The Austin Black Senators were a minor league

Negro league baseball The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

team based in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

. The earliest known published reference to them came in April 1908, adopting the name of their white,

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

counterparts. The team started as an independent, then joined the

Texas Colored League The Texas Colored League was a minor league Negro baseball league organized in 1919 and lasted until 1926. The league did not play a schedule in 1922. The league was revived three years later in 1929 as the Texas–Oklahoma–Louisiana League a ...

in 1923 until 1926, continuing at least into the early 1940s and reportedly into the 1950s. The team "appeared in many exhibition games against nonleague competition and often played south of the border, where the players were treated as first-class citizens." Their most famous player was shortstop

Willie Wells Willie James Wells (August 10, 1906 – January 22, 1989), nicknamed "The Devil," was an American baseball player. He was a shortstop who played from 1924 to 1948 for various teams in the Negro leagues and in Latin America. Wells was a fast ...

, an Austin native who played with the Black Senators briefly before going on to an internationally acclaimed career. His nickname, earned while playing in Mexico, was "El Diablo." One of only a handful of players to be inducted into the American, Mexican, and Cuban Baseball Halls of Fame, some believe he may have been the best shortstop who ever played the position. He is credited with inventing the batting helmet. Legend has it Wells taught

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...

how to turn a double play when they were both in Austin the summer before Robinson entered the big leagues. Another Hall of Famer who did a brief tour through the Austin club in 1931 was

Hilton Smith Hilton Lee Smith (February 27, 1907 – November 18, 1983) was an American right-handed pitcher in Negro league baseball. He pitched alongside Satchel Paige for the Kansas City Monarchs between 1932 and 1948. He was inducted into the National B ...

, considered one of the best pitchers of his generation. In the early 1940s, the announcer for the Senators' home games was Lavada "Dr. Hepcat" Durst, who called the game using "jive" language and scat outbursts that reportedly drew fans independently of the team. This drew the attention of

John Connally John Bowden Connally Jr. (February 27, 1917June 15, 1993) was an American politician. He served as the 39th governor of Texas and as the 61st United States secretary of the Treasury. He began his career as a Democrat and later became a Republican ...

and

Jake Pickle James Jarrell "Jake" Pickle (October 11, 1913 – June 18, 2005) was a United States Representative from the 10th congressional district of Texas from 1963 to 1995. Pickle was born in Roscoe, Texas and brought up in Big Spring. He acquired h ...

, who would become Texas Governor and Austin congressman, respectively, and they hired Durst at KVET as the first black DJ in Texas, possibly in the South. Where the Black Senators played is a matter of some dispute. In the late teens and early 1920s, Willie Wells told his biographer he watched the team play and later played himself at "Dobbs Field," which he identified as on Lake Austin Blvd west of town, near what today is Tom Miller Dam. In 1927, they reportedly moved to a baseball field owned by Samuel Huston College at the site of what today is Downs Field."Black Senators Play," The Austin American (1914-1973), June 26, 1927, > It's unclear where the team played its home games after 1938, when the baseball diamond was demolished to build a high-school football stadium. In the 1940s, several reports have them playing at least some games at Disch Field, which was otherwise segregated and mostly used by white teams. It's likely the only games played at Disch were against visiting, barnstorming teams which drew mixed crowds.

References

Negro league baseball teams Defunct baseball teams in Texas Baseball teams in Austin, Texas Baseball teams disestablished in 1926 Baseball teams established in 1923 {{Negro-league-baseball-team-stub