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| The Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide 1920 |
In 1919, Gilkerson went back to barnstorming. Once again he promoted his team as the Chicago Union Giants, just as he had done at times in 1917, making no distinction between his club and the historic team that he once managed. This lead to a brief confrontation in the Omaha newspapers that summer and has been a great source of confusion ever since.
In fact, nowadays when most baseball historians refer to the Chicago Union Giants of 1919, they are really talking about Gilkerson's club and not the actual Chicago team owned by William S. Peters.
As mentioned in an earlier post, Gilkerson had no real claim to the name. He did not purchase the team from Peters as is often professed in books and articles about the Negro Leagues. Peters' team was still active in 1919 with the majority of their season taking place in Chicago. They would continue to play in and around the Windy City for another 20 plus years.
Gilkerson's team, on the other hand, played almost all of their games in western Iowa and eastern Nebraska in 1919. On a few occasions in early June they were referred to as the Ruthven Union Giants but most often they were called the Chicago Union Giants.
A few players from the 1917 team came back to Gilkerson, including Jess Turner (1b), "Bingo" Bingham (of) and Edgar Burch (p). The team also included B.R. Jones (2b) which is likely the same player as Will "Rabbit" Jones from the 1917 and 1918 teams, though it is not entirely clear. In late July, Jones broke his right leg in Boone, Iowa on a hard slide into second base. Hurley McNair (cf) would join the team shortly afterwards.
New additions to Gilkerson’s squad included: Reuben Curry (p), George Harney (2b, p), Jack Marshall (of,p), Bob Anderson (ss), Gene Redd (3b), and ? Tiller (rf).
The most significant addition to the team in 1919 however was catcher Clarence "Pops" Coleman. Already a veteran of the game, Coleman would stay on with Gilkerson for more than a decade as a player-manager. He would eventually serve as Gilkerson's right-hand man as well as a mentor to many of the young players. No one, other than Gilkerson himself, was more important to the success of the Union Giants than "Pops" Coleman.
To start the season Gilkerson headed straight back to northwest Iowa where he based his team two years earlier. As the Ruthven Union Giants they played games at Electric Park at Lost Island Lake and at a new ballpark built in Ruthven. Like 1917, when they traveled around the rest of the state and into Nebraska, they were billed as being from Chicago.
One of the team's biggest rivals in 1919 was the Omaha Armours, a white semipro team formerly known as the Brandeis Stores team. The two clubs first met in June at Rourke Park in Omaha, with the Union Giants winning the first game. The next day, the Armours won both ends of a doubleheader.
During the afternoon game, one of the Armours spiked Union Giants' first baseman Jess Turner which led to a brawl between the two teams. A punch was thrown and the incident quickly escalated into a "free-for-all riot" with fans of both teams rushing onto the field. After 45 minutes, Union Giants' right fielder Jack Marshall, who reportedly punched the offending runner in the face, was taken away in handcuffs and the game resumed (More on this incident in a later post).
The two teams would meet again in late July for another three game series. Just as before, the Union Giants won the first game with the Armours winning both games of a doubleheader the next day.
If there had been any animosity between the two teams after the first series, it did not come out in this series. Perhaps one reason was that Marshall's playing time was kept to a minimum. He did not play in the first game at all and was a relief pitcher in both games of the doubleheader with only one at bat in the whole series.
For Gilkerson however, the series would be the cause of some controversy. The trouble started when some of the scores of the series were published in the Chicago Tribune. This apparently peaked the interest of William S. Peters back in Chicago.
On August 1, 1919 the Omaha Evening Bee published the contents of a letter received from W.S. Peters in Chicago protesting any claim that the Chicago Union Giants were playing in Omaha. The paper refers to Peters as the manager of the "one and only club of that name."
“According to Peters’ letter, the Chicago Union Giants are playing in the Chicago City league this year are not traveling. He says the team that played here is not the Chicago Union Giants and they are not from Chicago.”
Gilkerson stayed quiet on the matter, making no public statement to having bought the team or the name. In fact, he did not refute Peters' claims in any way.
Instead, the manager of the local Armours team responded in the paper the next day saying, “the team that played the Armours in the recent series here were represented as the Chicago Union Giants and are made up almost wholly of players who have been with this club for years. Manager Gilkerson himself having been connected with the club for nine years. These players are well known to members of the old Brandeis team as being from Chicago.”
The newspaper, unwilling to choose a side, stated, "Whether they 'are' or 'not,' the Giants who gave the Armours six great games of ball, have shown some real base ball ability."
The Union Giants soon headed back to Iowa and the matter was dropped by the local newspapers. That is until Gilkerson's team returned to Omaha in August for a final series with the Armours. In the several weeks that had passed, it seems that neither the newspaper nor the Armours' manager was willing or able to determine with any certainty whether or not Gilkerson's team were the true Chicago Union Giants.
On August 21st, the Omaha World Herald ran a story saying, “there are two negroe teams calling themselves the Chicago Union Giants this year. One is playing in Chicago, and the other is on the road.” Adding, “manager Deleware of the Armours cannot learn which is which so he gives the traveling club the benefit of the doubt and is using the name given him by that club.”
Again, Gilkerson made no public statement or defense of his use of the name. Perhaps he believed the issue would simply go away. Unfortunately for him, this would not be the last time Peters would publicly challenge his use of the team name.
The outcome of the final series with the Omaha team was a carbon copy of the first two. The Union Giants won the first game with the Armours winning the next two in a doubleheader.
Despite losing all three series with the Omaha team, Gilkerson's "Chicago" Union Giants dominated most Iowa teams that summer. The most notable win was a perfect game thrown by Rube Curry in Wellsburg, Iowa in September.
The Union Giants closed the season in Cooper, Iowa on October 12th, having played a total of 109 games that year. The Des Moines Register provided their final record as 78 wins, 28 losses and 3 ties.
That same record was printed in the Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide 1920 along with a picture of the team (top). Interestingly, Gilkerson did not refer to his team as the Chicago Union Giants for this publication. In fact, there was no mention of Chicago whatsoever. Instead, the team name he provided was:
Gilkerson's Union Giants Traveling Club, Spring Valley, Ill.
This was likely one of the first uses of the name in print. By the end of the 1920 season, Gilkerson would exclusively used his surname to promote his team. This lasted until 1935. Even so, newspapers around the country would continue to refer to them as being from Chicago for most of the team's existence.
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