Sports

When I started at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum as a volunteer 27 years ago, I considered myself very much a baseball fan.

Kansas City native Frank Lee Duncan Jr. was a standout player and manager in baseball’s Negro Leagues from 1920-1948. The only child of Frank and Elizabeth Duncan, Frank Jr. grew up playing sandlot baseball with other youths, including future Negro Leagues teammates Newt Allen and Rube Curry, in his east side neighborhood near Parade Park.

Legendary for his play and his personality, Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige entered the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971, the first Negro Leagues player so honored. 

John Jordan O’Neil was born in Carrabelle, Florida. He was the second of three children born to John Sr., a sawmill worker, and Luella, a restaurant manager.

Hugh O. Cook, one of the longest-serving principals of Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri, was born in Washington, D.C., graduated from Cornell University, and taught at Normal A&M College in Huntsville, Alabama.

Charles Wilber “Bullet” Rogan was one of the greatest players in the history of the Negro Baseball Leagues, a multifaceted star who earned enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Tom Bass broke down color barriers as a world-class equestrian and trainer of show horses over a career that spanned half a century.