Retro Style Logos and Uniforms

[knuckler]

Three Toledo Mud Hen logos:

[knuckler]

Minutemen with blue as the primary color:

[PW MAX]

Originally Posted by knuckler

Minutemen with blue as the primary color:

Whoa! I wasn't expecting that! That is incredibly nice! I loves it!!! Somehow, I'd always pictured their logo being more red than blue, like the first ones you put up, but this bad boy right here could very well have changed that.

This one's outstanding.

[txranger]

KC Monarchs Home

[txranger]

Seattle Mariners

[txranger]

Toledo Mud Hens

[Jabez54]

Whoa ...

You're certainly on a great roll this morning ... Sound like you are having a great holiday ...

[txranger]

Yes having a great holiday... Off work till Jan 3rd... Just gonna take it easy for the next week and watch the bowl games and the last weekend of NFL games before the playoffs start...

[knuckler]

Two Albuquerque Duke logos. One with the more traditional conquistador on it, and another version for anyone that might want something that would probably work well with older versions of the Dukes.

[txranger]

Mineola Honors Black Barnstorming Baseball Team

Photo by Melissa Crowe for Tyler Morning Telegraph



MINEOLA - In a time when racial prejudices divided businesses, water fountains and even the nation’s greatest pastime, The Mineola Black Spiders kept swinging.
“They weren’t the greatest, they didn’t make it to the majors … but it is something noteworthy,” said Lou Mallory of the Wood County Historical Commission.
The Black Spiders began playing in the late 1920s at Epperson Field in Mineola, toured the country, changed names, swapped players and gained success up until 1938.
Despite all this, the team’s story has gone unnoticed locally. Because the newspaper rarely published stories or photographs about the black community, researching the team was near impossible, Mrs. Mallory said.
“But every time I got on the Internet, I looked to see what I could find,” she said. “I kept researching …We needed to preserve that part of our black history.”
Now, more than eight decades after their last season ended, The Spiders finally receive the local fame they deserve.
The city unveiled a state historical marker for the Black Spiders at 2 p.m. today at Mineola City Hall, 300 Greenville Ave. The marker is at South Park, at the meeting of South Pacific Street and U.S. Highway 69.
The Mineola Black Spiders first gained momentum in 1932, when Vern Klingaman, an Iowa native who was living in Mineola, bought the team with intentions to make it a national success.
“How he acquired the team, I have no idea,” said his son, Gene Klingaman, 74, of Houston. But with nine children and a wife to feed, he said he thinks it was “a grocery matter.”
Despite some resistance from the local players, Klingaman began recruiting players from across the state, and changed the team’s name to the Texas Black Spiders, Mrs. Mallory said.
Klingaman said his father helped bring the team into the spotlight.
“He took this team and went from Mexico through the center of the country up into Canada,” Klingaman said.
As the Black Spiders gained momentum, an all-white, semi-pro team formed in Mason City, Iowa, and planned to fill its schedule with top touring teams. Klingaman took his team north.
At the landmark dedication, Dallas Morning News sports columnist Kevin Sherrington described the team as “unique.”
“There were no other black barnstorming teams in Texas in that time,” Sherrington said.
The team traveled across the country in a windowless bus, “barnstorming” their way from town to town, sometimes playing as many as three games a day.
Under Vern’s management, the Texas Black Spiders defeated the Ben Hayes All-Indian Club in Holdenville, Okla., teams in Memphis, Little Rock, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City and the Milwaukee Giants.
On July 17, the Texas Black Spiders defeated the Mason City Bats 3-0. Eventually, some of Black Spiders were recruited to the Mason City Bats, and changed names, yet again, to the Mason CityBlack Bats.
Mrs. Mallory said the team built a reputation of being one of the fastest teams of the south – almost the “Harlem Globe Trotters of baseball,” known for a catcher who sometimes sat in a rocking chair and an “air-ball” warm-up routine.
The Black Spiders are believed to have played some of the early stars of the Negro Baseball League.
Sherrington said they played against 15-year-old Bob Feller in a 1934 game in Sidney, Iowa. Feller, nicknamed “The Heater from Van Meter” and “Bullet Bob,” went on to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
Also, the Black Spiders are believed to have played against Leroy “Satchel” Page, who later, Joe DiMaggio allegedly called, “the best and fastest pitcher I’ve ever faced.”
While the Texas Black Spiders regularly swapped and recruited players, three Mineola locals stayed with it through most of the journey.
Joshua “Goat” Epperson, who was 79 when Sherrington mentioned him in a Dallas Morning News article about Texas Negro Baseball Leagues, started playing with the Mineola Black Spiders circa 1932.
In 1990, locally, “Joshua was best known for shining shoes,” Sherrington said. “No one knew he had played for the Black Spiders.”
Until a major turnover in team personnel in 1937 and a drop in pre-game publicity, the team continued playing strong. With the start of World War II, getting gasoline and rubber for tires was impossible, Sherrington said. The 1938 season may well have been the Black Spiders’ last.
“They played until World War II … then it all disbanded and was over,” Mrs. Mallory said.
Up north, the players were able to make more money, about $15 to $20 a week, compared to $12 in Texas. Also, segregation was less prevalent in the Midwest. They could eat in the main dining room of restaurants instead of the kitchen, Mrs. Mallory said.
Save for family and friends of some original players, The Black Spiders’ story might have been lost locally. In 1990, The Dallas Morning News published a story about the team and a decade later, Mineola erected a local historical marker to the Black Spiders.
Joe and Haywood Epperson, sons of the late “Goat” Epperson, said their father would be proud of the recognition the team has received on local and state levels.
“It means quite a bit,” Haywood said. “If only my mom and dad could see this.”
After the team split up, “Goat” Epperson returned to Mineola and rejoined the local team.
He was the last known local player of the Texas Black Spiders and died in 1998.
“It would have been great to talk to some of these people because they have such great stories.” Sherrington said. “Once they’re gone, the stories are gone.”
–
Story published May 21 and 22
Tyler Morning Telegraph


Mineola Black Spiders














1938 Texas Black Spiders

[txranger]

Mineola Black Spiders

The Mineola Black Spiders, also called the Texas Black Spiders, were an independent, generally all-black baseball team. They originated in and were loosely based from Mineola, Texas. As a non-league barnstorming team, they often headquartered in other parts of the nation, especially northern Iowa, from 1932 until at least 1937. They were reported to have headquartered in Mason City, Charles City and Waverly, Iowa. Some newspaper accounts also list them as the Fort Worth Black Spiders as well as the Texas Black Spiders from Galveston.
Vernon "V.A." Klingaman, an Iowa native who settled in Mineola in the late 1920s, formed the team, which first began traveling in 1930's. Eventually attracting players from outside Mineola, Texas, they barnstormed throughout the nation in the 1930s, and likely traveled into Mexico with a team featuring Buck O'Neil. The Spiders played until at least 1941.


History

Origin

A generally all-black barnstorming baseball team, the Spiders hailed from Mineola, Texas, where Klingaman formed the team. The Spiders entered tournaments and barnstormed across the country as they attracted strong players from outside Mineola. They first traveled in 1932, and continued traveling until at least 1941.
Referred to in newspapers as the Texas Black Spiders, they were often noted as the "Champions of Texas." Other sources list them as the Black Spiders of Mineola although some accounts also listed them as the Texas Black Spiders of Galveston or the Fort Worth Black Spiders. They were entered into the National Semi-Pro Baseball Tournament as the Waverly, Iowa, Black Spiders.
The team first set out for the Midwest in a black school bus with the team's name on the side. The bus had no windows and featured a cobweb in the back.
The club traveled extensively, arriving in Iowa in July 1932. The players played for a percentage of the gate. By the end of July, a dispute arose over player payments and ten players voted to leave the team. The players were purchased by the managers of the semi-pro Mason City Black Bats. Klingaman returned to Mineola with the remaining players.
As the Mason City Black Bats

The Bats played against top barnstorming teams including the Western House of David, Nebraska Indians, John Donaldson's All-Stars and the Kansas City Monarchs.
J.B. Griffin became the team's featured pitcher and ace in 1932. Following the 1932 season, most of the players returned to Texas. Two players tried out for the 1933 semi-pro Mason City Bats but were cut when the Bats joined the Southern Minnesota - Iowa League where only non-black players were welcome. Many of the same players rejoined the Black Spiders.
After rejoining the Black Spiders

The 1933 Spiders traveled north and spent much of July playing games throughout Iowa and Minnesota. J.b. Griffin was again a feature pitcher with the team playing as many as nine games in a week.
In 1934, they returned to Iowa in early May and headquartered in northern Iowa during the summer. Featured pitchers early in the summer included Lonnie "Big Pitch" Arthur and Argusta "Speedball" Benson. Both were known for departing the team in about mid-July with Arthur's destination unknown and Benson signing on with Corwith in Iowa. J.B. Griffin was reported as having moved on to the Monroe Monarchs.
In 1935, the Spiders added Baby Tilliford, a female pitcher, to the team. Newspaper spellings for her name include Tillie Ford and Tilford. She started games and pitched an inning or two before giving way to another pitcher, typically Benson. "Speedball" Benson was once again a featured pitcher for the Spiders.
The 1936 team carried a much improved roster. Buck O'Neil reported that the Spiders picked up a few ringers and entered the Denver Post Tournament in 1937 only to eventually lose out to the Negro League all-star delegation featuring Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and others. This has yet to be confirmed.
O'Neil also reported an eventual Mexican tour. Subsequent newspaper accounts report a record of 22 wins out of 29 games in Mexico.
The Spiders returned to the Midwest in 1937. They continued to headquarter out of Iowa and entered the Southwest Iowa Baseball Tournament in Council Bluffs, winning the title of Iowa Semi-Pro Baseball Champions. They represented Iowa in the 1937 National Baseball Congress Tournament in Wichita. Several team members of the 1937 squad were signed by J.L. Wilkinson to travel with Satchel Paige's All-Stars.
Joe Scott, who later played for the Birmingham Black Barons, played for the Spiders in 1939. The 1939 team was known to have barnstormed extensively with the House of Alexander Whiskered Wizards including games near Yankton, SD and a double header in Winnipeg. The team is reported to have disbanded mid-season in Wichita, Kansas with Scott joining the Dunsiath Giants.
Teams using the Spiders' name are known to have traveled into Kansas and Nebraska in 1941, and defeated the Cedar Valley All-Stars in Waverly, Iowa in 1947.


Black Spiders

[Deft]

I haven't posted in several years but this thread and the fantastic work in it deserves kudos. Great work, I might even come out retirement.

[txranger]

You definitely should un-retire... Thank you for the kind words... Kudos to you for all of your great work here, past and hopefully future...

[Jordan]

I was looking through this thread earlier, and I don't know if it's my eyes or the way the jersey is designed, but on page 7, the Seattle Rainiers jersey looks as if it is missing the first 'i' in Rainiers. Can someone confirm or correct me on this?

[Jordan]

Originally Posted by Deft

I haven't posted in several years but this thread and the fantastic work in it deserves kudos. Great work, I might even come out retirement.

Do it! I was always jealous of your abilities, as I am of these guys now.

[PW MAX]

Originally Posted by Jordan

I was looking through this thread earlier, and I don't know if it's my eyes or the way the jersey is designed, but on page 7, the Seattle Rainiers jersey looks as if it is missing the first 'i' in Rainiers. Can someone confirm or correct me on this?

I'd have to check to be sure, but if my memory serves me correctly, (and it doesn't always), txranger made a mistake on that jersey, someone pointed it out to him a little later on, and he then corrected it.

The original pic, the one with the mistake, must still be up.

But, like I said, I'd have to check to be sure. My memory could easily be faulty, but I think there should be a correct Rainiers jersey in there somewhere, a few pages up from that.

Sorry if I'm wrong, posting before checking instead of after and all. Just trying to be helpful, is all.

[Jordan]

Thanks PW. Going thru this thread from start to finish making sure I've downloaded everything. Came across that since I started on page 1. If someone has, I didn't get to it yet

[PW MAX]

I think I found the Rainiers jersey you were looking for on Page 14, a few down below my own (personal favorite) New York Hawks logos and jerseys.

[Jordan]

one more spam before I sleep. Couldn't find logos for Williamsport Wrens , Easton Earls, orRacine Racers. Any help?

[txranger]

Originally Posted by knuckler

If it helps finding the logos, I have them divided into folders:

Negro League Logos

MLB Logos

Federal League

Bottom of the Sixth League

This is post # 720, the last post on page 36 from knuckler... It has links to his Photobucket where he has all of his logos divided into folders... I wish mine were as organized as his...