After a successful debut season spent mostly in Iowa, Gilkerson would have likely returned to the Hawkeye state in 1918 if not for World War I. With most eligible players now required to work or fight, Gilkerson was forced to stay closer to home, making it the first summer in years he was not on the road either playing on or managing a traveling team.
On May 31, 1918 the Bureau County Tribune ran an announcement stating, "the management of Hicks' park in Spring Valley has made arrangements for a colored baseball team to represent that park this season."
"The aggregation will be composed almost entirely of colored ball players who represented the Chicago Union Giants last season. Robt. Gilkerson, a well known colored baseball manager, will manage the Hick's park team. The team will be known as the Spring Valley Giants."
Despite the claim, almost none of the players from the previous year came to Spring Valley to play for Gilkerson. Bingham, Jones and Meredith were in the lineup for the very first game but only Will "Rabbit" Jones appears to have stayed with the team. Instead, the Spring Valley Giants were most likely an interracial team composed of primarily local ball players.
The season opened at Hicks Park on June 2 against the neighboring Peru Stars. The following Sunday they played the “Hartford Colored Giants of Chicago" who were reportedly being booked by Rube Foster.
Incredibly, Gilkerson was listed as playing shortstop in the game which suggests he had difficulty fielding a team. Gilkerson had not worn a uniform in more than five years and proved to be a little rusty. He had one hit and four errors, but his team still managed to win.
Over the course of the summer, the Spring Valley Giants played mostly local teams as well as a few clubs from Peoria, Illinois. In August, it was reported that the Giants had won eleven games and had not yet lost a contest.
By September, they were playing almost exclusively against the Spring Valley Moose. During that series, several of Gilkerson's players would occasionally switch sides and were found in the lineup for the Moose. Further evidence of a player shortage.
In total, only about 15 games could be identified over the entire summer with most of them at Hicks Park on Sunday afternoons. A far cry from the 100 plus games Gilkerson was used to managing in a season.
In 1919, Gilkerson would return to barnstorming, leaving the Spring Valley Giants with only this one season. No photos of the team are known to exist.
According to all the available box scores (5), the lineup for the Spring Valley Giants was constantly changing and included a rotating cast of area players. Here are all of the names (including alternative spellings) associated with the short-lived team:
- Anderson - ss (from the Hartford Giants)
- Berry / Barry - cf
- Bingham - rf
- Boker, F / Booker - 3b, ss
- Boker, W - 1b
- Buffer - cf
- Ducks - lf, cf
- Edwards - 2b
- Gilkerson - ss
- Halpin, Tom - p
- Jenkins - cf
- Jones - 2b, 3b
- Kidd, James - lf
- Levandowski - lf
- Meredith - ss
- Monaghan / Mahoney - c
- Quinn - lf, rf
- Sampson - 1b
- Shamrock, rf
- Smith - c (from the Three-I league at Rock Island)
- Summers - p
- Ternetti - lf
- Van Schaick - p
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