Sports

The Dixie Trotters play ball.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 8 January 1938.

The Dixie Trotters, a semi-pro basketball team, competed in the late 1930s. Player-coach Jack Sherrod led a squad of ten players that included Nat Saunders, Peanut Strickland, Rob Haskins, Thomas Monroe, Jim Pennington, Rat Bynum, Earle Ennis, Chick Lassiter, and Eugene Tennessee.

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  • Jack Sherrod

In 1940, Jack Benjamin Sherrod registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 27 October 1912 in Speed, N.C.; lived at 807 East Nash Street, Wilson; his contact was mother Lucy E. Sherrod; and he worked for William Barnes Jr., Cherry Hotel, Wilson. He was 5’11”.

  • Nat Saunders

In 1940, Nathaniel Saunders registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 2 December 1914 in Middlesex, N.C.; lived at 102 North East Street, Wilson; his contact was wife Mrs. Nathaniel Saunders; and he worked for T.A. Loving Company, Goldsboro, N.C. He was 5’6″.

  • Peanut Strickland
  • Rob Haskins

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Robert Haskins, 55, drug company salesman; wife Gertrude, 48; and children Mandy, 36; Elizabeth, 33, cook; Estelle, 29, beauty shop cleaner; Robert D. Jr., 29, hotel kitchen worker; Lossie, 24, N.Y.A. stenographer; and Thomas, 20, barbershop shoeblack; plus granddaughter Delores Haskins, 15, and lodger Henry Whitehead, 21.

In 1940, Robert Douglas Haskins registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 1 June 1913 in Wilson; lived at 1300 Atlantic Street, Wilson; his contact was father Robert Haskins; and he worked for Robert Haskins as a salesman. He was 5’9″.

  • Thomas Monroe
  • Jim Pennington
  • Rat Byrum
  • Earle Ennis — Earl E. Ennis.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 904 Viola, rented for $15/month, Maggie Ennis, 45, and children Freeman, 22, barbershop bootblack, Earl, 12, and Hennie, 10, and roomer Julus Barnes, 27, laborer at Hackney body plant.

In 1940, Earl Edward Ennis registered for the World War II draft in Manhattan, New York, New York. Per his registration card, he was born 11 March 1917 in Wilson, N.C.; lived at several addresses in Manhattan; his contact was sister Dolores Ennis; and he worked for Schecter, Strauss, Beckman Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y. He was 6’1″.

  • Chick Lassiter
  • Eugene Tennessee

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 111 Pender Street, Elizabeth James, 45, nursery school cook; son Randle James, 23, assistant undertaker at Darden Funeral, his wife Ruth, 22, and their daughter Dianne, 1; son Charles, 26, undertaker at Darden Funeral; cousin Eugene Tennessee, 22, field agent for Darden Funeral; and brother Arthur Darden, 40, [occupation illegible.]

In 1940, Eugene Leonard Tennessee registered for the World War II draft in Elizabeth City County, Virginia. Per his registration card, he was born 1 August 1918 in Phoebus, Elizabeth City County, Virginia; lived at 58 West County Street, Phoebus, Elizabeth City County; his contact was mother Artelia Tennessee; and he worked for Newport News Shipyard-Erectors Department, Washington Avenue, Newport News, Virginia. He was 5’7″.

Leonard + Monk: a collabo of Rocky Mount excellents.

I was excited to share with the Buck Leonard Association my recent discovery of Buck Leonard‘s brief ties to Wilson County’s baseball history and, in turn, to learn of an exciting collaboration between the Association and the Connecticut-based Monk Youth Jazz and STEAM Collective.

Elm City Negro Giants: ‘we’re not boasting, but we believe we’re the best!’

Finding the Elm City Negro Giants was surprising enough, but to read that their first baseman was future Negro League legend Buck Leonard?!?

News and Observer, 13 August 1930.

For more links between Wilson County and the baseball-star Leonard brothers, see here and here and here.

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  • Morris Williams
  • Ralph Ricks

In the 1920 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: Ed Ricks, 41; wife Nannie, 38; children Siddie, 20, Annie, 17, Maggie, 11, Mamie, 10, Raph, 8, and Ruth Ricks, 5; and niece Albie Walston, 17.

In the 1933 Washington, D.C., city directory: Ricks Ralph clo clnr Economon Bros r2137 L nw

On 17 June 1936, Ralph Ricks married Cornelia Harrell in Washington, D.C.

In the 1940 census of Washington, D.C.: Cornelia H. Ricks, 23, cook, and husband Ralph, 28, cleaning shop presser, lodgers.

Ralph Ricks registered for the World War II draft in 1940. Per his registration card, he was born 16 September 1911 in Elm City; lived at 1530 Swann Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.; his contact was mother Nannie Ricks, 1742 – 6th Street, N.E., Washington, D.C.; and he worked for Joseph Westline.

The Grabneck baseball park.

Wilson Times, 2 May 1911.

In the spring of 1911, African-American baseball teams from Wilson and Greenville squared up at “the Grab Neck park.” Where was that?

Greensboro Daily News, 14 January 1920.

Nine years later, we find this reference to the (white) Wilson baseball club securing a park at Grabneck. Is this the same park? The article seems to suggest a new place. Or did the new grandstand signify an upgrade to an existing field?

The 1930 Sanborn map of Wilson depicts the Grabneck ball park, whose grandstand and separate bleachers (for Black patrons?) stood in the middle of West Gold Street and North Clyde Avenues, streets that had not yet been laid.

Detail of 1930 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, North Carolina.

The Newark Eagles defeat the Homestead Grays in Wilson.

Wilson Daily Times, 30 August 1939.

Two Negro League powerhouses, the Newark Eagles and the Homestead Grays, clashed in a baseball game at Wilson’s Municipal [later, Fleming] Stadium in the summer of 1939. The Grays held spring camp in Wilson and regularly scheduled a game in town before rapt fans.