From The Late 1890's, Pensacola Had History With Black Baseball Teams As Pioneers 

More than 100 years ago, Pensacola had a ballpark and talented players who framed the area's history among Black baseball players and leagues.

In a downtown area now occupied by Baptist Hospital and the Pensacola Retirement Village, was site of Kupfrian Park, a ballpark built by the city as a community centerpiece for the segregated African-American population. The 500-seat venue was framed by a pond, a horse race track, a picnic area and fairground.

This is where Pensacola in 1890 had a thriving Black baseball league and its strong community impact before American Negro League Baseball was officially founded in 1920.

Kupfrian Park was essentially the origination of Pensacola’s Black baseball history.

“Pensacola, in reality, in this sense, was color blind to a degree when it came to the game of baseball,” said author Scott Brown, whose book, “Baseball In Pensacola: American’s Pastime & The City Of Five Flags,” was published in 2013 and chronicles the city’s unique heritage in the sport.

As Major League Baseball celebrates Black History Month, the existence of Kupfrian Park enabled the sport to reach all parts of Pensacola. It was spurned baseball’s growth during segregation in Pensacola, even before the 19th Century.

The lengthy history was recognized in July 2012 when the Buck O'Neil Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research gathered at a restaurant within Pensacola's Historic Village to commemorate the pioneers and legacy.

Only 25 years after the Civil War ended, there few cities that were Pensacola’s size, especially in the southeast, that had anything resembling Kupfrian Park.

“One of things in my research that just blew me away was the building and usage of Kupfrian Park,” Brown said. “That was a huge entertainment arena. The fact the city and the mayor at that time, William D. Chipley, got behind the construction of a field that sat 500 people in the grandstand, which was a big stadium back then, is just amazing.

“I mean, we are talking 1890 Pensacola."

This is what eventually led to the Pensacola Arthur Giants in 1920 becoming part of the Southern Negro League. And it led 25 years later to Jackie Robinson playing an exhibition game in Pensacola, while with the Kansas City Monarchs at Pensacola’s Legion Field.

So much of the foundation for the future began at Kupfrian Park on North Pace Boulevard.

“It was, by-design, a place to rally the community," Brown said. “That for me was the beginning of everyone in Pensacola for Negro League Baseball.

There were several other key moments and teams that carried Pensacola’s connections with various Negro League Baseball organizations.

Many of those players in the early 1900’s advanced to higher levels.

Once the official start of Negro League Baseball formed in 1920, Pensacola had teams in various leagues. The teams were the Pensacola Arthur Giants, the Pepsi-Cola Stars and the Pensacola Seagulls.

The Seagulls used Legion Field and Admiral Mason Park as their venues to showcase talents.

"“Everybody went to see them play, white and black fans,” said Richard Mobley, who grew up in Morris Court, where one of the Seagulls’ all-time best players, catcher William “Pit” Bell, lived at the time. “A lot of the guys on those teams back then lived in my neighborhood.

“Those guys (former players) encouraged us to play baseball," said Mobley, who played in the 1960's at Pensacola High and became among the first local Black players to play collegiate baseball at Pensacola Junior College and Mississippi Valley State.

The stadiums in town evolved into Maxent Park, which became Legion Field in 1928 and was located at its present location on Gregory Street and G Street. It was Maxent Park and Legion Field where MLB teams stopped to play during spring training on train rides back to Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Boston.

Pensacola’s Negro League teams played at those stadiums on designated days.

“While Pensacola was still playing in segregated leagues, the people I talked to who were children then and still living now, can remember when people in the white community of Pensacola would attend Negro League games and people in the black community would attend the white games,” Brown said.

“During the white games, the African American fans were restricted to the non-covered portion of Legion Field back then along the left field line. It was part of how things were back in those days.”

The Seagulls were a feeder affiliate team for the Negro Southern League. They had the longest tenure in Pensacola, later becoming an semipro, non-affiliated, integrated team, all the way into the 1970’s.

“We might not have been known as a Negro League town in the same way as cities such as Kansas City with the Kansas City Monarchs, but were turning out players who were high aptitude in the game,” said Brown, discussing his research. “That continued on to the 1960’s. We had players who had the ability to sustain themselves all the way into the major leagues.”

The best of those players was Johnny Joe Lewis. The Booker T. Washington High graduate played for the Seagulls. He was an outfielder, who then attended a Detroit Tigers tryout as a catcher.

The Tigers signed Lewis, traded him to the St. Louis Cardinals where he made his pro debut in 1959 in Wytheville, Va. Five years later, on April 14, 1964, Lewis made his MLB debut with the Cardinals and became Pensacola’s first African-American player to reach the big leagues.

“Johnny was the epitome of the kind of talent we turned out in Pensacola among African-American players back then,” Brown said.

Lewis and his connection with the Seagulls inspired future Black baseball stars Hosken Powell and JJ Cannon, both of whom reached Major League Baseball from Pensacola.

“The Seagulls are what got me thinking about baseball,” said Powell, who went from Woodham High during that same era into becoming the No. 3 overall selection by the Minnesota Twins in first round of the 1975 Major League Baseball Draft.

Powell went on to play six MLB seasons, including four with the Twins, where he batted .293 in 1979.

“On Sunday, it was unreal with the Seagulls,” Powell said. “Everybody who loved baseball came out to the ballpark. We had some great talent in Pensacola back in those days.”

All of this is part of Pensacola’s rich history with Negro League Baseball. It put the community in a different light from so many other places during those eras.

“It wasn’t so much that it was an answer of giving a place to play, as much as it was that Pensacola was enamored with the game of baseball,” Brown said. “Pensacola was color blind in that regard.

“From my research, it was just a natural thing to do then. We’re just going to play baseball. It was so natural for Pensacola to begin playing black baseball.”

A look at Pensacola’s three best known Negro League teams.

ARTHUR GIANTS – The team played at Pete Caldwell Field, now in an area off Fairfield Drive and Market Street that is near Pensacola Catholic High School. The team had distinction in the early 1900’s as Pensacola most accomplished Black baseball team. Team owner E.S. Cobb, a Pensacola physician, enabled the team to travel and gain interest of the national level Negro League scouts during the 1930’s. The team played into the 1940’s.

PEPSI COLA STARS – Pensacola’s team was part of a national set of Black baseball teams sponsored by Pepsi-Cola. The team played an exhibition game on Aug. 9. 1942 against the Montgomery (Ala.) Brown Bombers, a team connected to the national Negro League.

One of the team's top players was Charles "Hawk" Marvray, a Booker T. Washington grad who played for the Pepsi Cola Stars in 1945-46 and later attracted attention from two MLB teams, Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Cardinals. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1951 and rejoined with the Pensacola Seagulls to finish his playing career after military service.

PENSACOLA SEAGULLS – The team had its own bus, enabling trips to nearby cities or as far away as San Francisco, where the Seagulls once traveled to play. The ballclub was a feeder affiliate for the Negro Southern League during the 1940’s and stayed a team long past Integration in Major League Baseball. The team stayed as an amateur or adult league teams.

The Seagulls were led by catcher William “Pit” Bell, who later became a long-time employee at Armstrong World Industries. The team played at Legion Field and had exhibition games against the Indianapolis Clowns and Kansas City Monarchs, two of the most famous teams in the elite Negro National League.

It was also the team that Johnny Joe Lewis played for as an outfielder, leading into his opportunity to rise in professional baseball and become Pensacola’s first Black player to reach the Major Leagues.

One of the Seagulls greatest distinctions is playing against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the late 1940’s when Jackie Robinson was on the team. The game was at Legion Field, which is now part of the SYSA complex off G Street.

The legacy of the Seagulls was honored on June 19, 2021 by the Blue Wahoos. The Blue Wahoos wore replica Seagulls uniforms for a game against the Montgomery Biscuits.

“Ever since 2002 when Rishy and I bought the Pensacola Pelicans (Independent League team), we have always tried to celebrate some of the good parts of the past,” said Blue Wahoos owner Quint Studer, who addressed the sellout crowd at Blue Wahoos Stadium that day.

“Years ago we brought Buck O’Neil (former Negro League star and first black coach in MLB history) into town for a Pelicans game and it was a huge thing for us,” Studer said. “We’re excited to honor the Seagulls.”

Three former Seagulls players – Herman Grace, Eunice Sampson and Nehemiah McNeally – were honored on the field that night with Mobley and Powell for their achievements in Pensacola’s baseball history. All five threw out a first pitch.

Working the games that night as an usher was Victor Randall, who played for the Seagulls in their final years from 1978-81 when the team was a semi-pro team.

“The Seagulls were Pensacola's premier Negro League team," Brown said. "Not only were they known throughout this area, but they were known throughout the United States."

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