Looking Back: Wilson Helped Pioneer Black Baseball in Nashville

  Long forgotten is a Nashville baseball stadium that was demolished decades ago. Wilson Park was built and owned by Tom Wilson, an African-American baseball team owner. Wilson was a Nashvillian and the pioneer for securing baseball for the African-American population of Nashville.
   Wilson broke ground on the ballpark site in 1928 with construction completed in the spring of 1929. The ballpark was located in the Trimble Bottom section of Nashville, north of the fairgrounds, near the confluence of Second and Fourth Avenues. The ballpark, which accommodated 8,000 fans, was built in the largest section of Nashville's black community.
   Wilson was born in Atlanta in 1890 and moved to Nashville with his parents as a youth. His parents studied medicine at Nashville's Meharry the leading Negro medical school in the South at that time. Coming from an affluent family, Wilson reputedly became wealthy with his many entrepreneurial ventures.
   It is said that his finances established himself as one of the wealthier citizens in Nashville-black or white. Not blessed with the greatest of ability as a player, Wilson became interested in baseball as a teen participating in the Nashville Capitol League. The league was an industrial league, which stimulated semi-professional teams. During this period in 1914, Wilson became interested in the promotional side of the game. Totally on his own, he sponsored exhibition games between semi-professional teams.
   In the spring of 1913, baseball Hall of Famer Rube Foster and his Chicago American Giants arrived in Nashville for an exhibition with a collection of NCL all-stars. The games played at Sulphur Dell drew the largest attendance at that time for a Negro sporting event. The fan turnout encouraged Wilson to pursue his own team that he accomplished four years later.
   Wilson started a semi-professional team, the Nashville Standard Giants that booked exhibitions in Tennessee and other Southern states. He acquired better players against tougher competition enabling his reputation as a baseball man to prosper. In 1921, he enhanced his team's appearance by displaying new uniforms with jerseys that read across the front "Nashville Elite Giants."
   The Elite Giants joined the Southern Negro League as a full-time enterprise. The league consisted of teams from Birmingham, New Orleans, Montgomery, Atlanta, Jacksonville and Chattanooga. The popularity of black baseball in the South was beginning to explode.
   With the construction of Wilson Park, Wilson became the first African-American to own a stadium in the South and one of the first in the country. James Hendrix, a resident in the Wilson Park neighborhood, once wrote a passage in his pamphlet, I Remember Tom. The passage appeared in a 1999 article of Black Ball News.
   "Whenever there would be a game, the word of mouth promotion would guarantee a good attendance. The nearby residents may as well be in attendance because the loud speakers would broadcast all the details and enthusium of the crowd for miles around. The activities at Wilson Park soon became so wide spread that the white spectators out numbered the black spectators."
   Credit is given to Wilson's personality and some of his business interests with the white-owned businesses for helping to draw whites to Wilson Park. One of these common interests was the Franklin Inter-Urban Transportation System that transported commuters between Nashville and Franklin.
   Wilson Park was open to all community groups, black and white. Wilson's financial success and promotional work for his baseball team enabled him to reach a long-time goal. The Elite Giants were asked to join the Negro National League in 1930. The Great Depression had just begun with the 1929 Stock Market crash hampering Wilson's newest enterprise.
   The members of the league struggled to survive, but managed to finish the 1930 season. With the economic future in doubt, the league attempted another season. Wilson surprised his patrons when he moved his team to Cleveland hoping to find more success in the larger city. The Elite Giants became the Cleveland Cubs in the National Negro League.
   In May of 1930, Wilson Park was host to what was reported to be the first night baseball game in Nashville. The Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro National League played two games against the Elite Giants. The Tennessean reported:
   "The Monarchs have a special portable lighting system that will light the players field. A large crowd is expected to witness the game. Half of the grandstand will be reserved for white fans. A number of minor leagues have purchased equipment for the playing of night baseball, but the Monarchs have a portable system that can be moved and removed, set up and taken down, and transported from one baseball park to another.
   "The equipment used in this event is one of a new creation, designed by several of the leading engineers in the United States. The lighting equipment with its contributories, when assembled, is a systematic mammoth affair of its own. The 99 kilowatt generator and 240 horsepower, six cylinder marine gas engine, which is of special design and made to order, is said to be the positively the largest Electric power plant in the world on wheels.
   "The giant flood lights, which encircle the entire baseball park are designed expressly for this type of outdoor amusement, illuminating each and every part of the baseball park. The series of poles and towers that support the giant floodlights are similar in construction to a Jack Knife or a fire department with its extension ladders. They have telescoped poles that extend 40 to 50 feet in the air, elevating the giants flood lights so they light the playing ground as well as the sky."
   The Tennessean reported on the game the next day where only 1,000 fans were in attendance:
   "Many went away from the park amused at the lighting system which made it possible for an outfielder to see the ball as good as if he was playing in the day time. Twenty-one large reflectors, with three bulbs each, mounted on 40-foot poles, made the entire filed almost as light as day.
   "From the way the lights were arranged. Six at first base, six at third base and five in left center and four in right center, the fans could not see the ball at times as well as the players could, but there was hardly a time that they could not follow the ball even on the longest drives, some of which were 300 feet long or more. The ball appeared larger on high flies in the artificial light than it does in the day time."
      In July 1894, the Nashville Tigers of the Southern League played a night game as an exhibition to raise money for the team. That game was played at Athletic Park later named Sulphur Dell. In 1931, permanent lighting was installed in Sulphur Dell.
   The league and the Cubs became insolvent during the 1931 season and the league folded. Wilson returned to Nashville determined to conquer the depression. Wilson, along with several other team owners, reformed the Negro Southern League in 1932. He used Wilson Park to sponsor exhibition games with barnstorming attractions as the Ethiopian Clowns and Syd Pollock's Bearded Cuban House of David.
   In 1933, Wilson joined an effort to re-establish the Negro National League. His team reverted back to the Nashville Elite Giants. It was also at this time that Wilson co-sponsored the leagues first East-West All Star Game to showcase the league. Eventually, Wilson moved the Elite Giants to Columbus and then Washington in 1936. They became the Baltimore Elite Giants in 1937 where they remained until after Jackie Robinson integrated baseball in 1947. The team's operations were always run from Nashville, even when they were located in another city.
   The league owners elected Wilson as their President of the Negro National League, a position he held for nearly 10 years. The league and the Elite Giants grew financially under his leadership. The best player he produced in Baltimore was future Dodger and Hall of Famer Roy Campanella.
   Wilson's health began to deteriorate and he stepped down as league president in 1946. In spite of his poor health, he was persuaded to lead the Negro Southern League. With reservations, Wilson prepared to oversee the league's operation primarily from Nashville. On May 17, 1947 Wilson suffered a heart attack and died at his Nashville home.
   Before his death, Wilson converted Wilson Park into a dog racing track and later the Paradise Ballroom, which attracted such celebrities as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.
   Wilson's personality and high spirits earned him the name "Smiling Tom" by his friends and fans that knew him. Satchel Paige, whose contract was purchased from the Birmingham Black Barons, played for Wilson in Cleveland. Many other future Hall of Famers' visits and exploits in Wilson Park have been lost to time and poor record keeping.
   Wilson is buried in Nashville's Greenwood Cemetery. An historical marker was placed near the site of Wilson Park several years ago to honor Tom Wilson and his baseball presence in Nashville.
Traughber's Tidbit: Broadcaster Joe Garagiola once told the story of Smead Jolley who played for the White Sox (1930-32) and the Red Sox (1932-33) and known as an excellent fastball hitter. In one game Jolley was at-bat with runners on first and third. The runner at first attempted to steal second base. The catcher threw the ball to second base while the runner on third dashed for home plate. The shortstop cut off the throw from the catcher and threw a strike to the plate. With Jolley still standing in the batter's box, he swung at the throw from the shortstop and socked the ball into the outfield. The home plate umpire yelled at Jolley, "What are you doing? Answered Jolley, "Sorry ump, I couldn't resist. That's the first fastball I've seen in weeks."
Tidbit Two: On sale now is the book "Nashville Baseball History: From Sulphur Dell to the Sounds." The paperback book consists of 227 pages, 33 chapters covering 19^th century baseball through the Nashville Vols and Nashville Sounds through First Tennessee Park. There are 86 illustrations and the book can be purchased at Parnassus Books (Green Hills), Barnes & Nobles, Amazon and Summer Game Books. Also check other retailers that sell books. Nashville baseball enthusiast and Sounds first general manager wrote the foreword to the book.
   If you have any comments or suggestions contact Bill Traughber via email [email protected].