Whirty: Tulane pigskin coach honors Negro Leagues father
From SABR member Ryan Whirty at Home Plate Don’t Move on June 4, 2015:
Curtis Johnson Jr. loved baseball. He wanted to play it as long as he could, largely because his father, Curtis Johnson Sr., nicknamed “Colt,” pursued the American pastime and loved it wholeheartedly.
In fact, Curtis Sr. was so good that he played for the legendary Kansas City Monarchs in 1950; in April of that season, for example, he took the mound for the royals against the San Antonio Aztecs and went the distance, limiting the Texas aggregation to seven scattered hits in nine shutout innings in Kaycee’s 13-0 victory.
“He was very, very proud of it,” Curtis Johnson Jr. says of his dad’s professional baseball career. “He talked about the outstanding gentlemanship [in the Negro Leagues]. Just the way they dressed and acted as an organization.”
Curtis Jr., a New Orleans native like his father, played both football and baseball as a youth, following in his father’s footsteps.
Read the full article here: https://homeplatedontmove.wordpress.com/2015/06/04/tulane-pigskin-coach-honors-negro-leagues-father/
Originally published: June 5, 2015. Last Updated: June 5, 2015.