board and hear the music between plays. the music all the time, it is so loud. i don't know why it's so loud in stadiums today. you can't even talk. but that's just my thing. but you really do see kind of a direct line between pedestrianism and modern professional sports and most of the pedestrians tried to switch to bicycles, but they weren't very good at it. but two of the pedestrians, edward westin and daniel o'leary continued staging walking exhibitions well into their 80s. edward walked from new york to san francisco in about 1907. and again, sold one of these pamphlets along the way. did another walk from new york to minneapolis and sold a pamphlet, the major sponsor was

the packard car company, which said you could go 300 miles in a day. i guess he was desperate for ads because he did not like cars. westin did not like cars just because he thought they made people walk less. ironically, westin in 1927, was crossing a street in manhattan and was hit by a car and was left crippled and never walked again and died two years later at the age of 90. o'leary fareed a little better. he would stage walking exhibitions before major league baseball games. he would go out and challenge the fastest runner on the team to run around the bases twice while he walked around once and more often than not he won, and then he would pass the hat. literally, pass a hat through the stands collecting nickels and dimes and this is basically

how he funded his retirement. the book, i have a scene where i imagine he performed before a game in chicago between the white sox and a's in 1927 and i imagine the players in the dugout were all born well, well after the golden age, they probably had never heard of probably had never heard of pedestrianism and they must have been bemusiced by by the sight of this old man walking around the bases as fast as he could. they would have been blown away to realize that 50 years earlier, he had made more in six days than any of them would make in the entire season of 1927. so it was a sport that flashed very brightly for a very short time. and then disappeared almost as quickly as it came on the scene. and i have written the definitive history of it. that's all i have to say. if anybody has any questions, i'll be happy to take them.

[ applause ] i don't know if we have microphone. no microphone. we'll just -- speak loudly. >> name of your book? >> what is is name of my book. you're a plant, aren't you? you'll get your $20 afterwards. pedestrianism, when watching people walk was america's favorite spectator sport. would you look at that. it's on sale right over there. what a coincidence. what are the odds? yes, right there. >> two questions. did the women walk against other women or against other men? also, did any of the walkers suffer bad in health? >> the questions were did the women ever compete against men. and as far as i know, they did not.

women's races were usually held like at madison square garden, there would be six-day women's races, but as far as i know, women did not participate in any of the major men's races. now, having said that, there would be club races. it was, i mean the sport was so popular, clubs were organized all over the country. there was a department store league in new york. the department stores competed against each other and this would be a team affair, where you know, there might be four or five people and the cumulative mileage would be the score for the team. and i do suspect that women participated in those kinds of events, but generally not the major six-day races. the other question you asked was about the long-term health effects and i have to say that westin and o'leary, who lived to be 87 and 90, were really the exception. you hear many stories of guys who died very young in their

50s. frank hart, very famous african-american, as i mentioned, probably the most famous black athlete in america. after he won his major six-day race, 1880, 1881, he suffered a complete collapse. really don't know what happened. actually sent, you know, what i could get from the papers to a couple of -- what do you call the doctors who diagnose you? pathologist. and their consensus was he had contracted encephalitis or suffered a stroke. so it took a huge toll. you would think walking can make you healthy, but for six days straight for 500, and toward the end they were walking 600 miles in six days. that i wouldn't recommend as a

health regimen. yeah. >> special shoes? >> did they use special shoes? early on, no. many would walk just in their work boots. and there are many stories of toenails falling off after two or three days. and serious, serious injuries to their feet and legs. as it became more famous and more lucrative and as the competitors could afford it, they would go to -- in fact, there were several competitions in london. apparently they went to the most famous shoemaker in london has actually specialized in making shoes for pedestrians, which were really kind of a soft leather that was bound very tightly to their feet. this definitely improved. but the equipment they worked with was pretty rudimentary. i think the clothing was very comfortable. lot of wool shirts, bad boots.

you know, the conditions weren't great. they did not have any of the advantages of modern endurance athletes in that regard. no nike.book. i was wondering what was the inspiration behind that book -- i'm sorry -- >> this gentleman talked about how he thought my book, "harry truman's excellent adventure" -- what did you say? was the greatest book ever written? [ laughter ] >> greatest book. no, i think you said greatest book ever written. blurb. [ laughter ] >> ha" harrharry truman's excel adventure" was it his six month after the white house. they took a roadtrip, they lived in independence, missouri, outside kansas city. harry had to give a speech in washington, and their daughter lived in new york. they decided to drive their chrysler from missouri to the

east coast and back again. i think it took about 2.5 weeks. at the time, ex-presidents had no secret service protection. they had no pensions. and harry was not a wealthy guy by any means. a lot of the expenses of the white house were paid directly out of his salary. actually whex left the white house in early '53, he had to take a loan out from a bank in washington to help make endses me -- ends meet. he would not take lucrative speaking fees, he would not sit on corporate boards, that sort of thing. i'm glad the president still don't do that. anyway, he was really kind of a poor guy. the last president to become a regular citizen again in a way. so on this trip, they stayed at hotels, and they ate at roadside diners. they crashed with friends in indianapolis one night. and so it's kind of the story of

this trip and also how being an ex-president has changed. it's -- it's -- yeah, they came to new york, they -- they actually stayed at the waldorf in new york for four nights, and i was curious how they could afford that, and then harry saved all his correspondence. and at the truman library, i found a library from the general manager of the waldorf saying, "i hear you're coming to new york. we would be happy to have you as our guest." merri harry wrote back and said he thought that would be all right. he wasn't averse to take perks here and there. they did the trip on the cheap, and then i went back and re-created it and was able to find people who encountered him. he got pulled over on the pennsylvania turnpike for driving in the left lane. i don't know what it is in new york, but in pennsylvania, you have to drive right. you keep right, only drive left to pass. harry i guess liked to get in

the left lane and keep going. so he got pulled over by a cop. and the cop, state trooper, still alive. manly stampler. i found him. he's retired in arizona. and there were reports that he had just pulled truman over to get his autograph. and i asked manley about this, and he said, "no, i didn't. i didn't. i wish i had. might be worth something today." but he never got his autograph. >> surprised that the american indian didn't rise in pedestrian evidence of maybe he wasn't allowed to compete -- >> i don't know. the question was about american indians participating in pedestrianism matches. i really did not come across much of that. i will say that most of the major matches took place in the east coast. new york, boston, philadelphia, some of them in london. also, many of the pedestrians were very poor. they were working guys. so they had sponsors.

they had to find somebody to put up the $100 entry fee for them. and you know, obviously that person was hoping they would win. and so i would imagine it was difficult for some people to even to find someone willing to find them pay the $100 entrance fee. yes? >> did you mention that the pedestrianism -- there were trading cards? >> yes. >> did you find any of those? >> i was able to find -- question was about pedestrians on trading cards. yes, i was able to find a reproduced one. the originals are actually quite a bit expensive. i mean, they can be $200 or $300. and as i said, may books don't generate, you know -- that's a tough one to get past the wife. you mind if i buy a $3 hundr00 f a pedestrian? it's not like it's honus wagner

and be worth $100 million one day. there are companies that reproduce vintage trading cards. i was able to get one from them, and it's in the book which is on sale there. [ laughter ] >> yes? >> those who walked, were there special highways? >> the cross-country walks and the difficulty therein. yeah, there were no -- there weren't even -- there were really no marked roads. a lot of them walked cross country, especially going east coast to west coast. he also did a walk to los angeles, were done along railroad beds. a lot of the walking he did which -- which is even more difficult, i think, in some ways than walking on bad roads. and as i said, they really -- there were no reliable roadmaps. and so he would often find himself off course. one of the problems with the

walk from boston to washington that he attempteded to do in ten days and was four hours late, he got to philadelphia and took a wrong turn. and it wasn't until you reached the next town, 10, 15 miles down the line, that you realized, oh, i took the wrong roadway. and you just had to circle back and get back on track. so it was very difficult. >> were the prizes? >> yes, the prizes. as i said, most of the percentages, you would pwin par of the gate. some were $20,000. often long distance races were for gambling. there would be wagers made. westin would find a backer, somebody willing to put up $10,000 and was confident that he could finish the race, finish the walk from portland, maine, to chicago in less than 30 days. that was that bet. then find another gambler who

was willing to put up $10,000 to say he couldn't. it was something because in races like that, not -- it wasn't really a race. you're racing against time. but in walking feats like that, there was a lot of fear that someone mate tray to sabotage -- sabotage him. so he wouldn't make it. he actually brought a food taster along with him when he did the walk from portland, maine, to chicago to make sure nobody tried to poison him because even if you made him sick for two days, it might be enough for his schedule to be off. and westin of meticulous about his schedule. highway scheduled every minute. every race. a six-day race or walk from new york to los angeles, he had everything scheduled out. when he would sleeve e sleep, when he would eat, those sorts of things. and if he was takien off that schedule, he would be in trouble. yes? >> no question, but a couple of

comments. it seems that speed seems phenomenal, especially over same period of time, number one. number two, truman's famous for being a walker. every day he took his constitutional. >> referring to the speed of the pedestrians and the competitive raise, i -- i think -- and it's hard to tell, we have no photographs, much less moving pictures. it's a shame. it was still the age of, you know, line drawings and engravings. but the way people described westin apes walk really sounded similar to what race walking is today. they said he had a wobbly walk, that he moved his hips, he swung his hips, so i have -- i have a feeling that he walked fast, much like modern race walkers do. and as far as truman, you mentioned harry truman, yeah, he

walked -- i forget what it was. what was his old military pace of 60 steps a -- 60 steps a minute or something. he was famous for his walks, liked to walk around washington. there's a good story where the secret service hated it. well, the secret service had been protecting fdr, you know, for 12 years and really didn't have to worry about fdr going on long walks. and so they all were used to sitting around and smoking all day. then one day harry bounds out of the office. he's got to deposit his check t bank. it took two fwlox catch one him. and then the secret service did a thing where they decided they were going to fix the traffic lights so he would always hit the walk signal whenever he was out on one of his walks in washington. and of course as soon as he found that out, he was furious that they would do that. he kept walking, and he returned to independence, missouri, and walked right up to the very end.

he died in '73. i think he was 88 -- 88 years old. but up until the end he was walking. he was a firm believer in walking. and in fact, he was probably young enough -- i know i think he remembers the 1884 -- at least he would have heard from, you know, his parents or other older people about the great walking matches that had taken place wiabout ten years before was born. okay, one more? >> i'm sorry, timing in terms of when athletes would take a nap. how did they track it to know if a person got an advantage -- >> how would timing work when athletes took a nap? well, you were on your own when you took a nap. you could sleep as long as you wanted, but you were sacrificing all that time on the track. now, in the arenas, especially the major arenas, i know in new

york and chicago, there was a large clock on the wall. so everybody could kind of keep track about how long people slept, how long they were on the track, that sort of thing. nobody kept statistics on exactly how long somebody was on the track or exactly how long somebody slept. if you took a nap, you were agriculture taking your chances because the rest of the field could just continue walking. it's -- yeah. it's interesting. the idea of timing and -- and timing to the second and minute. you can't really hear all the times you hear sometimes. where somebody would say, oh, i walked 500 miles in five days, 14 hours, and 23 minutes. you know, how good was the dloek arena? they didn't -- the clock at the arena?

they didn't have good timing. when people said, oh, he walked 100 miles in, you know, 19 hours, it's like -- it's not always easy to be sure. yes? [ inaudible ] >> good question. how did they eat? they ate while they walked. they were allowed to have an attendant who would help them, i don't know, cut the steak or something while they were walking. i don't know what they did. but they took their meals and took their drinks while they walked. obviously to save time. maybe they'd have a big old piece of rare meat and chew on it and that was it. i don't know how you would eat the greasy eel broth while you were walking without burning yourself. but yeah, meals were taken while they walked. all right. well, thank you very much again. i really appreciate your

attention. [ applause ] american history tv normally airs on the weekends, but with congress on recess throughout august, we're featuring highlights during the week. coming up, a look at the kansas city monarchs of baseball's negro leagues and their impact on professional baseball. then a discussion on race in sports with hall of famers bill russell and jim brown. and later, another look at the history of competitive walking. tonight, american history tv explores the overland campaign. a series of major battles that took place in virginia in 1864 between union forces under ulysses s grant and confederates led by robert e. looempt watch the 150th anniversary

commemoration ceremonies marking the beginning and conclusion of the overland campaign, as well as a look at the battle of cold harbor, the campaign's final major conflict. that's all tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span3. next, author and baseball historian, phil dixon, discusses the history of the kansas city monarchs. the longest running franchise in the history of baseball's negro leagues. the monarchs featured a number of future hall of fame players including jackie robinson and introduced several new innovations to the game like the use of lights for night games. the dwight d. eisenhower presidential library and museum hosted this hour-long event. first i want to say good afternoon, and i want to thank some people -- of course tim for

giving me this opportunity to come down and speak with you today. i'm really excited about it. of course, samantha who handled a lot of publicity for the event. she did just a wonderful job, and without people like that, also there was a local radio station who did a great interview. between newspaper and radio, i'm always appreciative of all the people who support your haven't. so i want to thank all of them before i get started. i'm going to jump right into it and tell you a little bit about kansas city monarchs were a negro league baseball team. perhaps most of you have heard of them or some of their great players, maybe you heard of jackie robinson, maybe you heard of satchel paige. they were organized in 1920 and 1924. they won their first world championship. and that was 90 years ago, and i was trying it figure a way to honor these great men who purely play for the love of the game because they didn't make great

salaries back then. and so i decided i was going visit 90 cities to basically commemorate the monarchs' efforts as a negro league baseball team. now they played in more than 90 cities. so i'm going to 90 cities, and believe me, that scratches the surface of all the places the kansas city monarchs did. they were great ambassadors for the game. for me, my journey started a long time ago. as a child, i collected baseball cards. and i kind of went nuts with that. i found out about baseball and kept collecting, collecting, collecting, and the collection kept growing, growing, growing. and my knowledge grew. and so not only did i know about the baseball statistics, but the thing that captured me most were baseball stories. i liked to read the backs and whatever stories they had, then i gravitated to books and kept

growing. and finally, this kind of bring me home to abilene. and here's what happened. i got my first full-time job working for duckwah alcohol retail stores. i was out of college, and -- and they bounced me around to a few places. i was in colorado springs, albuquerque for a little while. wichita. then indiaed up in topeka, kansas -- i ended up in topeka, kansas. no matter where i went, i talked baseball. someone mentioned there was a negro leaguer that had played ball who lived in topeka. and i got to know thisneath r n leaguer, carol ray moth ro w. through association he passed. i decided to a do a tribute. so in doing this tribute, once again being that person who loves to collect information, you know, i challenged myself.

i said, i'm going to find every game the kansas city monarchs ever played. that was pretty aggressive idea back in that 1980. of course, there was no internet at that time. so if you wanted to know the name of the library, say, if they played in the abilene, you wanted to write the library, you had to go to the library. they had a big book with all the library addresses from the state of kansas, and then i'd write them down. i'd go and write letters. so hi had all these letters. it was just a labor of love and a passion that kept on growing. needless to say i was able to find games that were played in abilene because of that. so as a tribute to the kansas city monarchs who were way in connecticut city, what i'm doing is going to towns that they played, and the name of my program is the kansas city monarchs and our hometown. give you an overview of the kansas city monarchs.

as i said a moment ago, they were organized in 1920. and they were charter members of the negro national league, and they won their first championship in 1923. at that time, they didn't have a world series. so in 1924, they played the eastern colored league, the hilldale league, and won. hill day was out of pennsylvania, darby, pennsylvania. in 1925, they returned to the world series, but they did not win. hillandale w hilldale won. they returned and won. the kansas city monarchs continued to play. by 1929, they had won another championship under the leadership of a guy by the name of wilber bullet rogue an. we'll be learning more about him in a moment. along the way, the kansas city monarchs played exhibition ga s

games. i'll pretty much explain how that happened. in the negro league, they had a regular schedule. they had eight times, and they had a regular schedule. most of those games would be on the weekend when they could draw the largest audience. so they would play friday, saturday, sunday, and sometime on monday. in between that, if you're coming from kansas city, going to st. louis, there's lots of cities in between. and remember, we're talking about the golden age of town baseball. these are grown fellows who are playing baseball. and some of them were workers in the town, but they lived baseball, as well. so these are grown men playing baseball. as you can see, the monarchs during the 1920s, this is an article from the -- our kansas city, kansas, "daily traveler." they only lost three times in over 400 exhibition games. the towns had good teams, but the monarchs were hard to beat. and during that time when they were barnstorming, of course the first time they came to abilene

was in 1923. and they were on the trains. but in 1925, there was a highway act, and they started building up the highways connecting all the major cities and some not so major together. and so the owner of the kansas city monarchs being this creative genius that he was, his name was gerald wilkinson, highway decided that he would use a bus to transfer his players, and they could go places on a different schedule than the railroad. they could get more games in. they could go to cities who weren't along the railroad lines. so in that he became the first in the kansas city monarchs, the first team to travel exclusively by bus. the other thing that i think is always interesting is that the kansas city monarchs in 1930, they popularized night baseball. when you think of night baseball, you don't often think of the monarchs. most people remember the date -- i think it was may 24th, 1935,

when they talk about cincinnati lighting up its park. that's the day i learned as a child. this is when night baseball started in the major leagues. actually, what the kansas city monarchs started in 1930. and so wilkinson, once again, being the baseball innovator and genius that he was, he wanted to make night baseball popular. so he patterned it after what he has seen with carnivals and circuses who had lights. and he worked on it, and he created some towers that he could take on trucks from city to city, and he popularized his night baseball. now the major leagues were skeptical of the night baseball. so it's been recorded that ben johnson, the president of the american league, said that it was a passing fad. it would never last. and wilkinson said that lights would be to baseball what talkies are to movies. another interesting bit of history is the first all-night world series where all the games were played in the night was

1985 when the kansas city royals played the st. louis cardinals. so it took that long. as a matter of fact, the first world series game at night wasn't until 1971. and back in the 1930s, the monarchs were already popularizing that. as a matter of fact, their pitcher, one of them pitched the first no hitter in 1930 under the lights. so this was one of his greatest innovations and one that he doesn't often get credit for, but he should because it revolutionized major league baseball and baseball everywhere. and so, the monarchs were -- spent a lot of time barnstorming. and in 1930, the depression had pretty much hit most of the major cities that were in the league. so st. louis, st. louis, chicago, all those cities were in depressions. so wilkinson decided to pull his team out of the league and go

100% barnstorming. so what he was able to do through that is to take the monarchs to places that they couldn't go in between their schedule. so like in between their schedule, he could come out to western kansas, take a week, take a few days, and come back to kansas city. well, when he got out of the league, they went as far as the pacific coast, they were in portland, washington state, idaho, they went down to mexico, went over the border into mexico. they went up to canada, up to saskatchewan, alberta, they were in canada. so they went all over the place, and in going all those places, you can see they rarely lost. this was an awfully good team. but the barnstorming is the part that most people have the opportunity to see the kansas city monarch. this was the way most baseball fans had the chance to see the

kansas city monarch especially outside the major cities. this picture here is a barnstorming picture. and you can see, you know, the town's teams, they knew how great the monarchs were. and a ball player can recognize another ball player, no doubt it it. so when they saw the kansas city monarchs, they recognized how good these players were. it their pictu this picture here, that was played at blue rapids, kansas. 1939. that shows how popular they were. teams were willing to pose with the kansas city monarchs. this of at a time when racial divides could be pretty tough. the kansas city monarchs were welcomed almost everyplace they went. so because of his great innovations, j.l. wilkinson, who we have pictured here, is now a member of the baseball hall of fame in cooperstown, new york.

one of his pitchers -- i might mention, too, wilkinson -- when they organized the negro national league, he was the only white manager -- white owner in the league. how that came about was because in 1911, he organized the a team called the all nations. and the all nations had many nationalities on one team traveling together. jose menendez was with them. he was a cuban. they also had john donaldson, he was an african-american out of glasgow, missouri. one of the greatest left handers that ever lived. they had an italian guy. they had a guy who played formerly in the major league. they had whites. they blacks. they had a native american that played with them. and the first professional japanese player played on wilkinson's team. so that team played right up until world wr one. they were pretty much decimated by the draft in world war i. so when the monarchs and the

whole opportunity came available in 1920 because of his goodwill and friendlinessness and relationships with various races, he was picked to organize a team. that's how he became the only white owner in the negro national league. and menendez was the monarchs' first manager. and he had started with wilkinson years ago. he also has been enshrined in cooperstown, new york. also along the way, they had other players that joined them. the gentleman by the name of andy cooper, originally born in waco, texas. he was raised in wichita, kansas. 1920, he plays for the detroit stars in the making row national league. in 1920, he was traded to the kansas city monarchs, remains there until he actually died while he was the manager of the monarchs in 1940.

but he comes, and because he was such an outstanding player, he, too, is in the major league baseball hall of fame at cooperstown, new york. but of all the greatest players, especially during the 1920s, there was none greater than wilbur "bullet" rogan. and many people to this day have not heard rogan's name. if i had the same group of people here in 1920 and was to mention rogan's name, they would know exactly what i was talking about. he was widely publicized. he's the reason why i personally think he was the greatest all-around baseball player that ever lived. you know, right before we went and -- and started this whole new decade and the new century, they did all these polls of the greatest baseball players of all time. of course, everybody picks babe ruth. let me tell you what rogan was able to do. first of all, rogan, like ruth,

he was a pitcher. and he actually invented a pitch, rogan did, called the palm ball which is just change of pace. rogan was a great pitcher. as he pitcher, he won over 400 games as a pitcher. also, he was a great batter. and he hit for home run power, and he was 5'7". and he had over 400 home runs as a batter. he was a consistent .300 hitter for average. he also played the outfield when he wasn't pitching. and was a gold glove outfielder, tremendous arm.ñi8dl he was a fast runner, he could run a 100-yard dash in less than 100 seconds. and on top of that, he managed and in 1934 they had a record of 134 wins and 14 losses and he managed that team and when he wasn't

doing all of that he drove the bus. [ laughter ] so, there are lots of games i could talk about that happened here in abilene and this is kind of -- this is one of the things i do when i go to cities. i talk about the games in that particular town. and there was one interesting game in junction city i would like to add. we'll get to that. the first time the monarchs came as i said was in 1923, august thing that was unique -- this didn't happen too often., in 1925, they came to abilene twice in the same year. that was rare that they would go back to a barnstorming city twi twice. i tell you, that says something for abilene rights there.t and i jump to 1938, but there were some other gamesothe along way. 1926, they came here in august, and it got rained out.in they came back september 15th of

1927. they got rained out again. and there was another game, i know in 1939 -- i'm still trying to find information on it.ation i can't give you much detail onu that one.that but we've got some interesting games that i doot want to talk i keep in mind, integration in the area of blacks being on teams t with whites in kansas was not new, and so people were kind of already prepared long before the kansas city monarch came. m this is a picture here of the humboldt team in the 1880s. here of course, bud fowler who was the first african-american to play minor league baseball, played at topeka in 1886. and there was another gentleman by the name of burt wakefield who was out of troy, kansas. a guy by the name of -- his name was jones, burt jones.jones, he was from atchison. he wa and they played in the kansas an state league up to 1899. i so kansas was one of the last leagues to include african-american players.

and a lot of people weren't rent aware of this knowledge.oun but this is the earliest picture i've found of an integrated team in the state of kansas. now these games, there were ties always scouts from other citiesw trying to figure out how they could beat the monarchs. so in this particular article here thatar appeared in the chri "monahan morning chronicle," i saw a -- "manhattan morning chronicle," i saw an article about scouting the monarchs. they were going to be playing e them and wanted to see how they could beat the monarchs. he scouts the monarchs which ise interesting because you wouldn't think that peopl'te were actual scouting team s at that time. we of course, when he got over there, this is what he saw. the kansas city monarch, the rst first time they came through, they pretty much handled local team. beat them 10-2. as you noticed, menendez was in

the game. prob from the hall of fame. he is probably oneab of the earliest hall of famers. and bullet rogan. and will be not svinson, the ow there, as well. pitched the final four inning of the game. and swede was a local player, and he was just a heck of a gooh pitcher. he was t probably good enough t go to the big leagues. in times like those, the big la leagues didn'trg play the largee amount of money. some guys if they had a good enough job they didn't leave. wye wou they would work in town town. they beat abilene. because the score was 10-2, would you believe that abilene was proud of that? and in the paper, they printed that there is some mean satisfaction in knowing that th kansas city monarchs defeated at junction 13-1, clay city 13-1,

and abilene only 10-2. so thought that was interesting. that happened all the time. if you couldn't beat them, mayb you could look better than the m surrounding towns. now what's interesting about this, when the monarchs su organized in 1920, the first ars league president was a gentleman by the name of andrew rufoster. and rufoster had been managing team -- actually, he had four teams, the cubans, he did the detroit stars, and himself, the chicago american giants. there was another team called the chicago s.giants. he had wwas booking teams and gg 5% to 10% of the gate wherever they played. and so they needed rufoster to come to the league to be a part of the league because he controlled four, five, maybe ofs the best teams throughe he book them. so they had to convince him to give up his booking money to o v come into the league and join tt the new league. so in order to satisfy him, thew

said that we will give you 5% from every game that's played in the negro national league. so the new teams, plus the teams who used to book. they were going give him 5%. detroit because they had an agreement with foster had to pay 10% to foster. he kept immaculate records. and so i was able to come acroso his record book. ab what i was able to find, exactly how much money they made in abilene. so if you looke. here, abilene according to the newspaper acc account, had 1,000 the people game. and thega monarchs' share -- on again, they got a share. the monarchs charged 65% of the gate if you backed th ebooked to town. they made $341 playing in abilene. you can see the gate receipt ge from the other cities that they played in. junction city, they did pretty good. they made $406.

at burlington, $406.c and leroy, i guess they couldn'' get a crowd there. it was $75.crowd, but it just kind of gives you y just aou view of how important these games were from a s profitable stance. a well, the monarchs had -- had pretty much handled abilene, bui abilene still had the great pitcher, swede, right.grea they invited the monarchs back d twice in 1925. and this is the line dwlaup appeared here in 1925 when the n monarchs came through. some of these names -- like bullet rogan, he was in left field that day, didn't pitch that day. so they come through, and some of the players like this, born in the humboldt area, newt allen, born in kansas city, grew up in kansas city. and foreman, he's buried in coffeeville. chip brewer was borns. and rais

in leavenworth. and clifford belle waswer a tex. but this is the team -- and thir is the team that they played. well, bullet rogan wasn't pitching that day, but pearson,t for the local team, struck out ten of the kansas city monarchsf and that was going some back then. bullet roganng s played the outfield, went 1-3. and wouldn't you believe it -- he hit the only home run of the game. so just an outstanding player. when they came,wh how much mone did they make, right?make, so we go back to foster's ledger. and there were 900 people in 90 that first game. and the monarchs, for their take of the game, made $260. now what's interesting if you u look, the monarchs were in s are abilene on the 9th. but if you go down to the 20th there, you can see that they were in birmingham, alabama.m, and you can see that they made $160 playing on the first day they went to birmingham. so they made more in abilene than they made in birmingham. and birmingham was a lead town.

you can see why the games are am pretty important. that's whyes the monarchs contir barnstorming. so i guess thatued -- the people abilene were not satisfied a because they had never seen bullet rogan pitch. so they had to invite them backe to see bullet rogan pitch.to so bullet rogan comes to town, and this is the final score. 11-4. and bullet rogan pitches. and abilene scores four runs off of him which was quite a feat. f there were 15,000 people at this game. and -- and i think that day the public got their money's worth.e seeing that game. the monarchs hit four home runs and wouldn't you know it, bullet rogan added another home run to his already dominant list of dn home runs. and once again, when people talk about the home runs that rogan s hit, if you go on line, if you look in some of the books, these are not the home runs they calkn about. these are games people generally don't know it.

and so this is kind of research i specialize in. spe of course, we mentioned jar jart swett.tsbu went to pittsburgh state college. ande, emporia was a great playes mentioned he frf humboldt area. and wade johnston is his name, t and box score, they put johnson, but it was wade johnston.hey he lived in steubenville, ohio. and actually after he retired an from baseball, there was an e older guy, he ran a bait and tackle store. he specialized in selling worms. so -- that's what he did after his living. in addition to hitting a home run, rogan struck out 12 that rn day. and this is a pretty good player. so abilene finally got a chance to see bullet rogan.et but ablean did something that was quite a feat, as well.ite a the guy named hass and taylor -- first name unknown -- hit home

runs off of bullet rogan. and the newspaper thought that was a great feat. roga and so they wrote it up, and they said it is something to bee proud of because he's considered one of thebe world's best pitchers. not the best pitcher in kansas t the or missouri. we get that -- the world's beste pitcher. theyd knew something back then about baseball.base anbad once again, we can go bac to foster's ledger. and this is what we find, okay. the monarchs take that day with bullet rogan pitching, drew a much better crowd. $420. and -- and let's see, and once e again, if you take a closer look, you see that the monarchs left here -- once again, this ee hadre to be a different secreta because dif the way they spelley abilene is completely different than the first secretary, rightt but we know the date, and that it -- that's definitely abilene. so if you notice that on august 2nd in abilene and they don't

play again until the 8th and they're in st. louis, playing against the st. louis stars.you if you notice,no abilene made me money than a league team, the st. louis stars. i keep stressing that because people wonder why would they tht play all of these exhibition wh games when you have a league. and the reason why is because one thing -- that was income.in so one other game i'd like to hr talk about -- i usually try to - talk about three or four games r in every city. and i try to pick some of the k more interesting games to talk about. so one of the games i wanted toe talk about -- and might mentiono the other games that i have in -- in abilene were rainouts and some things like that.upants there's one in 1939, i'm still trying to pull all the details to.. there could be other times they came up as late as 1955.when i usually when i go somewhere to speak, there's an old baseball player in the audience, say heyy they were here in 1952.ow, we you know, we played against

them. so i'm always finding newys information everywhere i go. and that's quite exciting to meo because i if instantly and start digging that information out and trying to see what happened in the game.1s8ññe. one of the next games i wanted to mention was rogan's last season in 1938. and the monarchs came down, ands they were going play in junction city. and this is what the newspaper wrote about rogan.this they said rogan's name is undoubtedly the most famous one in negro baseball of this or any other day besides being a fiendish hitter and playing the outfield when he's not pitching, rogan was second to none on the mound in his heyday.he he had speed, similar to that was kristi mather son. was his control was almost perfect. major league batters who battedo against him said he was as goodi as any pitcher they ever faced. and this is what they're writin about rogan in his final seasono

's going back to all these places that the monarchs playeda and he'sll basically making thaa lastt roundtrip around the league. and that shows the popularity e had. when the monarchs showed up in junctionci city, things had d in changed in baseball. the golden era of town baseball had begun to die. and so at this point, most teams had like college players and lee young guys, and they would havej these band johnson leagues all over kansas, these band johnsonh leagues would be. the one of the things, the monarchs handled the band johnson star leagues. they started to book other negr league teams to play the kansas city monarch in cities in ci throughout kansas.ut so in the later years, starting maybe 1937, you start to see thg

monarchs playing other negro league teams outside of kansas city and in communities like ita the monarchs came to town with h four hall of famers which is e e unique. the name that was not known was the manager, andy cooper, who did not play. of course we know he's in the hall of fame. they picked up norman "turkey" stearns. he had been with detroit, and wilkinson always would try to tk get turkey. he had him for a little bit in 1934 when he played in the "denver post" tournament.ment he was a fantastic player. he was a guy that used to talk to his bats. buck o'neil used to tell the story that he always carriedal 33 ounce and a 34-ounce bat. and buck said he was rooming with him, and he said that he nt went out and came back, and ba turkey was in there.turkey and he had the w 34 and 3 33-ouy

bats, highway slepts wie slept room. he used the 33 bat t andhi f it this far from the fence. he was talking to his bats. he talked to the 33 and said, " used you today and hit a home 4 run. if i used you," to the 34 bat, "i would have hit that home run, and we would have won the game." when they interviewed him laterw they said, "how many home runs did you hit?" he said, "i have no idea," he wn said, "because i only counted them when i won the ball game." he was on a great team. and of course, billy rogan, in his final season. he's on the team. and you have another guy named willard "home run" brown. willard brown was playing d shortstop on this particular --g actually, he's playing third base in this particular game.g but he played a lot of he shortstop. he endeded up being a great player, went to the major leagues. most people know about jackie robinson being the first bei african-american in major africa

leagues. he was in the national league. you know about larry doby. two monarchs were the third and fourth. sonati i don't know -- because signed the same day. the third and fourth went together. they went to the st. louis browns. and willard brown was one of them. the other was a guy by the namee of hank thompson, later played with the giants. with so they signed the third and fourth african-american players. and willard brown goes out and o hits a home run on august 13th against bobo newsom.ag hits aai home run. and he becomes the first black player to hit a home run in the major leagues.ie, not n jackie, not doby. willard brown. brown comes back it the monarchs and never gets back to the major leagues. he did play minor league b baseball, and he had over 400 40 home runs in -- playing with the negro league teams. i think he had another couple home runs playing ing the minorn league ball in the texas league. he also holds the current record

for the most home runs hit in m the puerto rican winter league. he hit 27 in the puerto rican lg winter league. this was a good ball player. they come to town with four negro leaguers. to show you how much ability war in the negro leagues, they lostl they had all those hall of famers, and they left. m i might mention bibbs.s. midwest african-americans at that time went to blackaf -- m african-americans at that time k went to black colleges. bipbs went to indiana state. he was originally out of terre haute, indiana. he went to indiana state. most people know famous indiana state basketball player, yeah -a larry byrd. that's right. b bibbs was there. and because of his great play af the college and some of the wor that i was able to do to bring recognition to him and people started to pay attention to himy today he is in the indiana rts sports hall of fame and the indiana states hall of fame, asi well. i thought you might want to look at a fewlook of these guys.

that's turkey stearns.ys. they called him turkey because k the way heey looked when he ran. back then they used to pick really good nicknames.really nowadays, you listen to the baseball games, and they just shorten up the players' names.mh back then, they watched -- the ball players would watch what you do, they would watch how yor act. as a matter of fact, papa bell,t many. people remember his name.m heber got his nickname because came out as a rookie. he wasn't nervous at all. the man said, man, you're cool.i so all of a sudden he become cool papa bell. and turkey, highway had his name because of the way he ran. willard brown there with his soy there playing for the monarchs.h interesting picture there. his you'll notice that the player in the background hasth an alphabe not a number. that was one of wilkinson's innovations that did not work. o and of course, this gentleman h here, you probably heard his name a few times, was john bookh

o'neil. in 1938, he was playing his first season with the kansas city monarchs.rc you know, another interesting thing in this picture.pitc baseball players go through certain phases. right now in the major leagues,s we're in the beard phase. lots of guys have beards, facial hair. you notice these guys had no al facial hair. and so that was the phase at that particular time, the look. clean-cut look. bu this is a young buck o'neil, by the way. come and the firstin from to come to the major leagues was a mustachl was satchel paige. he you'll see he has a mustache in the 1930s which was kind of rare. once again, rachelle pa-- satchel yo paige was kindu of rare himself making. in giving talks on the negro to leagues and trying to go back ts as many cities as i can and tal, about various games and that they played in those cities,

occasionally you hear somethingu that really summarizes the experience. and i was listening to a song, a lady by the name of kim hairs ga singing the song. i heard it and said, that's a t good song. jaime halfway decent poet lcht moot change it. li -- let me change it. four i adapted it. close i'll close with that.that it goe.s something like this -- my name is bullet rogan. my name is turkey stearns. turke my name is buck o'neil. but my age is way beyond. i spent my prime in baseball shoes, but my sporting days are. gone. m i'm one more forgotten face among the black faced teams.hat an old dark horse they came in t the negro leagues. d i worked the fields in tennesse but dreamed of better days. i left the now pick and bay to n join the homestead grays. all summer long we played the states and headed south for fall. through rain and dust woe rode