Frank Duncan

1901-1973
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.
While attending Lincoln High School, Duncan met his first wife Julia Lee, the younger sister of accomplished bandleader George E. Lee. The couple had a son together, Frank III. Julia would pursue a music career like her brother, becoming a famous blues and jazz vocalist.
Following high school, Duncan joined a traveling baseball team that played locally and throughout the Midwest. He then played for the Swift Packing House team in St. Joseph, Missouri, before signing with the Chicago Giants in 1920. A year later, the Giants traded the young prospect to his hometown Kansas City Monarchs, part of the newly formed Negro National League.
Duncan made a name for himself in the league as a dominant catcher, receiving pitches from future Hall of Fame hurlers such as Satchel Paige and Bullet Rogan, and for his aggressive baserunning. He was part of a Monarchs dynasty that won three consecutive league pennants from 1923-1925, including the 1924 championship team that won the first Negro League World Series.
In addition to the Monarchs, Duncan played for teams in Chicago, New York, and Pittsburgh, but he always returned to Kansas City. As was common with many Negro Leaguers, he also played in independent leagues in the offseason and participated in barnstorming tours and exhibition games as far away as South America and Asia.
In 1941, Duncan caught a game pitched by his son, Frank Jr. who was a rising Monarchs prospect. The duo made history that day as the first father-son battery (pitcher and catcher) in professional baseball. The following year, he was named player-manager of the Monarchs, leading them to a World Series title in his first season and another league pennant in 1946.
Duncan was also Jackie Robinson’s first professional manager when the young shortstop joined the Monarchs in 1945. Robinson would make history two years later by breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier.
The 1947 season was Duncan’s last in baseball, with his friend and former teammate, Buck O’Neil, taking over as manager. However, he remained closely associated with baseball by umpiring Monarchs home games in retirement.
Duncan was respected by his contemporaries for his fierce competitiveness on the field and pleasant demeanor off it. Several of his former Monarchs teammates served as pallbearers at his funeral in 1973.