More than a Sport: Early Developments of Baseball in Lawrence, Kansas

Vinland baseball team circa 1920. (Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas)

 

Before sport became an integral aspect of Americana, early iterations of games catering to the working class were quite violent. In the eighteenth century, prizefighting, cockfights, and bear baiting, accompanied by drinking and gambling, were common recreational activities. Pious Americans in Protestant and Catholic communities associated sport with sinful activities such as excessive drinking, gambling, violence, and cruelty.1 Nonetheless, sport remained an integral aspect of recreational activity, and by the dawn of the twentieth century, baseball had become a fixture of American society. How did baseball become one of the first widely accepted sports in the United States and a sport that is so highly regarded by its fans today? And what developments led baseball fans to battle past the skepticism associated with early sports in the United States? Lawrence, Kansas, presents a compelling case study of the early developments of baseball and the efforts of its advocates to promote the game as one that had broken away from the negative connotations of other popular sports. What happened in Lawrence, the conflict between Sunday baseball and strict adherence to the Christian Sabbath, played out in similar ways in cities and towns across America.

The Civil War marked a significant development in baseball’s popularity in American society. Soldiers from both the Union and the Confederacy were deployed across the country and practiced the popular pastime during their leisure time. Baseball boomed as more communities were exposed to the sport. Soldiers played against other units or teams from the towns where they were stationed. Playing baseball for the sake of friendly competition and exercise allowed baseball to break away from the negative stereotypes and sinful vices associated with early American sport. The concept of good-hearted competition satisfied the desire for glory inherent in sports. Besting another in a competition through physical and mental prowess demonstrated one’s respectability within the community. Spirited competition became a more redeeming justification for recreational activity than gambling, drinking, and other sinful activities associated with earlier sports.

The popularization of baseball in the late nineteenth century also coincided with the broader cultural shifts in American society regarding leisure activities. Industrialization and urbanization modernized American society and greatly influenced the question of who could afford to play baseball. The mass production of consumer goods not only led to an increased number of jobs but also contributed to cultural shifts. People began to spend more of their free time engaging in recreational pursuits, and greater availability of consumer goods increased the accessibility of sporting equipment. Higher wages meant that the average American had more money to spend on their leisure activities, and spectatorship at sporting events became more popular.2

In The Theory of the Leisure Class, published in 1899, Thorstein Veblen, an American economist and sociologist, discussed the term “conspicuous consumption.” After industrialization, conspicuous consumption of desirable goods and consuming in excess became displays of higher social status.3 Mass production during industrialization led to a sense of abundance in the United States as the standard of living rose. The idea of consumerism became a prominent aspect of American society as people began purchasing commodities that added value to their lives and reflected a perceived higher status in society. Generational conflict arose during the period of industrialization as older people feared that the young had become soft and coddled from privileges acquired through higher quality of life.4

However, consumerism broke down baseball’s perception as an elitist sport as equipment became more accessible and people had more free time to engage in recreational activities. As the proponents of American sport increased, advocates believed that sport was a tool for instilling traditional conceptions of masculinity that older generations feared would be lost on the younger generation growing up in the age of modernity. The conflict between advocates and critics of baseball reached its climax in Kansas in 1909, when the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of Earnest Prather in State v. Prather, which allowed baseball to be played on Sunday. The decision enabled new groups around the state to play. Working-class Lawrencians played during their leisure time, youth organizations were created, and Black and Native American teams grew in prominence. These newly organized groups challenged previous conceptions of who could play, when, and where.

In this paper, I explore patterns of social progression that established a narrative of progressivism in the development of baseball in Kansas history. Baseball’s advocates in Lawrence pushed for greater acceptance within the sport, and these events demonstrate how baseball was a vehicle that greatly influenced the trajectory of class, ideological affiliations, and race throughout American society.

 

Haskell Bros. Boots and Shoes newspaper advertisement. (Author’s collection)

 

EARLY TOWN TEAMS AND THE BIRTH OF LAWRENCE BASEBALL

Baseball in Kansas began with town teams in the northeast. After returning from the Civil War, veterans returned to civilian lives and established town teams along with professional leaders in the community. For baseball to become a profitable leisure enterprise in Kansas, a justification for spending money to watch a baseball game needed to be made. Thus, wealthy individuals such as Thomas Moonlight and Dudley Haskell supported their teams financially and cultivated talent worthy of spectating.

The first organized baseball team in Kansas was created in Leavenworth by Colonel Thomas Moonlight, who had commanded the 11th Kansas Regiment in the Civil War and served as Kansas secretary of state from 1869–71.5 Moonlight, along with other veterans and business and professional leaders in the city, created the Leavenworth Frontier Baseball Club in 1865.6

Standing at 6-foot-6 and weighing 230 pounds, Haskell was a mountain of a man known to have a knack for the home run ball. His friends had presented him a huge, 55-inch bat as a joke, but he began using it in games. Remembering the original Kaw Valley Club, the Lawrence Daily Journal-World recalled the club as a “team of bearded men, giants in stature for the most part, and men who truly believed that a hard-hitting attack was the best defense to have.”

Other players for the Kaws included J.W. Longfellow, O.P. Barber, M. Newmark, and H.D. Whitman.11 In September 1867, excitement built up around northeast Kansas when the state fair was held in Lawrence and featured a baseball tournament for town teams to compete against each other for the state championship and the Silver Ball, a baseball-shaped trophy.12 On September 27, Haskell led the Kaw Valley Baseball Club to a 75–35 victory over the Universitys, a University of Kansas team, in the state championship.13 Regular competitions were held between northeast Kansas town teams in the late nineteenth century, but few teams challenged the Kaw Valleys’ dominance.14

 

Silver State Champion Ball, presented to Kaw Valley on September 27, 1867. (Kansas Historical Society / Kansas Museum of History)

 

In the years following the state championship, though, a notable rivalry grew between the Kaw Valleys and Moonlight’s club from Leavenworth, the Frontiers. In a game report on September 11, 1869, the Daily Kansas Tribune referred to the Frontiers as the Kaw Valleys’ “ancient enemy.”15 Retaining the Silver Ball meant a great deal to the town of Lawrence. Many nineteenth century sport columns had long provided scores and general statistics for games, but this marked an early moment when newspaper sport commentary was establishing narratives, providing color and interest for those who followed their local baseball teams. Lawrence newspapers demonstrated the increasing community interest in baseball and the Kaw Valley team.

 

 

By 1870, Kansans were eager to test the limits of their baseball abilities beyond state lines. On April 8, 1870, the Kansas State Record reported that Topeka entrepreneur O. Sackett was attempting to field an “all Kansas” team to play against the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first professional baseball team.16 That fell through, but Sackett did bring a high-level baseball team to play in Kansas. On May 1, The Lawrence Daily Journal reported on an exhibition game Sackett organized between the Kaw Valley Club and Forest City, a team from Rockford, Illinois, to be played on May 11 in Topeka.17 This was an opportunity for the Kaws to establish regional dominance in Midwest baseball. Based on a coin flip, the Kaw Valleys batted first and Haskell scored in the first inning off a muffed ball by the Forest City third baseman. It looked like a promising start, but to the dismay of Kansans, Forest City, led by 19-year-old pitcher Al Spalding, trounced them, 41–6.18

The “all Kansas” nine also played, losing, 97–12.19 The outcomes were disappointing for the locals, but more than 1,500 people attended. An impressive turnout, given Topeka’s total population was less than 6,000 people. Afterwards, the visitors were honored with a celebration at the Union Hall.20 The Kaw Valleys rematched Forest City on their home grounds in Lawrence a year later, on June 28, 1871. The next day’s Daily Kansas Tribune excluded a detailed account but provided a box score of the game.21 Spalding was pitching for the Boston Red Stockings of the National Association by that time, but another future Hall of Famer, Cap Anson, led off and played third base for Forest City.

The Kaws were routed again, 67–11 this time, but baseball was becoming a popular entertainment in Kansas. These early games and performances from local legends and future greats became foundational memories to Lawrence baseball fans such as the University boys who played against Kaw Valley and the younger boys who grew up watching the Kaws. Although the Kaw Valley Club did not come to dominate the Midwest, Lawrencians remembered the team with a certain fondness. In 1879, the Kansas Daily Tribune acknowledged Dudley Haskell as a model man for university students to look up to and credited his success in life to having played baseball with the Kaw Valley Club.22 Lawrence recognized the impact baseball was having on its young men and the sport became a fixture of the town’s culture to be celebrated rather than chastised.

 

 

BASEBALL AND THE SABBATH

By the early twentieth century, baseball was booming in Kansas thanks to the success of early town, university, and semipro teams. But this rise in popularity ignited a conflict between baseball advocates and religious community members who clung to antiquated associations of the sinful nature of sport. This conflict, which dated to Puritan views of sport in the sixteenth century, came to a head in Kansas in the first decade of the new century over the issue of whether people should play baseball on Sunday.23 Despite the disapproval of some Christian groups, baseball was becoming a fixture of leisure time in Kansas.

Wage earners played baseball in their leisure time, and for people who typically worked six-day weeks, Sunday was their best chance to play. It was common for baseball and other recreational activities to be enjoyed on Sunday, when businesses were closed in observance of the Sabbath. Members of many religious communities around Kansas played baseball between morning and evening services.24 When Lawrencians had free time during the week, it would often be too dark to play. Baseball fields with lights weren’t established until 1930.25 Many religious people and institutions insisted on strict adherence to the Book of Exodus’s call for the Sabbath to be a sacred day of rest, free of sport and recreation as well as work.

But by the twentieth century, Sunday baseball had become more common in Kansas. The Lawrence Daily Journal noted two distinct crowds in town on Sundays: One sitting in church pews, the other at the baseball field.26 There was a crisis within religious communities that feared shrinking congregations and religious influence in the lives of Kansans. This fear compelled religious officials to lobby the state Legislature for a ban on Sunday baseball. In 1905, the Lawrence Daily Journal reported on a plan to bring up a bill to the House of Representatives that would outlaw baseball and other recreational activities on Sundays.

This proposal came to an end quickly when the Judiciary Committee killed the bill by an 8–4 vote.27 Still, Kansans remained divided on the issue of baseball on the Sabbath. Baseball’s advocates voiced their opinions in the newspapers. The most prominent of these was the manager of the University of Kansas baseball team, Clark Bouldin. Ahead of the 1907 season, Bouldin told the Lawrence Daily World that baseball is “the recreation of the businessman.”28 That description contributed to baseball’s narrative of progressivism in Lawrence as community members began speaking publicly on behalf of the game. Class distinctions broke down and baseball became a uniting element among town folk. Both wage-earning Lawrencians and businessmen treated baseball as a respite from the typical work week. Earlier in the interview, Bouldin mentioned that the attempt to move the schedule to weekday games had been unsuccessful, likely due to poor attendance, as many Lawrencians worked during the week. Toward the end of the interview, Bouldin said, “Everything is conducted orderly. Lawrence people enjoy the games and attend well. Sunday baseball can be handled all right and it can be abused the same as everything else.”29

Pious religious communities were beginning to lose ground in Lawrence as advocates of baseball made their case. The conflict between baseball and the Sabbath came to a head in 1909, when the Kansas Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in the sport’s favor in State v. Prather. Earnest Prather had been arrested on July 14, 1907, after an attorney from Johnson County, just east of Lawrence, filed a complaint that he “unlawfully and willfully, with divers other persons whose names…unknown [played] a certain game, to-wit, a game of base ball, the same being played with balls and bat and with nine players on one side matches against nine players on the other side.” Attorney J. Porter contended that this violated the law under section 2258 of the General Statutes of 1901.30 The penal code read: “Every person who shall be convicted of horse-racing, cock-fighting or playing cards or game of any kind, on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and fined not exceeding fifty dollars.”

The state high court ruled unanimously that baseball was a recreational activity that was of moral value and taught younger generations to be upstanding American citizens. A lower court ruling in the state’s favor was overturned based on language within the penal code and the ambiguity of what constituted a “game.” Contending that the 1901 law was intended to be enforced against games that were vehicles for gambling, Justice H. Sheldon wrote that “it hardly seems probable that it could have been the intention of the legislature to enact a provision so drastic in its terms as to make the playing of all games on Sunday misdemeanors without regard to their character.”31

This led the court to discuss the character of the game of baseball. Justice Seymour Thompson contended that the law was not imposed for “prohibition of athletic games and sports, which are not of an immoral tendency, but which tend to the physical development of the youth, and are rather to be encouraged than discouraged.”32

The court asserted that baseball was not inherently immoral, that it was the agents involved in the sport that tainted it by indulging in sinful activities surrounding the game, such as drinking and gambling. Additionally, the court grounded its reasoning in an idea common among early baseball enthusiasts in Kansas: Baseball aided in the physical and social development of younger generations and should thus be considered a productive leisure activity.33 The court recognized that people integral to raising the younger generation, such as parents and teachers, had been encouraging kids to play baseball because of the mental and physical benefits the game provides.34

Religious rhetoric and cultural practices were significant to societal norms in the twentieth century. Church denominations held a lot of power over their constituencies. Yet Prather marked an important point in Kansas history, as individuals were allowed more freedom to choose how they spent their time on the Sabbath, which had traditionally been dedicated solely to church functions.

The decision in State v. Prather was a progressive one, and it contributed to baseball’s rise as a new kind of religion in America. Kansas was no exception. The anti-Sunday baseball movement also failed in other states.35 After State v. Prather, baseball and other leisure activities became fixtures of social activities in Lawrence. Kansans could sit in the stands and watch baseball games that were acknowledged by authorities to subscribe to the socially accepted morals and values.

 

Bloomington baseball team circa 1915. (Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas)

 

KANSAS BASEBALL’S NEW TRAJECTORY

The State v. Prather case fundamentally changed the trajectory of recreational activity in Kansas in the early twentieth century. Baseball was not only allowed to be played on Sunday, it was recognized and encouraged for youth development by community members around the state. In the summer of 1910, the Twilight League was established in Lawrence with the support of business professionals such as plumbers, merchants, and lawyers.36

Over the next three years, the Twilight League expanded to include adult and youth teams fielded by the Haskell School for Indians, Lawrence YMCA, and local fraternal organizations such as the Fraternal Order of the Eagles.37 The Lawrence Daily Journal-World created a new section of the paper, extending the coverage of sporting news around the community.38 Youth baseball grew across northeast Kansas, and Lawrence Twilight League all-star teams played championship games against various teams from Douglas County.39

The US entry into World War I in 1917 flattened baseball’s upward trajectory as the nation kicked into a military buildup and millions of men were drafted or enlisted in the military, including major leaguers like Ty Cobb and Christy Mathewson, who both joined the Army. According to historian Jim Leeke, an estimated 38 percent of the players in the American and National Leagues served in World War I, and teams supported fundraisers for purchasing war bonds. Baseball, once again, served as a morale booster for soldiers, as it had during the Civil War. Games constructed positive publicity in the eyes of the American public as a patriotic activity in support of wartime efforts.40

With men fighting in the war, baseball in Lawrence took on the form of youth teams in summer twilight leagues. Youth organizations in Lawrence found South Park as a home for developing their baseball skills.41 South Park Leagues were central in the early development of many young Lawrencians, including Ralph Houk, who went on to both play for the New York Yankees and manage them to two World Series wins.42

The development of baseball in Lawrence discussed thus far has been from the perspective of White Americans. However, the history of baseball in Lawrence cannot be fully discussed without acknowledging Native American and African American experiences in the area. In describing projects in the humanities, American professor and novelist Viet Nguyen wrote that they “should thus also be a project of the inhumanities, of how civilizations are built on forgotten barbarism towards others, of how the heart of darkness beats within.”43 Even in the history of baseball it is vital to acknowledge marginalized voices that have much to contribute to the understanding of the sport.

Despite Kansas’s history and reputation as a free state in the Union, Lawrence and other northeastern Kansas cities participated in Jim Crow segregation well into the twentieth century. Baseball teams in northeastern Kansas were segregated and interactions between different racial groups were limited.44 On the road to civil rights and racial equality in the United States, upward mobility in social class was difficult for minorities because of the systemic oppression that limited wealth building for people of color. However unwelcome they were to join, White baseball teams did not keep them from establishing their own. In many instances, they had teams just as skilled as the other town teams reported on by the Lawrence papers.45

In 1883, US Representative Dudley Haskell, former captain of the Kaw Valley Baseball Club, died. In honor of his position on the Committee on Indian Affairs, the school was renamed after him.48 Haskell started off as a grade school, but expanded over time to high school and eventually post-secondary education. Today, Haskell Indian Nations University offers education for people with Native American heritage that preserves their history, traditions, and culture. Haskell also created a dominant athletic program in the early twentieth century, fielding successful teams in baseball, football, basketball, and track and field. Baseball would be one of the first sports played at Haskell.

Despite the skill that was being developed at Haskell, the school’s high turnover made it difficult to maintain continuity as a program. Students would often run away. On May 16, 1916, the Topeka Capital reported that two of Haskell’s star players, McCloskey and James White Bull, quit so they could return home. Their teammates also mentioned that they intended to travel with a Native American barnstorming team during the summer.49 Jim Thorpe, who would later play parts of six seasons in the National League, played football—but not baseball—and participated in track and field at Haskell before escaping the school to return to his family in Oklahoma.50

After 1890, Haskell developed a baseball team that could go toe to toe with any other school team in the area.51 In 1925, the student-run Haskell newspaper, the Indian Leader, had full pages dedicated to the sports program.52 While teams were segregated, the Haskell team played White teams around the state, enjoying great success. Haskell sports teams became a significant part of the Lawrence sport community.

The intersection of race and sport is important to consider when understanding the history of baseball. Organized baseball in Black America was largely a story of discrimination and segregation in the Jim Crow era, and following the Exoduster migrations of Black people from the South to Kansas beginning in 1879, the state and the city of Lawrence were no exceptions. African Americans created their own communities within towns and unincorporated areas in Douglas County such as Vinland and Bloomington. The Lawrence Daily Journal-World called Bloomington a small territory composed of Baptists within Douglas County, which by 1915 was known as Clinton.54 Bloomington fielded a young African American team. Vinland was another unincorporated town in Douglas County, south of Lawrence. In Vinland, an integrated youth baseball team had eight white fielders and one Black catcher. The catcher’s name was Albert Southard.

In 1920, the city of Lawrence organized an exhibition game for the Fourth of July, a Sunday, between the Lawrence American Legion Boys and the Vinland team. Southard caught for Ray Nichols, who struck out 14 in a 5–3 loss.55 The Daily Journal-World was complimentary of Vinland and noted Nichols’s performance, but made no other mention of Southard. This moment honoring the founding of the United States of America—on a Sunday no less—was celebrated with an African American kid playing catcher for a talented white pitcher in front of a crowd of white Lawrencians and representing African Americans in both Lawrence and Vinland.

African American and Native American boys played in the Lawrence Twilight leagues during the summers in South Park against the youth teams of Lawrence’s fraternal organizations. Throughout the development of baseball in Lawrence, there is a pattern of baseball as an activity that challenged traditional social norms and conditions. First, through Prather’s court case, Sunday baseball was legitimized by the state Supreme Court. Second, Native and African American children were provided an opportunity to play baseball against white Lawrencians.

The nostalgia and romance with which many of baseball’s most ardent fans view the sport often overlook the complexity of America’s evolving social dynamics and the developments that allowed baseball to break away from its association with vice.

Baseball mirrored the society that produced its teams and players. The history of the sport in Lawrence demonstrates an opportunity to see socially progressive movements in Kansas in action. Baseball in Lawrence represented various communities and played their social interactions out in a literal sense. These games demonstrated activities that could normalize an integrated community that prides itself to this day on its progressive identity of racial equality and freedom.

Industrialization represented a momentous shift in how Americans tackled questions about how they lived their lives. Moving away from the traditional authoritative structures, dominated by religious hierarchies, of England and the American colonies, Americans pursued a life influenced by modernity and consumerism. The commodities that became abundant during the era of industrialization established a culture of materialism as Americans largely measured success by what they owned and how they used their leisure time. Older generations feared that young people growing up in this abundant and materialistic society would become “soft” and unaware of what older generations had accomplished to allow them to enjoy such a life. Recreational activities and methods to “toughen up” the younger generation became the focus of leisure time for young people. Baseball provided a sport that built up the character of a younger generation without subscribing to the vices associated with other popular sports of the time, such as gambling and drinking. While religious officials pushed back against these notions, baseball rose in popularity throughout the nineteenth century.

The conflicts between baseball and American religious institutions demonstrate how questions of class and social structure were heavily debated during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as seen through newspapers and the various instances in Kansas history in which advocates of baseball challenged conservative restrictions on leisure time on the Sabbath. The Kansas Supreme Court case State v. Prather lent baseball legitimacy as a sport that represented morals and values that were characteristic of productive American citizens.

State v. Prather launched baseball into a new trajectory in Kansas. Baseball defied class distinctions as it became popular with both the elite and working classes. The professional levels of the sport appealed to not only the working class, but also the upper class and elites of society, who could see the sport they had formalized being played at the highest level. Baseball also offered opportunities for business and entrepreneurship, bringing larger audiences to games and entertainments such as the state championship and all-star exhibition games in Topeka. The working class found increased opportunity to play the game and enjoy the sport on Sunday as spectators.

After the Prather decision, Lawrencians fielded teams through their businesses and fraternal organizations, and the teams created by Lawrencians established youth leagues that promoted younger generations playing baseball and developing into productive American citizens. Youth leagues introduced integration of Native and African Americans with whites in recreational activities in Lawrence.

Understanding the sociological shifts in American society through industrialization and baseball’s conflicts with religion reveals how progressive change in society slowly took place. The effects of Sunday baseball influenced change much greater than freedom in the leisure time of individuals. Baseball not only helped to level class distinctions, but also contributed to racial tolerance over time, helping integration become more accepted as a societal norm. The development of baseball becoming a vehicle for social change cannot be viewed without understanding the local communities that pushed for progressive policies in recreational activities. The advocates of baseball in Kansas provided grounds for normalizing integration through the baseball diamond and, beyond that, American society. 

JUDE BUTLER joined SABR in March 2024, while completing his senior thesis, “More than a Sport,” at the University of Kansas. He is continuing his research on early baseball in Kansas as a graduate student for the department of History at KU. Jude looks forward to publishing future research for baseball scholars in the coming years.

 

Notes

1. Elliott Gorn and William Goldstein, A Brief History of American Sports (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2013), 33.

2. “The Great Base Ball Match,” Lawrence Daily Journal, May 13, 1870, 3, https://www.newspapers.com/image/59540210/.

3. Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions (London: Macmillan, 1899).

4. Gorn and Goldstein, Brief History of American Sports, 93.

5. Thomas Moonlight Papers, Kansas Historical Society, https://www.kshs.org/archives/40449, accessed December 8, 2023.

6. Harold Evans “Baseball in Kansas, 1867–1940,” Kansas Historical Quarterly 9, no. 2 (May 1940), 175, https://www.kshs.org/publicat/khq/1940/1940may_evans.pdf, accessed November 9, 2023.

7. Haskell Bros., Boots and Shoes advertisement, Daily Kansas Tribune, September 29, 1867, 1.

8. “Dudley Chase Haskell,” Kansas Historical Society, June 2011, https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/dudley-chase-haskell/16927, accessed March 29, 2024.

9. Evans, “Baseball in Kansas,” 175.

10. 48th Cong., “Memorial addresses on the life and character of Dudley C. Haskell (a representative from Kansas), delivered in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, Forty-eighth Congress, first session.” (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1884); “Had Fast Local Club,” Lawrence Daily Journal-World, June 1, 1928, 3.

11. “Had Fast Local Club.”; Brianna Childers, “Museum Tells Stories of 105 Counties.” Topeka Capital-Journal, October 11, 2019, https://www.cjonline.com/story/entertainment/local/2019/10/12/brianna-childers-kansas-museum-of-history-tells-stories-of-105-kansas-counties/2546220007/.

12. Evans, “Baseball in Kansas,” 178.

13. “Local Matters,” Lawrence Daily Kansas Tribune, September 28, 1867, 3, https://www.newspapers.com/image/60533563/?match=1&terms=silver%20ball; Evans, “Baseball in Kansas,” 178.

14. “The Invincible Kaws, The Silver Ball Remains in Lawrence.” Daily Kansas Tribune, September 11, 1869, 3, https://www.newspapers.com/image/60531683/.

15. “The Invincible Kaws.”

16. John Erardi, “Trips by the 1869 Cincinnati Team Made the Game Famous,” Baseball Hall of Fame, https://baseballhall.org/discover/trips-by-the-1869-red-stockings-made-baseball-famous, accessed January 26, 2025; “The ‘Red Stockings,” Kansas State Record, April 8, 1870, 4, https://www.newspapers.com/image/366148569/.

17. “Visit of the Forest City Club.” Lawrence Daily Journal, May 1, 1870, 3, https://www.newspapers.com/image/59539988/.

18. “The Base Ball Tournament,” Daily Commonwealth, May 12, 1870, 4, https://www.newspapers.com/image/367004691/.

19. Evans, “Baseball in Kansas,” 179.“The Base Ball Tournament,” Daily Commonwealth.

20. Evans, “Baseball in Kansas,” 179.

21. “The Great Match Game,” Daily Kansas Tribune, June 29, 1871, 3.

22. “Lawrence Happenings,” Kansas Daily Tribune, March 11, 1879, 4, https://www.newspapers.com/image/61092317/. Final bullet point discusses Haskell and the University boys.

23. Gorn, A Brief History of American Sports, 9.

24. Mark Eberle, Kansas Baseball, 1858–1941 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2017), 37.

25. Larry Bowman, “‘I Think It Is Pretty Ritzy, Myself’: Kansas Minor League Teams and the Birth of Night Baseball,” Kansas History 18, no. 4 (Winter 1995/1996), 248, https://www.kshs.org/publicat/history/1995winter_bowman.pdf, accessed January 26, 2025.

26. Lawrence Daily Journal, July 5, 1906, 2, https://www.newspapers.com/image/59703557/.

27. Lawrence Daily Journal, February 1, 1905, 2, https://www.newspapers.com/image/59472495/; “Sunday Baseball Favored,” Lawrence Daily Journal, February 7, 1907, 1, https://www.newspapers.com/image/59472514/.

28. “Baseball Talk,” Lawrence Daily World, March 25, 1907, 4, https://www.newspapers.com/image/60531650/.

29. “Baseball Talk.”

30. State of Kansas v. Earnest Prather, 15983.79 (1909).

31. State v. Prather, 2.

32. State v. Prather, 3.

33. State v. Prather, 6.

34. State v. Prather, 6.

35. “The Anti-Sunday Baseball Bill Killed in the House,” Lawrence Daily World, March 1, 1895, 1, https://www.newspapers.com/image/60037620/.

36. “Twilight League Appears Again,” Lawrence Daily Journal-World, July 22, 1913, 1, https://www.newspapers.com/image/59432610/; “City League Standing” and “Twilight League Came Near Going to the Baseball Cemetery” Lawrence Daily Journal-World, August 8, 1911, 8, https://www.newspapers.com/image/59748086/.

37. “Game Tonight May Decide Championship,” Lawrence Daily Journal-World, September 3, 1913, 8, https://www.newspapers.com/image/59433004/; John Vorperian, “Ralph Houk,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/ralph-houk/, accessed January 26, 2025. Houk played for the Fraternal Order of the Eagles in the Twilight Youth Circuit.

38. “Game Tonight May Decide Championship.” Half the page is dedicated to sport-related news, including Jim Thorpe, Olympic athletes, and Lawrence baseball.

39. “Rain and Things Messed Athletic Program at Park,” Lawrence Daily Journal-World, July 5, 1919, 1, https://www.newspapers.com/image/59439147/.

40. Naomi Coquillon, “Baseball and World War I,” Library of Congress Blogs, September 27, 2018, https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2018/09/baseball-and-world-war-i.

41. “Lawrence Native, Former Yankees Manager Ralph Houk Dies at Age 90,” Lawrence Journal-World, July 21, 2010.

42. “Lawrence Native, Former Yankees Manager Ralph Houk Dies.”

43. Viet Thanh Nguyen, Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2016).

44. Paul E. Fowler III, “Breaking Ground in Canaan: African-American Community in Lawrence, 1870-1920” (senior thesis, University of Kansas, 2014), https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/15031.

45. “Haskell again Defeats St. Marys,” Indian Leader, May 22, 1925, 8, https://www.newspapers.com/image/489119044/.

46. “Haskell History,” Haskell Indian Nations University, https://haskell.edu/about/history/, accessed January 30, 2025.

47. Myriam Vuckovic, Voices from Haskell: Indian Students Between Two Worlds, 1884–1928 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2024).

48. “Haskell Institute,” Digital Douglas County History, https://web.archive.org/web/20240613071724/https://history.lplks.org/exhibits/show/postcards/universities–colleges–and-pu/haskell-institute, accessed January 25, 2025.

49. “Haskell Baseball Team Weakened, Stars Quit,” Topeka Daily Capital, May 18, 1916, 11, https://www.newspapers.com/image/64461537/.

50. Guernsey Van Riper, Jim Thorpe, Indian Athlete: The Childhood of Famous Americans Series (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1956).

51. Evans, “Baseball in Kansas,” 13.

52. “Haskell again Defeats St. Marys,” Indian Leader, May 22, 1925, 8, https://www.newspapers.com/image/489119044/.

53. Fowler, “Breaking ground in Canaan.”

54. “First White Baptist Church Founded 1855,” Lawrence Daily Journal-World, June 18, 1915, 1, https://www.newspapers.com/image/59471736/.

55. “A Patriotic Address,” Lawrence Daily Journal-World, July 6, 1920, 1, https://www.newspapers.com/image/59708248/.