Indian Head and Canada’s Greatest Baseball Tournament, 1947-55

Indian Head Rockets sweater crest, 1951. (Indian Head Museum)

 

“Wonder how long it will be before we have baseball in these parts again?” mused the man on Coffee Row as he sipped his java.

He was scanning the sports pages jammed with holiday ball tournaments. There must have been 100 teams within hailing distance of Regina in action.

“You know,” he reflected, “I don’t know if we want imports. This sort of ball is solid. A little town can muster nine men and compete with city clubs. Start importing pitchers and catchers and long-hitting outfielders and first thing you know the little towns are killed off. They can’t keep up with the Joneses and turn to some other sport.”

“I’ll put in with that,” echoed another java-sipper, “Baseball has made its comeback. Let’s keep it the way it is. Competition is more important than the calibre of ball.”

But did they think baseball would be content to stay as is?

“No,” they agreed. “As long as there is money around the south country there will be rich tournaments. Some team will get the idea to bring in a couple of dark horses from the U.S. and that will start it. A dozen others will follow suit. Then baseball tournaments won’t be fun any more.”

— “Dave Drybrugh’s Sports Byways,” Regina Leader-Post, July 3, 1946.

 

The musings of the two men in the coffee shop, real or imagined by Dave Dryburgh, proved accurate. The “dark horses” did come. For the next decade, big-money tournaments dominated summer baseball in small towns across the Canadian Prairies, and Indian Head, Saskatchewan, led the way.1 The “dark horses” did indeed arrive, as Blacks came to play in large numbers. Indian Head itself imported an all-Black team, playing as the Indian Head Rockets. Despite the worries of the men in the coffee shop, baseball was never more popular in Saskatchewan as a result.

Indian Head, a small town with a population of 1,500 in 1947, is located 42 miles east of Regina. The district has historically been a large grain producer, especially with the establishment of the Bell Farm, the first commercial farm in Western Canada.2 The area was also the site of the Canadian Governments Experimental Farm, whose priorities in its first years were to find and demonstrate adapted cereal crops, vegetables, fruits, shelter trees, and shrubs for prairie settlers. The shelterbelt trees and shrubs were in such high demand that a separate tree nursery was created by the federal government.

The railroad brought in a diverse group of immigrants to work from across Canada and Europe. In the early twentieth century, the population of Saskatchewan was 80 percent rural;3 many workers were required to work the farms, and small towns existed to service those farms. Sport teams were a natural outgrowth, and Indian Head was no different.4 As in most small towns, baseball was the focus in the summer months.

Baseball grew in popularity from the beginning of the twentieth century, and with that growth came the money tournaments in Saskatchewan,5 particularly after the Western Canada League folded in 1921. In 1922 Saskatoon held “The Biggest Tournament Ever Offered in Western Canada,” with $1,000 in prizes. Somewhat ironically, the tournament was not open to the largest cities of Saskatoon, Regina, and Moose Jaw.6 And somewhat fittingly, the small town of Conquest (population 250) emerged victorious. However, the Great Depression and World War II led to a substantial decrease in both the number of tournaments and the prize money offered.

The post-war boom saw a return of the money tournaments being held in these small towns. The size and scope of the Indian Head tournament, which was held from 1947 through 1955, led to its being labeled first “Western Canada’s Greatest Baseball Tournament,” and then “Canada’s Greatest Baseball Tournament.”7

The Indian Head Athletic Association was formed in 1918 as a sports and service organization.8 While it had operated originally as a service organization for civic matters and other sports in Indian Head, baseball became its main focus. The Association formed the Rockets as a separately operated division.9

Planning began in 1947 for the town’s first major tournament.10 Large money tournaments required the extensive civic involvement of a large number of volunteers. Jimmy Robison was the head of the 14-person committee established to run the tournament. Robison was a noted local sportsman, involved extensively in both curling and baseball, as well as being the mayor of Indian Head.

The field was fixed at 22 teams, and the event was proclaimed boldly as “Western Canada’s Greatest Baseball Tournament.” Advertisements were placed with radio stations to promote the tournament. The offered prize money was $2,000, with $1,000 going to the winner. In addition to a local response, the call for team entries drew a cross-border one. One newspaper report referred to these American teams as “Three colored teams from California, Minnesota and Texas.”11 These teams were the Ligon All-Stars from Brawley, California, the Broadway Wolverines from Houston, and the Twin City Giants from St. Paul.

Anticipation built for the August tournament.12 A Regina sports columnist wrote: “Right now most clubs are saving their mound aces for tournaments like those in Yorkton and Indian Head, where more than java and doughnut money is at stake.”13 In the meantime, the Dominion Day tournament in Indian Head drew 10,000 fans, but due to the lack of prize money attracted no teams from outside Saskatchewan in its 13-team open division.

While the focus in the summer was on baseball, hockey was never far from the province’s consciousness. In the tournament’s opening game on August 7, 1947, the Wilcox Cardinals, featuring NHLer Nick Metz, defeated the Delisle Commandos, with NHL stars Doug and Max Bentley, by a score of 6-1.14 One of the highlights of this initial tournament was the pitching duel between Bert Shepard of Williston, North Dakota, and the Ligon All-Stars.

Shepard was a minor-league pitcher who had lost his leg in World War II. He returned to the major leagues in 1945 as the pitching coach for Washington, and remarkably pitched 51/3 innings in a game, allowing only one run. He continued his remarkable pitching comeback in the 1947 tournament by losing a 1-0 pitching duel against Ligon.

It was estimated that 15,000 attended the tournament games, with 10,000 to 12,000 on hand for the final, in which the all-Black Ligon All-Stars defeated Wilcox 13-0:

“While an estimated 10,000 rooters jammed around the diamond until there wasn’t space for even the circus Thin Man, George Ligon’s Colored All-Stars from California, or some other spot south of the snowline, whacked out enough base hits to make Indian Head’s enormously successful $2,000 baseball tournament a runaway show on Thursday, tacking a crushing 13-0 setback on Nick Metz and his Wilcox Cardinals in a disappointing final.

“The colored boys were extended only once in romping to four victories that figured out to $250 apiece as they copped first money of $1,000 with something to spare. Only in one game out of four did they yield any runs, making it rather decisive that they were the best ball club on the premises.”15

The Ligon team proved to be as formidable for the rest of its touring season in Western Canada, winning 81 games and losing only nine.16

The tourney was hailed by some in the media as a great success:

“Dig that old baseball glove out of the attic, chum, and start lumbering up behind the barn. The days when a fella could make winter spending money in ball tournaments are on the way back.

“Chances are the walls over at Coffee Row will be plastered with bills announcing $2,000 and $3,000 tournaments next spring. Yorkton revived the diamond game gold trails a couple of years ago. Indian Head topped that this week and the sky’s the limit in 1948.

“Set your date early or be locked out.”17

Newspaper reports did indicate, however, that the overhead was high, with a low estimate of $6,000. This included not only the $2,000 prize money, but $400 for baseballs, lumber for the construction of stands, and wire netting and grading for the three diamonds, in addition to umpire costs.18

For the 1948 tournament, the decision was made to expand the total prize money to $3,000. A.R. Beesley of the Associated Screen News was invited to produce newsreel footage of the tournament, and radio station CKRM of Regina was to broadcast the final game.19 Not surprisingly, tournament costs rose accordingly to $10,000, as 12 new sections of bleachers were added. Attendance increased to 25,000, with a final day turnout of 16,000.

The 1947 champions, the Ligon All-Stars, suffered an early defeat, losing 4-3 in an upset to small-town Rouleau, Saskatchewan. Former Winnipeg Maroon professional Gaylen Shupe20 led his team to victory. The Manitoba Senior champion Brandon Greys, featuring five Black players in their lineup, captured the tournament prize by defeating a team from Sceptre, Saskatchewan, another small town with a long and storied history of success in baseball.

By 1949 the tournament billed itself as . “Canada’s Greatest Baseball Tournament.” Weather proved capable of wreaking havoc on even the greatest of tournaments, however, as rain washed out two rounds. The Minot Merchants won the tournament, as Brandon was unable to repeat as champion despite the Greys’ Winslow Means pitching a seven-inning perfect game in the quarterfinals.

The apparent success of the tournament led to increased local interest in Indian Head’s fielding a strong town team itself. It was reported in the newspapers in May 1950 that Rogers Hornsby had lined up players for the Indian Head team at a cost of $6,000 to $7,000 per month.21 Supportive Indian Head residents advanced $50 each, $5,250 in total, to fund the team. That same month, Luther “Doc” Adams placed an ad in The Sporting News looking for players.22 On May 14, 1950, Robison, Adams, and other members of the Rockets organization headed to the National Baseball Congress meeting in Wichita in search of additional players.23

The Wichita newspapers were somewhat bemused by the Canadian delegation:

“Canadians Use Money

“It sounds screwy but they do it up big financially up in central western Canada.

“The five-man delegation here to find baseball talent for their tournament season up in Saskatchewan cites some figures to make us wonder if they use gold mines for club houses up that away.

“Jim Robison, from Indian Head, is after 13 players, and has the finances for it all, and yet Indian Head claims but 1,500 souls.

“A town called Foam Lake, of but 800 population[,] has a tournament coming on which has a guaranteed prize of $3,750 cash.

“The Canadian tournaments last but two days, there are NO lights and NO Sunday ball, unless under a benefit pass-the-hat plan. Daylight extends past 9 P.M. so that a game can be started “after supper” and finished in the daylight….

“‘We have 3,000 out for a tournament session,’ the Canadian sponsor said. ‘We have a different plan from your tournaments. We play three games at one time on three different diamonds, all within one big enclosure. There is space for hundreds of cars to park and sometimes they go from one game to another.’”24

It appears that Hornsby delegated the recruitment task to Mickey Flynn, a well-known figure in Kansas baseball circles, but it was noted that Flynn could not make the trip personally.25

In a meeting on May 26, 1950, the Executive Committee of the Rockets approved “the arrangement made by the Scouting Committee to hire a colored team through Wayne Clark.”26 In a letter dated that same day from Jimmy Robison to Mr. Clark, an agreement was concluded with no mention of Hornsby.27 Mr. Clark was the go-between, but does not seem to have had a high profile in baseball.28

The letter was addressed subsequently to Big Jim Williams, with his Jacksonville Eagles being the team to head north. The letter required that Williams supply 16 players of Double-A caliber (including five pitchers), a bus, uniforms, and all equipment. Robison also suggested that the team bus lettering be changed to the Indian Head Rockets. He requested that the uniforms be lettered with “Indian Head” on the front, and “Rocket” (singular) on the back with the player’s number. This was in fact done with the uniforms. In effect, the Jacksonville Eagles were to become the Indian Head Rockets.

 

 

As was true of some of the other earlier touring teams and prairie teams with imports, the Jacksonville Eagles were an all-Black team.29 Williams himself was a veteran of the Negro Leagues. Monetary considerations were undoubtedly the significant factor in Williams’s decision to move the team north. The players were to be paid $200 per month, plus board.30 It is not clear what portion of any prize winnings from the money tournaments the Rockets players would keep, but it was in addition to their salaries.

Along with other towns on the Canadian prairies, Indian Head was more welcoming to Black players than was much of the United States. The players were billeted in renovated apartments above the Dominion Café, owned by Charlie Koo. They were provided meals, and were not subjected to segregated seating.

They did have a rough time getting to Saskatchewan in the first place. An article in the Edmonton Bulletin noted that the team bus broke down 400 miles from Indian Head, with the result that they had to forfeit their first tournament game, in Lloydminster, Alberta.31 Two days later, the same journalist wrote:

“The all-colored club room [sic] Indian Head, performing like some race horses I have known, failed to show. Earlier, the Indian Head people had informed tournament officials that their team had burned out two engines of their bus on the road to Lloydminster.

“But this was so much malarky, according to tourney secretary Joe Schmidt. Somebody was giving somebody the run around, and I have it on good authority that the tournament chieftains weren’t running.”32

It is difficult to imagine a reason why the Rockets would not have shown up, other than engine failure, given the prize money on the line.

The Rockets had better results for the rest of that summer, and won the 1950 tournament with its first prize money of $1,300. They were not able to match the success of the 1947 Ligon All-Stars over the course of the year, but fared quite well, playing 91 games overall against 33 opponents, winning 66 and losing 20, with 5 ties.33

The addition of a local team no doubt increased the financial pressure on the organization. A meeting of the Rockets’ executive on August 24, 1950, reviewed several issues:

The players’ salaries would start June 11 — perhaps indicating that there may have been some disagreement with Big Jim Williams on this.

The team bus had issues, as noted above. The Rockets had apparently advanced $600 to Williams for repairs. The executive agreed to forgo this, but would counterclaim if Williams made any claim for the expenses of running the bus.

Even though the team had been in Indian Head, it was not yet clear who was paying for the players’ meals while they were in Indian Head. If Williams insisted on the Rockets paying, the Executive agreed that it would pay $2.00 per day per player.³⁴

The loss from the baseball operations in 1950 was $8,775.³⁵ Because the books of the Rockets are not available, it is unfortunately not possible to determine how the loss arose, whether it was from the operation of the tournament, or from funding the ball team and its travels to other tournaments. The latter is more likely.

The 1951 Rockets featured Chet Brewer, former Negro League star, and Tom Alston, the first Black to play for the St. Louis Cardinals, who had joined the Rockets the previous season. Brewer had been the highest-paid player for Sceptre, making $400 a month there, but left with Prescott at the end of June to play for the Rockets.³⁶

The team entered the Western Canada League, as well as continuing to play in money tournaments across the Prairies.³⁷ They had a successful summer, winning 22 straight games at one point.³⁸ However, that success could not carry over into their own tournament, as Indian Head lost to the Regina Caps. Canadian Football League star Rollie Miles of the Caps stole second and third in succession in the fifth and eighth innings to lead the upset.³⁹ Seventeen-year-old Elijah “Pumpsie” Green, playing for the Medicine Hat Mohawks, hit three singles and two triples in the semifinal. The Mohawks then defeated the Eston Ramblers in the final game before an estimated final crowd of 11,000, claiming the first-prize money of $1,200.

 

 

Despite the large attendance in 1951, and the seeming success of the tournament, financial problems continued. Even with the cash contributions of fans and backers of $4,500 at the start of the season, and a subsequent contribution of $3,000 from the Rockets organization, the financial position remained murky, if not bleak.⁴⁰

The Rockets association started 1952 with a deficit of $3,000.⁴¹ As late as early June of 1952, the Rockets and Big Jim Williams were negotiating the terms of engagement for that summer.

A deal was finally reached under which the team would be strictly on its own, and 10 percent of the receipts would be paid to the town’s treasury. As it turned out, Williams and the players were stuck at the Canada-US border with insufficient funds to post bond into Canada. Six of the association’s executives put up $50 each to secure the bond for entry.

The Rockets again featured an all-Black team.42 Pumpsie Green moved over from the Mohawks, as did pitcher Nat Bates, who later became mayor and city councilor in Richmond, California. Bates commented on his time in Indian Head:

“My experience in Canada was the most pleasant, refreshing time in my life. People treated you on the basis of who you were.

“The most offensive thing to us was when people called us darkies. That hurt. It was nothing disrespectful, they just didn’t know. After we were there for a while, when we could relate to the community, and they understood us, we started to laugh about it.

“Families invited us into their homes. Girls asked us to dance.”43

In the 1952 final, the Florida Cubans defeated Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with the Rockets finishing third. The Indian Head News noted that the teams “tangled in the first all-colored final in the tournament’s six years of life.”44 The tournament experienced its first decline in attendance, drawing 4,000 fewer spectators. Organizers laid the blame on inclement weather:

“Executives of the Rockets and the Canadian Legion, joint sponsors of the tournament, were inclined to place the drop as being due to continued rain and threatening skies before and during the tournament. At that, Indian Head was again held to be lucky.’ Only one shower held the big tourney up for a few moments.”45

In April 1953 the Rockets were in danger of dissolving.46 The club solicited and received the continued support of the local Canadian Legion Branch as co-sponsor of the 1953 tournament. This allowed both the tournament and the Rockets to continue. The local paper noted at a meeting in late May:

“Burial of Indian Head Rockets was deferred Wednesday, due to a lively corpse. The nearly score of young fellows (and not so young) who gathered at the town hall for last rites and dissolution found that the deceased insisted on staying awake at the wake – so the funeral was called off.

“Actually, the assembly felt the Rockets had accomplished a lot of good for the town, the organization was known far and wide, and it was worth while saving.”47

For the 1953 season, the Indian Head Rockets engaged the services of the Florida Cubans to travel under the Rockets name. Big Jim Williams and most of the 1952 Rockets team moved west to play for Regina. The Rockets were more successful in their tournament this year, winning the final 6-0 over the Saskatoon Gems on July 16. This was the first year that the Indian Head tournament featured night baseball. Despite this new attraction, the stated attendance for the final game was 6,000, a decline from earlier years. Inclement weather was certainly a factor.

In 1954 the prize money was reduced to $5,000 from the previous year’s $5,600. It was noted in the local paper that the possibilities were good that the Florida Cubans would return. The club stated it “made a little” and that the deficits that had been run up by Big Jim Williams were no longer occurring.48 However, minutes of the Indian Head Rockets show that the 1953 tournament had a net loss of $185.80, and that the baseball bank account was $1,449.65.49 Given the reported loss in the 1950 tournament of $8,750, it is difficult to see how a smaller loss could be incurred given the reduced attendance.

The Rockets entered the Saskatchewan League very late in April 1954, having first negotiated that the Florida Cubans would set up in Indian Head for the summer. A change in the league constitution allowed tournaments to draw on league teams only if a club of their own was in the league.50

The Saskatoon Star Phoenix noted:

“Tournament play has long been a spoiler of the many attempts to organize a smooth-running league. The people who pay the shot in the hometown were unsatisfied because often a club would shove second-raters into their lineup for a league game and save their strength for a tourney the next day. Country folk didn’t bother coming to Saskatoon or any city to watch any ordinary league game when they could visit Indian Head, Prince Albert or some spot and see all the league clubs in an all-out battle for a bundle of cash.”51

It was the perceived importance of the other teams to the success of the Indian Head tournament that led the Rockets to enter the league, but the exposure of league play also provided financial benefit.

The Kamsack Cyclones won the 1954 tournament before an estimated final crowd of 7,000, claiming a first prize of $1,100. The Rockets finished third. The Cyclones were the youngest team in the tournament, with only two players older than 20. Nineteen-year-old Ted Ellis, with “an ailing back and a great desire to pitch,” led them to victory.52

While youth was served in 1954, no touring or professional clubs were allowed entry in 1955. The Saskatchewan League had folded. The Western Canada League was formed, but without a team from Indian Head. The absence of a local Indian Head team, accompanied by increasing financial pressure, resulted in a format change for the tournament. Prize money dropped to $4,500, with the top prize dropping to $800. Perhaps fittingly for the last tournament held in Indian Head, the Notre Dame Hounds and the Brandon Cloverleafs played to a 4-4 tie before a crowd of 3,000 when the game was called on account of darkness.

By the mid- 1950s, the population of Saskatchewan had shifted such that almost 50 percent of the population was urban.53 Due to increased mechanization on the farm, fewer workers were required, and the population of many of these towns decreased significantly. The financial pressure on the small towns to field teams, and to travel for tournaments, undoubtedly increased as a result of this shift. The days of the big-money tournament on the Canadian prairies were in the past. However, there is little doubt that Indian Head, and Canada’s Greatest Baseball Tournament, left an indelible mark on the history of baseball in Canada.

MAX WEDER is a lawyer who lives on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. He has been a member of SABR since 1987. His research and collecting interests focus on the history of baseball in Western Canada and early baseball books.

 

Sources and acknowledgments

Craig, John. Chappie and Me: An Autobiographical Novel (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1979).

Ducey, Brant. The Rajah of Renfrew: The Life and Times of John E. Ducey, Edmonton’s “Mr. Baseball” (University of Alberta Press, 1998).

Hack, Paul, and Dave Shury. Wheat Province Diamonds (Regina: Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, 1987).

Indian Head: History of Indian Head and District (History of Indian Head and District Inc., 1984).

Mah, Jay-Dell, and Barry Swanton. Black Baseball Players in Canada: A Biographical Dictionary 1881-1960 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2009).

McCabe, Ken. The History of Sport in Indian Head (Self-published, about 1980).

Shepard, R. Bruce. Deemed Unsuitable: Blacks from Oklahoma Move to the Canadian Prairies in Search of Equality in the Early 20th Century Only to Find Racism in their New Home (Los Angeles: Umbrella Press, 1997).

Stubbs, Lewis St. George. Shoestring Glory: A Prairie History of Semi-Pro Ball (Winnipeg, Manitoba: Turnstone Press, 1996). (Note: Despite its title, the author does not mention the Rockets at all.)

Swanton, Barry. The Mandak League, Haven for Former Negro League Ballplayers, 1950-57 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2006).

Special thanks to the Indian Head Museum for its invaluable assistance. Its collection of Indian Head Rockets baseball documents and ephemera can be searched here: https://memorysask.ca/the-rockets.

Constitution and Bylaws of the Indian Head Rockets, 1947.

Indian Head Rockets Bank Account Book (Indian Head Museum: IHM 2020.0263).

Letter from Steve Niven, Indian Head Baseball Club, to James Dunn, Manitoba Dakota Baseball League, May 12, 1950 (Indian Head Museum: IHM 2020.02).

Letter from Dr. R.C. Morrow, Manitoba Dakota Baseball League, to Steve Niven, Indian Head Baseball Club, May 22, 1950 (Indian Head Museum: IHM 2020.02).

Letter from J.E. Robison to Jim Williams, May 26, 1950 (Indian Head Museum: IHM 2022.0038).

Letter from the Department of National Revenue to Steve Niven, Indian Head Rockets, June 28, 1950 (Indian Head Museum: IHM 2022.0037).

Minutes of the Executive Committee of the Indian Head Rockets (Indian Head Museum: IHM 2020.0272).

Minutes of the Indian Head Athletic Association 1918-1945 (Indian Head Museum: IHM 2020.0260).

Minutes of the Indian Head Rockets 1950-54 (Indian Head Museum: IHM 2020.0262).

Minutes of the Indian Head Rockets 1948-55 (Indian Head Museum: IHM 2020.0265).

 

Notes

1 Notable other big-money tournaments were held in Foam Lake, Saskatchewan, and Lacombe and Lloydminster, Alberta.

2 https://bellbarn.ca/bell-farm/history-bell/.

3 “The Population of Saskatchewan,” (Government of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan Health, 2012): 3.

4 Ken McCabe, The History of Sport in Indian Head.

5 www.attheplate.com is an invaluable source, compiled by SABR member J.D. Mah, of the history of baseball in Western Canada, and provides much detail on the Indian Head tournaments.

6 Noted by J.D. Mah, http://www.attheplate.com/wcbl/1922_1k.html.

7 Dave Shury, “The Big Tournaments of Indian Head and Foam Lake,” Saskatchewan Historical Baseball Review (1987): 17-20.

8 Minutes, Indian Head Athletic Association 1918-1945 (Indian Head Museum: IHM 2020:0260).

9 Constitution and Bylaws of the Indian Head Rockets, 1947. The Constitution and Bylaws provided that only men resident in Indian Head and District, and aged between 18 and 40, were eligible to vote and hold office, while men older than 40 could only vote and not be on the executive.

10 The 1946 Dominion Day sports tournament in Indian Head offered $650 in prizes for the harness races, but none stated for the baseball tournament. “Races, Baseball for Indian Head,” Regina (Saskatchewan) Leader-Post, June 19, 1946: 14.

11 “Early Bird,” Regina Leader-Post, June 7, 1947: 14.

12 “Club Is Ready for Big Crowd,” Regina Leader-Post, August 1, 1947: 12.

13 “Dave Dryburgh’s Sports Byways,” Regina Leader-Post, July 25, 1947: 16.

14 “Two Regina Teams Stay in Tourney,” Regina Leader-Post, August 7, 1947: 18.

15 Regina Leader-Post, August 8, 1947: 12.

16 http://www.attheplate.com/wcbl/ligon.xhtml.

17 “Dave Dryburgh’s Sport Byways,” Regina Leader-Post, August 9, 1950: 12.

18 “Touring Team Snares Indian Head Cash,” Regina Leader-Post, August 8, 1950: 12.

19 The search continues to see if this newsreel footage has survived.

20 https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=shupe-001gay.

21 “Indian Head Peps Up,” Regina Leader-Post, May 6, 1950: 17. Even before any agreement was reached to have players head north, the Rockets applied for league membership in the ManDak League on May 12, 1950. However, time constraints prevented their admittance.

22 “Capable Manager Wanted,” The Sporting News, May 17, 1950: 48, referred to in Harvey Dryden “About People and Things,” Regina Leader-Post, May 17, 1950. Adams is an inductee in the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame.

23 Regina Leader-Post, May 20, 1950: 18.

24 Peter Lightner, “The Morning After,” Wichita Eagle, May 19, 1950:19.

25 Lightner. It is stated in several newspaper articles that Flynn also played professionally, but there is no listing for him in baseball-reference.com and only articles stating he played semipro ball: for example, “Ballplayers Here Monday,” Hutchinson (Kansas) News, April 12, 1933: 2. Hack and Shury (page 324) suggest that Hornsby met with the delegation, but this does not appear to be the case.

26 Minutes of the Executive Committee, Indian Head Rockets (Indian Head Museum: IHM 2020.0272).

27 Indian Head Museum: IHM 2022:0038.

28 Minutes of the Executive Committee, Indian Head Rockets, (Indian Head Museum: IHM.2020.0272). Mr. Clark was from Milwaukee and does not appear in any baseball-related search for this period.

29 The rosters and many player photos can be seen at http://www.attheplate.com/wcbl/teams_rockets1.html. The Rockets are scheduled for inclusion in the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022.

30 Letter from the Department of National Revenue to Steve Niven, Indian Head Rockets, June 28, 1950 (Indian Head Museum: IHM 2022.0038).

31 “Rain Postpones Lloyd Tournament,” Edmonton (Alberta) Bulletin, June 6, 1950: 6. However, it was also suggested the road conditions were the cause: “Rockets Delayed,” Regina Leader-Post, June 8, 1950: 22.

32 “Lloydminster Ball Tourney in Wind-Up Games Today,” Edmonton Bulletin, June 8, 1950: 8.

33 “Rockets Hold Ball Meeting”, Regina Leader-Post, November 7, 1950: 14. This record has not been verified. Hack and Shury (page 324) state that the Rockets record in 1950 was 80 games played, 55 wins, 20 losses and 5 ties.

34 Minutes of the Indian Head Rockets 1950-54, August 24, 1950 (Indian Head Museum: IHM 2020.0262).

35 “Players Go – Debt Remains,” Indian Head News, September 14, 1951: 1; “8,775 Deficit at Indian Head,” Regina Leader-Post, November 17, 1950: 24.

36 Telephone interview with George Mahaffy, January 4, 2022.

37 “Rockets First at Foam Lake,” Saskatoon Star Phoenix, July 12, 1951: 17, winning the first prize money in the $6,000 tournament there.

38 The Rockets did lose in the Western semipro playoffs to Sceptre. “Sceptre Cops Title,” Regina Leader-Post, September 7, 1951: 16.

39 “Mohawks Supreme at Tournament,” Regina Leader-Post, July 20, 1951: 18. Miles was in the inaugural season of his 11-year career for the Edmonton Eskimos, and was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1980.

40 “Players Go – Debt Remains.”

41 “Yep, Some Baseball,” Indian Head News, June 5, 1952: 1.

42 “Rockets Once Ruled Indian Head,” Saskatoon Star Phoenix, June 9, 2012: E1.

43 “Rockets Once Ruled Indian Head,” E2.

44 “Cubans Hit Peak with Tourney First,” Indian Head News, July 24, 1952: 1.

45 “Cubans Hit Peak with Tourney First.”

46 “Seven-Year Life of Rockets Ends,” Indian Head News, April 30, 1953: 1.

47 “Rockets Not Dead,” Indian Head News, May 28, 1953: 1.

48 “Cubans Again,” Indian Head News, December 3, 1953: 1.

49 Minutes of Indian Head Rockets meeting, April 6, 1954.

50 “Surprising Move Brings Rockets Into Ball League,” Saskatoon Star Phoenix, April 9, 1954: 19.

51 “Power Plays,” Saskatoon Star Phoenix, March 2, 1954: 12.

52 “Kamsack Youngsters Triumph,” Regina Leader-Post, July 16, 1954: 22.

53 “The Population of Saskatchewan.”