People, Locations, Episodes

J. L. Wilkinson, Baseball Executive born

J. L. Wilkinson

*J. L. Wilkinson was born on this date in 1878. He was a white-American Black sports executive.

Born in Algona, Iowa, James Leslie Wilkinson grew up in Des Moines and attended Highland Park College. While there, he pitched for the baseball team while playing professional and semi-professional ball. An injury ended his playing career, but he remained on the management side of the game for the rest of his working life.

In 1909, he developed a women's baseball team to draw up to 2,000 fans to a covered grandstand moved around the Midwest by train. A team band whipped up tunes for crowds, a male catcher wrestled all comers, and a brown bulldog was the mascot. Town teams throughout Iowa and surrounding states faced Wilkinson's gimmick-laden squad. In 1912, he founded the barnstorming All Nations Baseball Club that later evolved into the all-Black Kansas City Monarchs. Wilkinson was among those who signed the charter of the Negro National League, the first viable league of all-Black teams, at a historic meeting at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City in 1920.

In 1930, he invested in a portable lighting system, and the Monarchs became the first professional baseball team to play regularly under lights. Night baseball's novelty and a championship-caliber team allowed the Monarchs to survive the Depression. In 1945, on a tip from pitcher Hilton Smith, Wilkinson hired Jackie Robinson to play shortstop for the Monarchs. Robinson's one-year stint with the Monarchs launched his Hall-of-Fame baseball career and his historic role as the first Black player in the modern major leagues. Wilkinson remained at the helm of the Monarchs until 1948 when he sold his team share to Tom Baird, a long-time associate, and partner.

During his twenty-eight years, the Monarchs won twelve league championships and made four appearances in the Negro League World Series, winning two of them. Wilkinson died in a nursing home in Kansas City in 1964.