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.
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. 
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.
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