Ideas - Breaking Barriers: The Trailblazing Chatham Coloured All-Stars

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

Ninety years ago, the Chatham Coloured All-Stars became the first all-Black team to win the Ontario baseball championship. Now the story of their historic 1934 season, including the racist treatment they endured and their exploits on the field has resurfaced in an online project, and they’re getting their due as trailblazing Black Canadian athletes.

Hey there, I'm Kathleen Goltar and I have a confession to make. I am a true crime fanatic. I devour books and films and most of all true crime podcasts. But sometimes I just want to know more. I want to go deeper. And that's where my podcast Crime Story comes in. Every week I go behind the scenes with the creators of the best in true crime. I chat with the host of Scamanda, Teacher's Pet, Bone Valley, the list goes on. For the insider scoop, find Crime Story in your podcast app. This is a CBC Podcast. Welcome to Ideas. I'm Nala Ayed. We're right now sitting in the east end of Chatham. We're at Sterling Park.

May 17th, 1934. Chatham, southwest Ontario. I am Heidi Jacobs, and I'm a librarian at the University of Windsor. And I am the author of 1934, the Chatham Coloured All-Stars Barrier-Breaking Year. The season opener for the Chatham Coloured All-Stars. If we were sitting right here in May 1934, what you would have seen on the evening of opening night is people coming by the hundreds down the streets and congregating and laughing and sharing stories as the kids played in the pool

and the players were warming up. Everybody would have been here. The season was about to begin, and it would make history. The Chatham Coloured All-Stars first season, they were pretty good. They didn't make the playoffs, but there was enough buzz about them that by the time opening day 1934 rolled around, people were really eager to see them play.

Their core players had names like Boomer Harding, Flat Chase, and King Turn. Chase whacked a long home run in the first inning and followed that with three singles. They might well have been good enough to play in the big leagues had it not been for baseball's color line. Plus, everybody knew in the neighborhood all the men playing on the team, and they played a really competitive, athletic, exciting kind of baseball. There was little doubt in the minds of most baseball fans in the city

that the Stars would go through the City Baseball League playoffs for the right to go and to further OBAA play with little difficulty. Five months after their opener in October 1934, the Chatham Coloured All-Stars became the first all-Black team to win the Ontario Baseball Championship. The story of the Chatham Coloured All-Stars was little known outside their hometown until the past few years, thanks largely to the work of the Harding family, the Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, and the University of Windsor's Centre for Digital Scholarship. They painstakingly reconstructed the 1934 season and the team's history through newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, and interviews with the players and

their descendants. You'll hear excerpts from some of those interviews throughout this episode. You'll hear excerpts from some of those interviews throughout this episode. Their efforts led to the Chatham Coloured All-Stars being inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 2022, 88 years after their 1934 season opener. The All-Stars got away to a flying start in the 34 campaign by taking R.G. Dunn's into camp in the season's inaugural at Stirling Park last evening by the score of 9-3. Ross Talbot hurled four innings for the Stars and was nicked for six hits. Chase went to the mound for the last three frames and effectively checked any intentions that Dunn's might have had to fatten their batting averages by allowing only one hit.

Chatham Daily News. The Chatham Colored All-Stars were playing in a four-team city league, but they also played a number of exhibition games travelling around. They would play any time, any place, anywhere. The All-Stars were made up predominantly of people from Chatham, but there were also people from Buxton, the neighbouring community. Flat Chase was originally from Windsor. Donnie's Washington and Don Tabron came from Detroit.

The notable players would probably be the Harding brothers. Boomer, Wilford Boomer Harding. He was my first connection with the team, so I have a soft spot for him in my heart. But he was a highly athletic first baseman. He played just about every position. Actually, most of them did. His brother, Len Harding, was also a very, very strong player. But the player probably everybody wants to know more about

is Earl Flat Chase. And he was a formidable slugger and an intimidating pitcher and a charismatic person. The other player I think who's really a key element to the team throughout is King Turrell. He was the rare sort of baseball unicorn about being a left-handed third baseman. Going into the last of the seventh with the score knotted the Stars were determined to start something With two men down, Belanger got the count three and two on Talbot. The next pitch curved over the corner inches wide, according to the umps, and Talbot walked. Washington then came to the rescue of his mates with a two-bagger, you could say it's lain dormant maybe since the 1940s until fairly recently.

And until they put the plaque, which is right there, which they unveiled last year in the fall, you could walk by this and have no idea the history that happened on this ballpark. I used to take the train multiple times a week past this, had no idea it existed. But the reality is, in Chatham, people still talked about the All-Stars. But outside of Chatham, very few people had heard about this story. People who had relatives remembered it, but it didn't go too much further.

Blake Harding, Boomer Harding's son. Then the Chatham Sports Hall of Fame inducted the 1934 Colored All-Stars as a team into the Chatham Sports Hall of Fame. My colleague from the history department had said she was at an event in Chatham and she met a lady, Mrs. Pat Harding, who approached her and was wondering if the University of Windsor would help her create a website because she had these scrapbooks about her father-in-law, Boomer Harding. When I heard that there were three scrapbooks,

I thought maybe it's five or six inches of material totally, but these were almost two feet of scrapbooks in these three huge binders, and I could barely carry one of them to my car. Like they were just so full and she had done such a great job of chronicling his life. Playing first base for the Chatham Coloured All-Stars, Wilfred Boomer Harding. He was born in Chatham, Ontario, 1915. The homes that my grandfather and grandmother lived in was actually an old grant from the federal government for direct relatives of slaves, as was North Buxton and that part of Chatham were land grants. of town were land grants. He was one of eight children. He was 17 when the All-Stars began,

but they played even before that. So I would imagine he'd be 14 or 15 and he was playing with men. Boomer was mostly at first base. Occasionally he pitched, occasionally he caught. He used to show me all those knuckles that had been broken from getting foul tips or hit with a bat and just show his hands where you could tell he was a catcher. And he could call a game really well, assisting a pitcher and helping the pitcher know the weaknesses of the batter. Boomer Harding's fielding and batting have been big factors in the Stars' march. He is a hard man to keep off the base paths. He has a good reach and races far to the left or right to cut off hits.

He was an excellent track and field star. He also played hockey at a high level. He had a chance at the NHL when he was third. In hockey, he was very much alone. He always told me, he says, it's hard to hide a black man on white ice. Going into his own dressing room, there was a hostility. Before he could earn the respect of teams he was playing against, he had to earn the respect of the guys he was playing with.

And he had to narrow that down to the guys that were on the same line as him. to the guys that were on the same line as him. He knew he had to do something or he'd end up drinking wine out of a paper bag. He knew he had a gift, but I think it was more the passion that was behind it. He was very quiet, but when he spoke, you listened to him. But on the field, it was a totally different person. When he went on the field, he didn't have to be subservient to him. But on the field, it was a totally different person. When he went on the field,

he didn't have to be subservient to anybody. It was a chance to be equal or better. He played sports his entire life. And at nights, he either refereed hockey, refereed soccer, umpired baseball, and one of those sports all year long. He was a fierce competitor, and he was also Chatham's first black postal worker. So he led this absolutely fascinating life. And Blake says it was at his father's funeral that all sorts of people came up to him and said,

I didn't know his name was Wilford, because he was just known so thoroughly as Boomer. The east end of Chatham was, at the and still today as you can see all the factories and here the train tracks or train tracks on three sides of this neighborhood it really cut it off and even though canada didn't have formal segregation there was certainly segregation in practice and in tradition and so people who came here and settled here probably established this neighborhood because it was accessible. And there's a baseball field in the middle of this. So we've got factories and train tracks and houses. And I think this

summarizes pretty much the backdrop of the story of the All-Stars. If you're from the East End, story of the All-Stars. If you're from the East End, you're always from the East End. Living in it, coming up in it, you have a sense of who you are, and some people say they wouldn't live anywhere else. Dorothy Wright Wallace, president of the Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society. We were always in a community where people were looking out for you. And if you were out there fighting, which I was sometimes, well, I'd get smacked from somebody because I was fighting. Usually it was over the N-word. And people who were in the neighborhood had the right to tell you, you better straighten up and fly right.

Sterling Park is where we all grew up in. Everybody will share stories about the importance of Sterling Park. This is where young people came and hung out with their friends. This is where young people came and hung out with their friends. This is where older people came and hung out with their friends. And this is where people played baseball and softball. A lot of the all-stars talked about the importance of playing baseball as something to do. Boomer Harding sort of jokes,

oh, we'd all be in jail if it weren't for baseball because it gave us something to do, kept us out of trouble. I think baseball is a very interesting site for civil rights. It was the sport in the U.S. It was everywhere. And so I think it was the size of the stage that made it such a powerful statement to see black men playing baseball. And I think sometimes it's hard for us to really wrap our heads around how big baseball was. But if you were to look at the newspapers, even in a place like Chatham, most of a sports page would have the box scores for dozens and dozens and dozens of games, would have the box scores for dozens and dozens and dozens of games,

ranging from major league down to church leagues and high school and softball and then all the various leagues that teams like the All-Stars would play. And it was affordable, even for people of color. They had a pair of spikes and a ball glove, and it was something that they could do. pair of spikes and a ball glove. And it was something that they could do. We start with these guys that just wanted to have some fun. So they would all get together and go to Sterling Park. This ballpark was for some of the players,

almost literally their backyard. So they were here all the time. Horace Chase, Flat Chase's son. You knew the guys, you grew up with them, you worked with them, you ate with them, you socialized with them. So it's always like one great big family. I think that's what's so powerful for people who lived here about the All-Stars

is they went far, but they started here in their neighborhood. I've heard or read stories that there were at least hundreds and occasionally thousands of people in this very small park. How they would park all the way down the street and how they would park all the way down the next street and the next street over. There was no empty seats, no empty places to stand.

They took pictures of it and it'll show you the crowd sitting on the railroad cars, on the boxcars, and the place just flooded with people. Boomer Harding. Money wasn't the thing for the players. Back in the old days, it was just playing for the fun of it. Just getting through a depression, things were tough. And you were kind of confined by the railroad tracks. Those were sons, brothers, uncles that were out there playing. And it gave the community something to look forward to and somebody to cheer for. It was a group of athletes that put on a show, and people just forgot about the nonsense they had to go through every day.

And there was this white gentleman named Archie Sterling. Mr. Sterling did a lot. Archie Sterling, who owned Sterling's Variety in the city, the store is still there, and he later became a mayor in Chatham. He lived in this neighborhood and he donated this land, so that's why it's Sterling Park, and they call him Mr. Baseball in Chatham, and he saw the All-Stars play and knew this was a special team. And Archie Sterling was also very connected with the Ontario Baseball Amateur Association, and he was the one who helped the team with the paperwork to get them into the OBA.

There's a story that any player who got a home run would get a brick of ice cream. You know, they would be gunning for the fences just for that ice cream. of ice cream, you know, they would be gutting for the fences just for that ice cream. If there was a home run, you were following that player to Mr. Sterling for them to tell him they won.

June 1934. Starr has romped a victory against Dresden. Six runs in second frame age had him nine's cause. Terrell turns in masterful job of relief pitching, allowing no hits in last three and one-third innings. They were fast and fun, and they had people like Flat Chase hitting the ball out of the park. Hits by Harding and Chase and a bit of bad infield judgment brought Turrell and the last name pair home, and Washington stole home to cap the momentous rally. Players like Boomer making amazing catches on the fly, King Turrell

and his amazing left-handed third base, and Don Tabron. The newspaper spells his name differently every day, so he's clearly someone new, but they're excited by this new guy. Pitching for the Chatham Colored All-Stars, Earl Flat Chase. If you measure stardom by jerseys in a baseball field, I think there'd be a lot of Chase jerseys. I really wish I could have seen him live. I think he would have been really exciting to watch. Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins of Chatham. Flat Chase was probably the best pitcher and the best catcher and the best hitter on the ball club. He was born in North Buxton and he grew his later years after he grew up and moved to Windsor

and then he moved to Chatham and he got a job at the city. My dad played second base, pitched. He played first base. And there was a gentleman down in Windsor and my dad told me he even caught Satchel Paige in Windsor when Satchel Paige's catcher got stuck in the traffic in the tunnel coming over for the game. He was the pitcher that catchers feared catching. They talk about people getting bruised hands just from catching his pitches.

Batters feared him. He had charisma. And in addition to being a fantastic pitcher, he was also a really threatening slugger. He hit balls 400 feet. In Strathroy, I remember a story. There was a small building in center field behind the wall, and nobody's ever hit a ball that far.

Earl Chase Jr., Flat Chase's son. He could hit a ball. He's got records in Hamilton, Mill, Sarnia. For the longest balls hit out of the park, six or seven cities around. I found a quote from someone saying, flat chase hit balls so hard, they're still looking for some of them. So he had that kind of mythology around him.

His stats are incredible. His batting average when I was calculating it was usually in most seasons around 400, sometimes 500, which is unheard of. He was just a nice guy. If you met him, you'd like him. Chatham, before 1934. Around 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in the U.S. Around 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in the U.S., and so freedom seekers would be moving across the border at different places in this region.

Windsor and Essex County was right along the Detroit River, so it was a terminus for the Underground Railroad. And the reason most slaves were running to this area was because we were far enough from that Detroit River Inn that slave catchers didn't want to come that far. Probably all of the players who played for the All-Stars could have traced their lineage back to people who came from the Underground Railroad. Probably the two American

players didn't, but absolutely we can trace the Hardings and the Chases to descendants from the south of the U.S. It was a combination of the Underground Railroad and all of the intellectuals and abolitionists. Oh my goodness, over the years, I can't believe how many abolitionists were here building schools, building our community. There just wasn't black men. There was the who of who in Chatham down there. of who in Chatham down there.

And so Chatham and Essex County and Chatham-Kent County were two places where there were huge settlements of black freedom seekers. And Chatham had a pretty substantial population of black freedom seekers, many of whom stayed. We were one-third the population in Chatham in the 1850s. And Buxton was a very large black settlement. North Buxton was settled by Reverend King. He was quite a well-off man from the south, He was quite a well-off man from the south, and he bought land and brought his slaves from the states to their settlement in North Buxton.

But he was freeing them and giving them the opportunity to work and own the land. But a majority, once you cross that border, you were pretty well free. Black baseball in this region goes back at least to the early 1900s. And some scholars have found mentions of black baseball players, they think, from around 1870 1880 somewhere in there and in Chatham the All-Stars were probably the second largest baseball team the before them in the 1920s was the Chatham Giants happy Parker was one of the the team coaches and managers and he had ahop in town, but he played for the Chatham Giants. It's interesting, when they signed up the All-Stars to join the OBA League, they were called the All-Stars. But what happened in the newspaper is they started getting called

the Chatham Colored All-Stars, or the Colored Stars. And my theory is that this is probably a marketing ploy because many people in this region had never seen a black baseball team before, especially when they traveled further afield. So it was a draw because there was a sense that they played a different kind of baseball, that it was fast and it was edgy and the players were energetic and

charismatic. Well, you didn't know what was going to happen. Somebody could hold us for a little while and then the bats would break loose and we'd make some little excitement. Aggressiveness, slash, it wasn't just baseball. They hot-dogged it. They were there to win and also put on a show. They hot-dogged it. They were there to win and also put on a show. First in 1934, it was a novelty. That was the attitude when they went in to play them. When they left, it was, those guys can play ball, whether they want to admit it or not.

It was just chipping away at mindsets that were formed throughout the States and throughout Canada. That changed over the years to not being a freak show, but let's go out and see a ball game because it's going to be a good one. Blake Harding, the son of Wilford Boomer Harding of the Chatham Coloured All-Stars, who made history as the first all-Black team to win the Ontario Baseball Championship in 1934. Ideas is a podcast and a broadcast heard on CBC Radio 1 in Canada, on US Public Radio, across North America on Sirius XM, on World Radio Paris, in Australia on ABC Radio National, and around the world at cbc.ca slash ideas.

Find us on the CBC Listen app and wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nala Ayyad. Hey there, I'm David Common. If you're like me, there are things you love about living in the GTA and things that drive you absolutely crazy. Every day on This Is Toronto, we connect you to what matters most about life in the GTA, the news you got to know, and the conversations your friends

will be talking about. Whether you listen on a run through your neighborhood or while sitting in the parking lot that is the 401, check out This Is Toronto wherever you get your podcasts. My induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in the Cooperstown is not an honour I receive alone. Ferguson Jenkins Jr., arguably the greatest Canadian baseball player of all time, being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991. My father played baseball from 1925 to the 1940s in the Ontario Baseball League and also the Negro League.

His opportunity to play professional ball was limited by history of that era. His sacrifice in baseball has been my reward by my achievements. This day belongs also to my father. His father was Ferguson Jenkins Sr., who played outfield for the Chatham Colored All-Stars in the 1930s. Well, I grew up in the east end of town, I think that people still remember the impact of them playing at Sterling Park. And they have very much to do with Fergie being where he was going. And I think they gave Fergie the initiative that he could.

It was never going to be easy for an all-black baseball team in the 1930s. But by July 1934, they'd established themselves as a seriously talented and gritty team, one that was on its way to the Ontario Championship. There were a lot of blowouts. There were high-scoring games. A trio of extra base hits and an error in the first inning gave Chatham Stars a four-run lead. And from that point, they proceeded to shut out Blenheim intermediates at Sterling Park last evening. The final score standing at 6-0.

Playing third base, Kingsley King-Turrell. King-Turrell is one of the league's most dangerous hitters. And game after game, he's pitched for the stars this season and won a huge majority of them. His left-handed shoots and curves are as baffling as any deliveries offered up by any pitcher in the circuit. For a left-hander he plays a great game at third base and his whip across the diamond is something to watch. It's rare to have a left-handed third baseman simply because you would catch and then would have to turn to get it back into play. King Turrell was this remarkable, elegant player who could just add that little flip to get the ball where it needed to be.

King Turrell leads off the batting order and is the most dependable man on the team. He is fast on the bases and usually scores the first run of the game. They said he could have played in the majors. He was so quick, so fast. And he just was one of those ones. If opportunity could have arose, different time, different place.

He worked at the William Pitt Hotel, which was one of the very few places where black men could work at this time. King Terrell, he hired half of Chatham for the William Pitt Hotel, and I was one of them. So I wear his jersey because he gave me my first job running that elevator, even if I did blow the fuses. I did. Sometimes I'd go too fast and blow them fuses. He gave some very candid interviews about the the history of the team and so a lot of what I've been able to find out about the team were his

interviews and oral histories particularly about the area of race. interviews and oral histories, particularly about the area of race. In the 30s in Canada, in Chatham, there was no official segregation as there was in the U.S., but there was definite social practices and prejudices and sort of a de facto segregation happened. and sort of a de facto segregation happened. Second World War, it was when the guys came back, to them, okay, we went, we served, we're not getting what the white guys are getting. And so there was some tension. But they kept moving and going forward

until, yes, they were received into the factories. But let me tell you, they didn't want the black man at the machines. They were good enough to sweep the floors. The city couldn't have run without the black guys, members of the 1934 baseball team were running garbage trucks and doing things on the city. There were places, for example, the William Pitt Hotel, where people from the East End, people of colour, could work, but they could not stay and they could not eat at. It was the centre of the town. And that fancy dining room. It was a happening place, but we were not allowed to go in there. I know Chatham was supposed to be the end of the Underground Railway, but the railway, it stopped here, but the racism didn't. It was out there. But white fans would come to see the All-Stars.

And unlike in the U.S., where white teams could not play black teams, white and black teams competed constantly in the region as well. And there were also examples of players in the 20s who were black playing on white teams, and that wouldn't have happened in the U.S. August, 1934. A powerful early inning attack that was aided along by a flock of opposition errors

carried the Stars through to a 15-8 victory over the Braggs. There was little doubt in the minds of most baseball fans in the city This is a powerful team. This isn't just a lucky fluke that they keep winning, but they've got this momentum that they're building. fluky fluke that they keep winning, but they've got this momentum that they're building. Playing shortstop, Don Tabron. Don Tabron is one of the greatest threats to the Chatham Stars. He's developed a batting eye, and in recent games,

he's knocked two home runs out of Sterling Park. When the team was looking like they were going to be quite competitive, they went out looking for some more talent. So Chase and a few other people went over to Detroit, and they ended up finding Don Tabron, and he added some flair and energy. He has a great underhand whip from the shortstop position, and he's almost sure death on the hardest of grounders. You know, he was originally from Princeton, Indiana,

and his mother died at his birth. He was the youngest of grounders. You know, he was originally from Princeton, Indiana, and his mother died at his birth. He was the youngest of 10 kids, so he was raised by his oldest sister. So Don Tabron, unlike the players who are descended from Underground Railroad, he was part of the Great Migration. Donald Tabron, son of Don Tabron. And my father always told me, he said,

hey, I planned on, you know, maybe spending, you know, a few weeks in Chatham playing a few games and heading back, you know, to Detroit. And he paused for a moment and then he said, you know what? I think playing baseball in Chatham saved my life. From his perspective, while race was an issue in Chatham, From his perspective, while race was an issue in Chatham, he experienced much more harsh circumstances in the Detroit area. He didn't get a chance to spend too many years in Chatham, ended up having a son and loved being embraced by the community, by his teammates. All I heard was, Chatham, Chatham, Chatham, Chatham, when it came to baseball. One of the things you realize with amateur baseball is it wasn't a job and it was the depression.

And if there were shifts to be had or work to be done, that was the priority. So as the team went along, I think it became harder and harder to field a competitive team. But they would do what they could and there were stories of people's cars sort of going missing. they would do what they could, and there were stories of people's cars sort of going missing. I remember that when they went away on weigh games, they would borrow somebody's truck out of their driveway without asking for it, and then put it back when they got home. There was no big deal, and nobody called the cops. And I said, when did you get your license? Oh, I said, we didn't have a license.

So it was however you could get there. When the team is winning and beating a local white team, that doesn't go over very well. King Turrell talks about getting chased out of town after beating the local team with, you know, rakes and hoes and garden implements. And if in certain places they won a game, they got off the field really quickly and into their cars and off they went. If they won the game, get out of here and don't stand around and beat your chest because, you know know somebody's gonna clock you and one of the things that some of the players have reported is that their wives and

sisters were insulted or that children from the other team supporters were calling them horrible They had a gentleness to them, but they also, you didn't want to light their fire, because they had that too. There were a number of reports where the All-Stars were accused of being too rough, too aggressive, and that's probably quite true. There are a number of suggestions that they're hard slides or just running over basemen or pitches coming at too close to someone's head.

But I'm never sure what people in the East End would say about those stories. Like, would they have thought they were too tough or were they just standing up for themselves? When it got nasty, they were just as nasty and aggressive and tough as anybody else out there. If you wanted to play to hurt one of them, they gave what they got.

And they would play with broken whatever and then inflict pain. Well, this is what we had to do a lot of the fight. No easy game. Respect was probably the biggest thing that Boomer demanded. The injustice on the field. Like, you're not only playing the nine players on the field,

but you're playing the two umpires. The umpires used to use the big air-filled chest protectors, but their head was still in that cage, and Mr. Chase could almost throw a 100-mile-an-hour fastball. So Dad would set up high, move the glove and let it ring his cage, or he'd let one slip low and catch him on the shins or something. And then after that, he would get better calls. They demanded fairness on the field.

They demanded fairness off the field. And they weren't afraid to call it out. I also found some coverage of the All-Stars games from a neighboring community where the All-Stars were. And there I saw in print some of the things that were being said about the players. It was really disturbing to imagine the players going through that. And even decades later, some of the stuff that was said could still bring tears to people's eyes. I think they just take the hurt, swallow, and say, the game is more important.

We'll show them with the game. And that's what they did. And their effort sometimes outshone their ability, I think. You had to respect them and you had to kind of fear them. I don't think there was any team that really come into the park saying, this is going to be easy. When the All-Stars were traveling, they always had to think about where they could stay, where they could eat.

Many times they brought food with them because they knew getting into restaurants may or may not be an issue. They were not allowed into the restaurants, could not sleep in the motels. There was a reality that this was the world they were living in. If they wanted to play ball, they had to take their knocks and hold their heads up high. The community has always, and I mean the community in the east end of Chatham, was always supporting the team, and it meant so much to the men on the team. And they were going to change the hearts and minds of the people who were playing, and if they could, they would.

Ontario Baseball Amateur Association Playoffs, September 1934. Association Playoffs, September 1934. The All-Stars season in 1934, I have found 52 games in that city league and also exhibition games. And they had 41 wins, 9 losses, and 2 ties with a winning percentage of 822. So you could see why they went on to the OBA. Which is a major feat for them because of all the obstacles in the way. To get to the championships and then lose just wasn't in their mindset. They were going to take it all. The All-Stars get out of the City League looking unbeatable.

But once they start progressing a little further afield, some of them get injured, people aren't able to play, and they end up losing quite massively. Weldon caught the Chatham Stars on one of their off days, the worst they have experienced this season, and handed the locals a 17-7 drubbing. Chase, the pitching ace of the Chatham Stars, was far from his usual form. And there are people who start to doubt

whether the All-Stars can pull this off. Game two in Welland. Chatham Stars, in a startling reversal of form, surprised 2,000 fans here Saturday afternoon by defeating the Welland Terriers 4-2. Flat Chase supplied the biggest thrill of the afternoon when he drove a mammoth drive far over the right field fence in the sixth for a home run.

It was the longest drive in the history of the local park. To go and play in a playoff game, these men have to get time off work, and they have to have abilities to travel, and it probably costs them money to do. So the further they go, the more difficult it gets. Nothing is as clear as it seemed like it would be. They haven't been winning as convincingly.

Provincial semifinals, Chatham colored All-Stars versus Milton. But the count nodded 9-9, two men out in the last half of the 10th, and Boomer Harding perched on first base. Chase got a hold of one of half of the 10th, and Boomer Harding perched on first base. Chase got a hold of one of Kay Clement's good ones, and the ball sailed into deep centre right field, sending Harding across the plate with the winning counter. If yesterday's affair is any criterion, the second joust will be a real battle. The Chathamites will have to play heads-up ball all the time,

something they did not do yesterday, especially in the ninth inning. They beat Milton 8-7, and then they go on to Penitanguishene. October 1934. Ontario Baseball Association finals versus Penitanguishene. They've gone through several rounds of playoffs already, in addition to playing 52 games. So they're exhausted, and they've got a couple of players who are nursing a couple injuries, and so they're walking into this

a little nervous, really excited, and a little damaged. And indeed, the final series against Penatanguashene is a very close series. And when they got to that game and got up to Penetang, they couldn't stay there overnight. They had to stay in about a half an hour, 45 minutes away. I just would listen to them and hear the anxiety and him retelling the story about getting to play this game, which would put him ahead in the OBA championship and they finally got a place to stay so they got some sleep and they were anxious

about playing but they had to get up before daybreak and get out of there so none of the citizens would see them leaving the motor lodge so the first game was was a win at 4-2 in Penetanguishene. And then they come back to Chatham and they lose 10-9 in Chatham. A daffy, error-filled marathon contest that extended over three hours of a dreary October afternoon that was better fitted for football. The Stars had sufficient breaks and clubbed enough honest-to-goodness-based hits to win the ballgame and capture Chatham's first OBAA title. But some unforgivable errors in judgment robbed the Stars of a chance to win out then and set the series to the limit.

And then they go into Game 3, which was a neutral park, equidistant from both communities, and it's in Guelph, and it's a 2-2 tie, which is a very unusual thing in a baseball playoff to have a tie. What makes this game even more unusual is that it stopped at 4.30 because of darkness, which is possible, of course, but it was after one at bat when the Stars were leading 3-2. And then there was the call for darkness, and rather than pausing the game,

the score reverted to 2-2. It was hard to believe, but I can still see the two guys throwing up their arms and they had a prearranged signal, I guess, because they just took right out of the run and there was no talking to them. People who were there say it was not dark at all. And in fact, they started the game early to ensure they wouldn't have darkness. We will never know exactly what happened or why or whether it was dark or not. So they had to come back next day, but they still turned around and beat them.

You got to beat the team, you have to beat the umpires. And the All-Stars won in part because Chase could pitch two days in a row and their penitentiary pitcher could not. So it was a convincing 13-7 win. When the team came back from winning the victory, people were given the day off for a parade. Players were carried through the streets. It was really quite a remarkable, remarkable scene. The community coming together behind him,

and not just the black community. And so in that way, they really became Chatham's team. In the newspapers, there's an absence that I find quite curious, and that's none of the mainstream community or national newspapers pointed out that this was a Black team. The only recognition that I see that this was a Black team who won this championship

came from the Chicago Defender, which was a massive circulating newspaper that was all across North America. Never before in the history of Canada has there been a baseball team of colour to win an OBAA pennant. The history of Canada has there been a baseball team of color to win an OBAA pennant, and in performing this feat, the Chatham Stars were the first to bring this great honor to Kent County in Chatham. Chicago Defender, November 1934. It was clear to the community from day one what this victory meant. The residents of Chatham in the East End absolutely knew this was a victory for them because they were their team. They came from this neighbourhood

and they succeeded on a provincial level. And they went out on arguably an uneven playing field and they went out and demanded and got respect. Oh, they were heroes. I mean, we didn't need Hollywood because we had our own, and thank goodness, because, you know heroes. I mean, we didn't need Hollywood because we had our own. And thank goodness, because, you know, at that time, didn't have no heroes that come out of Hollywood. But we had it right here because of them showing us what they could do in the pride.

them showing us what they could do in the pride. A service club hosts a celebration for the All-Stars at the William Pitt Hotel. Now, this is a hotel that employed a number of the players, but this wasn't a place where the players or their families could come and eat. So to me that they could go to the William Pitt to be celebrated for this baseball victory quite literally opened doors that were previously closed to them. And there were lots of speeches and lots of people are taking credit for this victory and calling it chatham's victory and then happy parker the coach and manager steps up and gives a speech and he says we've brought baseball back to the city of chatham for the first time the first championship in the ova championship and he says now give the some jobs. Because all we had was hotel work,

which was tips and china shoes and working in the garage. 1934 didn't solve all the problems. Some of the all-stars went on and did get a break. Some didn't get breaks. They were working class, but they didn't all work. That was a shame because they all could contribute. And Boomer Harding, who was a man of few words, but careful words, an interviewer in the 70s asked him if winning the championship opened doors,

and his response was, yeah. And then there's a pause. Eventually it did. And I think, yes, it made a difference, but it wasn't overnight, that's for sure. Five years later. The Chatham Coloured All-Stars were in existence until 1939, but they never quite reached the level that they did in 1934. That problem in 1934 carried on to 1939

when they quit the local league here because they were getting shafted again. And then they went on to the OBA finals and that and got stiffed again. And again, this tension between teams farther away and this one in terms of who is expected to drive. And the All-Stars are one game away from winning another OBA championship. And the other team refuses to share income. But the end result is that Glenn Harding asks the community of Chatham whether they think the team should

continue to play in the series for another possible OBA championship and swallow this disrespectful behavior or if they should stand up for themselves and basically forfeit the series. Members of the community were asked to either call the Chatham Daily News or stop by Happy Parker's Barbershop to register their vote. And the community spoke overwhelmingly that they thought the team were being treated disrespectfully and that the price for winning another championship was just too high. So the All-Stars never played again. I think this is a really interesting way to end the story of this team. It would be really easy to end it with 1934 and the parade, but the full story is the one that needs to be told,

and the parade, but the full story is the one that needs to be told and that's they were still dealing with so many things in 1939, arguably worse, but they were not putting up with it and nothing was worth sacrificing respect. they were trailblazers they were a black team working with what they had which wasn't always the best and all the trips and falls that people wanted them to fall into, and people still didn't want to give this to them. They were good for one day's parade, but where were the backbone? It was us, and they never forgot it, and we never forgot it. forgotten. In 2022, the Chatham Coloured All-Stars were inducted to the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in the Trailblazer category. But what really blew me away was I later found out that the people who nominated the All-Stars were a group of four and fifth grade kids. It was a class project. These children were so articulate about how what they went through was wrong and that everybody needed to know this story. And that was the most amazing moment to see that this isn't just a story about

Chatham or Ontario or about baseball. It's about the next generation. This is no longer a black neighborhood. It's changed. And it's still changing. But there's something that's in the earth. It's in the atmosphere these people are still here i mean i can't walk down the street and well my memories sometimes in the summer and you can hear the baseball game that that may be playing over there oh it takes you back

and you look up because you don't want no balls coming at you because they still haven't found that one a flat. I don't know if it's still flying around up there or not. It was just pure love. The love of that game, the love of having a time to have fun. Because our race hasn't always had that luxury. Dorothy Wright Wallace, President of the Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society. Special thanks to the Black Mecca Museum in Chatham, to Madeleine Meillet and Biblioasis, and to the Center for Digital Scholarship

at the University of Windsor for the use of their interviews with Boomer Harding and families of the players. You can find those full interviews and in-depth history of the Chatham Colored All-Stars at their website, Breaking the Color Barrier. The link is posted on our website at cbc.ca slash ideas. And thanks to Tom Harrington for portraying the voice of Jack Calder, sports columnist for the Chatham Daily News. And to Heidi Jacobs, the author of 1934,

the Chatham Coloured All-Stars' barrier-breaking year. And I think about how we wouldn't have this story if it weren't for someone clipping out newspaper articles and saving them and not throwing them out. I often just sort of wake up in a panic thinking about where this story would be if someone's basement got flooded or someone was really efficiently cleaning,

you know, a storage shed or whatever, and how this story is, it exists because someone thought to keep it. This episode was produced by Chris Wadskow. And it's funny to be talking to you about this here, seeing the VIA train go past a couple times and how I had been on that train hundreds of times and never saw this baseball park. the Chase family saving this incredible story, we would still be going past this ballpark where history was made, which makes me wonder,

what else are we driving by or walking by and not noticing or hearing? Our technical producer is Danielle Duval. Our web producer is Lisa Ayuso. Senior producer, Nikola Lukšić. Greg Kelly is the executive producer of Ideas. And I'm Nala Ayyad. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.