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The history of barnstorming baseball teams on the prairies goes
way back before this 1935 Winnipeg exhibition between Satchel
Paige's Bismarck club and the Kansas City Monarchs.
 It would be a
whole other story of how the teams got around in those days, but
the first teams probably began their traveling shows in the
late1800s in what is now Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba.
(Advertisement from the Winnipeg
Tribune, June 6, 1935)
The 30s, 40s and 50s appear to have
been the prime decades of the barnstormers, including the regulars
-- such as the House of David and the Kansas City
Monarchs.
A NOTABLE BASEBALL ATTRACTION COMING
Two Renowned Colored Baseball
Teams to Clash Here on Thursday Evening, July 10th
Because of the fact that two baseball clubs would be crossing each
near here on their respective tours East and West, a contest has been
arranged to be staged at Claresholm on Thursday evening, July 10th
between Rod Whitman's Texas Colored Giants Baseball Club and the Chicago
Colored Athletics.
The Texas Colored Giants, owned and managed by Canadians, and the
Chicago Colored Athletics have been for two seasons rival claimants to
colored baseball supremacy, and here for the first time in the history
of the two clubs the opportunity has arrived to decided this argument.
It will be a real ball game; nothing can be surer than that, and both
teams will be out to give no quarter to its opponent.
This great baseball game will be played at Claresholm on Thursday
evening July 10th. The same popular prices of fifty and
twenty-five cents will prevail. The game will commence at six
forty-five p.m. (The Claresholm Local Press, July 4, 1930)
BASEBALL
Both games Wednesday between a Nanton team and the Chicago Athletics,
a colored baseball bunch that is now touring western Canada, drew good
crowds, and the spectators were well satisfied with the exhibition.
The colored men are good players and played a clean game. It was
expected that they would win both games, and they did.
Both were good games. The spectators could not know whether
the traveling company were playing their best of not; but they played
good enough to win. (The Nanton News, July 10, 1930)
July 6, 1931, The Lethbridge Herald carried a lengthy story about Rod
Whitman's Texas Colored Giants. Whitman, from Lafleche,
Saskatchewan, had paired up with Negro League veteran Jack Marshall
to organize a touring barnstorming show which featured games against the
local nines and competitions between the Giants and the New York
All-Stars plus a minstrel show and dance.
The first professional display of baseball in Lethbridge for the current
season will be staged at the Henderson Lake ball diamond on Wednesday of
this week when the Texas Colored Giants hook up with the New York
All-Stars. This feature contest will be played in the evening
commencing at 6:30 but during the afternoon an All-Star team will clash
with the Giants for a purse of $200.
The Giants have been seen in action in this city in previous years and
fans will recall with interest the contests between this touring nine
and the local Red Sox last summer. Games that will be full of pep
and interest and of a calibre of ball as dished up in the major leagues
will be available to fans of Lethbridge and district and good crowds are
assured for both bills.
The following record of the team during the past two seasons gives some
idea of the brand of ball these southern boys put up for the fans:
The Texas Color Giants, owned and managed by Rod Whitman of LaFleche,
Saskatchewan. Played one hundred and forty-two games in Western
Canada two seasons ago, lost on the season eleven games. Last
season in the west, played one hundred and fifty-six, lost thirteen
games during the tour.
The tour embraces during the summer months seven states and four
provinces and covers over 12,000 miles. This season the organization
travels in a caravan of three buses and three trucks.
AGREEMENT MADE
Because of the absence of semi-professional and professional ball clubs
in the country this summer, an agreement was made with the New York
All-Stars; a colored team of merit from the East, to play a series of
games throughout the west with the Texas Giants. In order to
insure real baseball in every game, Rod Whitman is distributing a bonus
of five hundred dollars amonst the club winning the most games on the
tour. Up to last week, the Texas Giants were seven games up on the
New York All-Stars.
The Universal Amusement Company of which Rod Whiteman is managing
director, offers a two hundred dollar purse to the local all-star white
ball club that can defeat the Texas Colored Giants. This offer
stands throughout the tour of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and
British Columbia.
Always a feature of the Texas Colored Giants is the comedy stunts
introduced by the players in the field. This element of mirth has
been enlarged upon this season by the acquisition to the Texas lineup of
three new field clowns whose pantomime and humorous antics lend much
pleasant diversions. Whether one is a rabid ball fan or only
mildly interested in the game of swat, he is certain to receive full
measure in the matter of entertainment by the characteristic
laugher-provoking pranks of the ebony funsters in the personnel of the
Texas Colored Giants Baseball Club.
WORTHY OF SUPPORT
The St. Pats Baseball Club is to be congratulated on their enterprise in
bringing into the city two ball teams of the calibre of the Texas
Colored Giants and the New York All-Stars. Their undertaking is sure to
command the hearty support of all lovers of meritorious sport and
entertainment.
Coach E.L. Smith of the St. Pats baseball club is bringing together an
all-star baseball team to play the Texas Colored Giants for the $200
offered by the management to the white club that can defeat the dusky
ball players. A carefully selected team drawn from the city as
well as out-of-town promises the Giants will not win victory easily and
with "the breaks", so inseparably associated with baseball, who knows?
Who knows?
(Monday, July 6, 1931, The Lethbridge Herald)
. . . Following the evening fixture, the Alabama Minstrel Show, a
company of colored comedians, singers and dancers will entertain with
mirth, music and melody of the Darky Minstrels of the South, featuring
the famous Dixon Stampers. The Alabama Flashes, an outstanding
colored dance orchestra of radio fame will furnish the music for the
dance to be held in the Union Hall, concluding the day's program.
(July 9, 1931, The Lethbridge Herald)
(Left - a 1949 newspaper
advertisement for a barnstorming matchup between the San
Francisco Sea Lions and the Lexington Tigers. The ad
highlights Sammie Workman "Boy wonder, plays ball with no hands
or feet" and Tony Stone "Sensational Girl Player". The ad is
from the May 18, 1949 edition of The Chillicothe
Constitution-Tribune of Chillicothe, Missouri. Below right
- The Red Deer Advocate, July 6, 1938, announced the visit of
the African Zulu Giants.)
 It wasn't unusual for prairie fans
to see six or eight different barnstorming clubs over a period of
just a couple of weeks. In Winnipeg 1938, for example, the
San Antonio Black Missions and the House of Alexander Whiskered
Wizards kicked off July with a triple-header on Friday, July
1st. They played two on Saturday, and a single game on
Sunday. The following Friday, the Piney Woods Collegians
opened a three-game series with Red Haley's Dunseith Giants.
The same day, the Colored House of David took on J.J. Kohns,
advertised as the 1937 amateur champions of the US. There
were twin-bills in each series on Saturday. On the 15th of
July, the Kansas City Monarchs hooked up with the Chicago American
Giants in a four-game set.
"Reaction
of the big crowd to last night's exciting inaugural was so
gratifying that the park management placed reserved tickets for
today's two matches on sale immediately afterward." (Winnipeg
Tribune, July 16, 1938)
And,
it wasn't as if Winnipeg fans didn't have a home team. In
fact, they had two leagues operating in the city -- a pro team in
the Northern League and several teams in a senior, amateur loop.
 Among the list of visitors to the
prairies were the Ligon All-Stars, Houston Buffaloes, Toronto
Maple Leafs, Montreal Royals, Kansas City Monarchs, House of
David, Boston Giants, Bismarck, Acme Giants, Gilkerson's
Colored Giants, California Mohawks, San Francisco Sea Lions, Muskogee
Cardinals, Harlem Queens, Nashville Stars, Hollywood Beavers,
Jacksonville Eagles, Harlem Globe Trotters, Brooklyn Cuban
Giants, Buchanan All-Stars, New Orleans Creoles, Florida Cubans,
Earl Mack's Major League All-Stars, Dai Nippon Tokyo Giants, San
Francisco Cubs, Baton Rouge Hardwood Sports, Havana Cuban Giants,
Omaha Rockets, New York Harlem Black Yankees, Philadelphia Stars,
Chicago Brown Bombers, Havana La Palomas, Cincinnati Crescents,
Texas Jasper Steers, Louisiana Travellers, Twin City (Minneapolis-St.Paul)
Gophers, Ethiopian Clowns, Piney Woods Collegians, San Antonio
Black Missions, House of Alexander Wiskered Wizards, Dunseith
Giants, Chicago American Giants, J.J. Kohns, Colored House of
David, Detroit Colored Giants, Satchel Paige All-Stars, Oakland
Beavers, Chicago Athletics, Detroit Giants, Mexicans, African Zulu
Giants, African Zulu
Cannibal Giants of Detroit, Rod Whitman's Texas Colored Giants,
New Orleans Crescents, "Ham" Olive's House of Davidites,
San Francisco Tigers, Washington Rain Drops, Chicago Union
Giants, Pittsburgh Crawfords, Birmingham Black Barons, Van Dykes
(the Original Colored House of David), Twin City Colored Giants,
Philadelphia Hilldales, Detroit Motor City Giants, Broadway
Wolverines (Houston, Texas), Shreveport Acme Giants, Michigan
Wolves ...
Among the players ...
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