St. Paul Colored Gopher (players 1909)
On this date, the St. Paul Colored Gophers of 1907 are celebrated. They were a small club of Black baseball players formed in St. Paul, MN, 40 years before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier. The team was the brainchild of black businessman Phillip 'Daddy' Reid.
Awareness about the history of Negro League Baseball and its legacy to the game has increased recently, but little is known about some of the teams around before the league formed in 1920. The St. Paul Colored Gophers were part of the league's growth, as it tried to find venues to play and determine which ones worked and which did not. They chose cities where they could make money or where the players would want to live; Chicago worked, and St. Paul didn't.
The St. Paul Colored Gophers lasted only four years, as the market in St. Paul was too small. Like other barnstorming teams of the time, however, they had a considerable impact on the desegregation of baseball. In 1909, the Colored Gophers defeated what was considered to be the most powerful Negro baseball team, the Leland Giants. The Colored Gophers are rarely mentioned in Negro baseball history, and statistics and rosters are hard to find.
On occasion, the Minnesota Twins have honored them by wearing replica throwback jerseys of the 1909 team. On July 27, 2021, The St. Paul Saints honored founder Phillip Reid with an event at Oakland Cemetery before that evening's Saints baseball game.
Swinging for the Fences: Black Baseball in Minnesota
by Kwame McDonald and Steven R. Hoffbeck.
Minnesota Historical Society Press,
Copyright, February 2005,
ISBN-13: 9780873515177
Image: Five of the St. Paul Colored Gophers ball club at the Hardscrabble Field in Hibbing, Minnesota. The Gophers defeated Hibbing 17 to 2 that day in 1909.
