Donated a Rare 1930 Engle stadium seat from Chattanooga Negro League and barnstorming teams
For over fifty years, Chattanooga hosted baseball teams that played in the Negro Southern League, that went barnstorming, or did both in different seasons. Regarding what barnstorming was, think The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976).
The city’s Afro-American community fielded a team known simply as Chattanooga in the earliest of Negro League in the country, the Southern League of Colored Base Ballists, which lasted one season, 1886.
The Chattanooga Unions barnstormed during the 1901 season.
Another team simply known as Chattanooga barnstormed during the 1909 and 1910 seasons.
The Chattanooga Black Lookouts I played in the Negro Southern League in the 1920 season, based at Andrews Field.
The Chattanooga Tigers barnstormed during seasons 1921-1923.
The Chattanooga White Sox played in the Negro Southern League in the first half of the 1926 season, home-based at Andrews Field.
The Chattanooga Black Lookouts II (White Sox renamed) played the second half of the 1926 season and all of the 1927 season in the Negro Southern League, home-based at Andrews Field. In the 1927 season, they were league champions. This incarnation of Chattanooga Black Lookouts was a farm team for the Homestead Grays of the Negro National League.
The Chattanooga Black Cats played in the Negro Southern League in the 1929 season, home-based at Lincoln Park Field.
The Chattanooga Black Lookouts III played in the Negro Southern League during the 1931 season, home-based at Engel Stadium, and barnstormed for seasons 1933-1936.
The Chattanooga Choo Choos barnstormed during seasons 1940-1944 and played in the Negro Southern League during seasons 1945-1948, home-based at Engel Stadium.
The Chattanooga All-Stars barnstormed during the 1949 season.
The Chattanooga Black Choo Choos played in the Negro Southern League during the 1950 season, home-based at Engel Stadium.
The Chattanooga Stars played in the Negro Southern League during the 1951 season, home-based at Engel Stadium.
Famous players who started in Chattanooga
Three of the greatest baseball in the history of the Negro Leagues who later played Major League Baseball got their start in pro ball in Chattanooga:
Satchel Paige (the greatest pitcher of all time, black or white) got his start with the Chattanooga White Sox;
Willie Mays (the greatest all-around offensive player of all time in MLB) got his start with the Chattanooga Choo Choos; and,
Jackie Robinson (the player broke the MLB color barrier) also got his start with the Chattanooga Choo Choos.
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) is the world’s only museum dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of African American baseball and its impact on the social advancement of America. The privately funded, 501 c3, not-for-profit organization was established in 1990 and is in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri’s Historic 18th & Vine Jazz District. The NLBM operates two blocks from the Paseo YMCA where Andrew “Rube” Foster established the Negro National League in 1920.
The NLBM opened its doors to the public in a tiny, one-room office space in 1991 with a dream of building a permanent facility that would pay rightful tribute to America’s unsung baseball heroes. In November of 1997, under the leadership of its late chairman John “Buck” O’Neil, that dream became a reality when the NLBM moved into its new 10,000 square-foot home inside a cultural complex known as the Museums at 18th & Vine.
Since that time, the NLBM has welcomed more than 2-million visitors and has become one of the most important cultural institutions in the world for its work to give voice to a once forgotten chapter of baseball and American history. In July of 2006, the NLBM gained National Designation from the United States Congress earning the distinction of being “America’s National Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.”