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,  Joe Johnson, and "Black" Wax.

Joe Lillard, who had played basketball in Chicago that previous winter for the Savoy Big Five, started out with the team but did not stay.   He pitched in at least one exhibition game in late April in Davenport, IA.  His brief time with Gilkerson would create quite a controversy in Oregon a year later (more on this in a later post).   Lillard, who like Tate was a multi-sport talent, would eventually play football in the NFL for the Chicago Cardinals.

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.