4 o'clock yesterday after awaiting word from Gilkerson who was in Albert Lea having a new box attached on the back of the Packard."

In 1930 during a series of games with the House of David team in Bismark, North Dakota, the local newspaper mentioned that the Union Giants' bus had overturned near Max, ND a few nights before.  As a result, pitcher Owen Smaulding was sitting out the series with a split finger but otherwise it was business as usual for the club.    

Given the various road conditions and remote locations that Gilkerson was travelling in, it is frankly surprising that the team didn't experience more trouble on the road than they did.  The Union Giants played more than 1,500 games in 18 different states and four Canadian provinces, yet they rarely missed a scheduled game.

In fact, in all my research, I could only find one instance where the team failed to make a game because of travel issues.  In 1932, the team arrived late for a game in Butte, Montana.  The Butte Daily Post reported "the traveling club failed to arrive before night fall.  Poor roads between Great Falls and Helena delayed the Giants, who had played in the Power city Monday evening."   The game could not be made up as the Union Giants were already scheduled in Bozeman the next day.

Otto Ray, Mule Knight & The 1926 Union Giants

This photo of Otto "Jay Bird" Ray and Dave "Mule" Knight in their Union Giants uniforms was first published in Phil Dixon's The Negro Baseball Leagues: A Photographic History.  The photo is undated but it must be from 1926, the only year both played for Gilkerson's team.

For just one season, Ray shared the Union Giants' catching duties with Clarence "Pops" Coleman.  Mule Knight, Ray's battery mate, was one of five regular pitchers that travelled with the team that year.  The others were Fred Sims, Charley Walker, Maurice Young and "Lefty" Wilson.  On a few occasions, Dick Whitworth and ? Hank pitched for the team as well.

The other members of the 1926 squad included:  George Giles (1b), Gene Redd (2b), ? Thomas (2b), Clarence Everett (3b, ss), Charley Akers (ss), Steel Arm Davis (lf, rf), Eddie Dwight (cf, lf) and Jess Turner (rf).  

In July, Redd broke his leg and was out for the rest of the season.  Sometime in September, ? Clark replaced Turner in the outfield.

During the team's "spring training" period spent around Spring Valley, Illinois, ? Britt (ss), ? Harris (rf) and ? Thompson (2b) were all listed in the lineup but did not end up travelling with the team.

The 1926 club was one of Gilkerson's winningest teams.  They played the bulk of their season in Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota with just a few games in Wisconsin.  

Their opponents were mostly town teams but they also played other barnstorming clubs like the House of David and the All Nations team.   They also had an extended series with the Rock Island Railway company team of Kansas City that was playing in Iowa that year.  

On more than one occasion, the Union Giants faced off against legendary pitcher John Donaldson, who was playing for the Lismore, Minnesota team at the time.  The Union Giants won both games of a big 4th of July doubleheader billed as "the greatest baseball card ever assembled for one day."

In early September, the Moline Dispatch reported, "The Union Giants have won ninety-six games this season, lost ten and tied three.  Two of their pitchers have pitched no hit, no run games this year, Sims blanking the Lone Rock, Ia., club, 4-0, and 'Slow Ball' Walker the Newton, Ia., team, 2-0."

For several days during their 1926 tour, a Minnesota columnist travelled with Gilkerson's team and reported on the trials and tribulations of life on the road for a Black barnstorming team.  During the brief time spent with the club, the Union Giants played five games in three days, travelling hundreds of miles between games.  They often didn't get a chance to eat a meal or warm up before games and had less than ideal accommodations in the small towns where they played.  Yet, the Union Giants still managed to win the vast majority of their contests.  (I will share the full reporting and other accounts from the road in an upcoming post.)

Their final tally for the 1926 season was reported at 117 wins, 22 losses and 4 ties.    Over half the players would leave the team or be replaced in the next season, including Ray and Knight, however the team would win even more games in 1927.

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In October 1926, the Chicago Defender reported that Robert Gilkerson was in the Windy City to attend the Colored World Series between the Chicago American Giants and Bacharach Giants.  Several former Union Giants players were on both rosters including Luther Farrell, George Harney, Rube Curry and Charley Williams.

The Union Giants Jersey

More than 15 years ago, Gilkerson's Union Giants were given the high quality replica jersey treatment by none other than Ebbets Field Flannels.   

The apparel company prides themselves on being "research-driven."  Their promotional materials at the time stated, "we were the first company to research and re-create uniforms from the Negro Leagues, and from the rich legacy of independent Minor League baseball."

Without question, EFF have made some incredible looking products over the years, many of which have helped bring interest and awareness to lesser known teams such as Gilkerson's.

That being said, the Gilkerson jersey has never looked quite right to me.  Despite the claim that it is an "exact reproduction," I have never seen a picture of any Union Giants uniform that matches the one that Ebbets Field Flannels produced.  

There are a few promotional photos of the team circa 1920 and none of the uniforms look like this.  Even their description as a "road jersey" is curious.   The Union Giants were strictly a barnstorming team.  With no home field, wouldn't every jersey be a road jersey?

Gilkerson's team often wore pinstriped uniforms.  More often than not they were lighter colored uniforms with dark stripes, especially in the early years, but for a few seasons they appear to be navy with white pinstripes.

The real issue I have with the EFF jersey is the lettering.  In the limited photos I've been able to find, Gilkerson's uniforms almost always had UNION in a column near the buttons, with GIANTS written in script across the front of the jersey.

So where did EFF get the idea of UNION GIANTS in felt letters in a long column down the front (with several letters likely hidden below the belt line once the jersey is tucked in)?  They certainly didn't make up their design, so I have to assume they used a rare photo or had some other reliable resource.  

The question however remains, was it a photo of Gilkerson's Union Giants?  In 1920, there were at least two other active Union Giant teams in Illinois alone (Chicago and Springfield were both well-established clubs that predate Gilkerson).  Not to mention,  short-lived teams named the Union Giants would occasionally pop-up in the Midwest, largely due to the popularity of Gilkerson's travelling club.

By the 1930's, Gilkerson changed his uniform design altogether.  For several seasons, the team wore a pinstriped uniform with GILKERSON'S written in script across the front with a large U G below.  (For another uniform variation see the earlier post about Eddie Dwight and Hurley McNair.)

To my knowledge, there are no original Gilkerson uniforms still in existence.  If so, they are locked away in private collections.  Photos of the team are almost as rare.  

At this point, even the Ebbets Field Flannels reproduction jerseys are scarce.  They only offered them for a few years and I can't imagine too many were ever sold.  

One can be found however at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.  It is prominently displayed on the wall along the Field of Legends.

I Have To Keep The Team Playing Every Day

Above is a great example of the kind of postcard Gilkerson would send out in early spring to baseball managers across the Upper Midwest.   The card, which is postmarked April 15, 1920, reads:

Manager Base Ball Club

Dear Sir: -

    The annual tour of the UNION GIANTS BASE BALL CLUB will bring us thru your section of the country soon, and would like to arrange to play you a game or a series of games in your town.  If you can play us answer at once as I have to keep the team playing every day.  Kindly give me the names of all good towns around you that have base ball teams, and oblige,

Yours respectfully,

Robt. P. Gilkerson, Manager,

118 Dalzell St.   Spring Valley, Illinois

Phone 3 R 2

In the photograph, Robert Gilkerson is pictured on the far left (in the dark suit).  It is unclear when the photo was taken and therefore difficult to positively identify the players.  Gilkerson had a habit of reusing promotional materials from years before.  This could be the 1920 team but it is more likely the 1919 or even 1917 team.

Carter Wilson, who played for the Union Giants a few years later, further detailed how the team’s schedule was constructed in Robert Peterson’s book, Only The Ball Was White:

Gilkerson would make a skeleton booking for the whole season, covering Sundays and holidays, before the club started out in the spring.   As he went along, he would fill in the other days.  He had a letterhead and an ad which said, “Coming your way soon!” and he would write the managers of teams and tell them when we would be in their area.   And, of course, because Gilkerson’s Union Giants were an attraction he could easily fill in those other days.  There were very few days when we didn’t have a game.

Des Moines Register.  April 18, 1920

Des Moines Register.  May 13, 1924

  

Davenport Daily Times.  April 9. 1926

Sioux City Journal.  April 17, 1926