Luther Gilyard Jr. (February 20, 1910 – September 20, 1976), sometimes listed as "Gillard", was an American

Negro league 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 ...

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

in the 1930s and 1940s. A native of

Fort Smith, Arkansas Fort Smith is the third-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 89,142. It is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Are ...

, Gilyard made his Negro leagues debut in 1937 with the St. Louis Stars and

Chicago American Giants The Chicago American Giants were a Chicago-based Negro league baseball team. From 1910 until the mid-1930s, the American Giants were the most dominant team in black baseball. Owned and managed from 1911 to 1926 by player-manager Andrew "Rube" Fo ...

. He played for Chicago again the following two seasons, and finished his career in 1942 with the

Birmingham Black Barons The Birmingham Black Barons were a Negro league baseball team that played from 1920 until 1960. They shared their home field of Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, with the white Birmingham Barons, usually drawing larger crowds and equal pres ...

. Gilyard died in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

in 1976 at age 66.

References

External links

an
Seamheads
* Luther Gilyard a
Arkansas Baseball Encyclopedia
1910 births 1976 deaths Birmingham Black Barons players Chicago American Giants players St. Louis Stars (1937) players 20th-century African-American sportspeople Baseball infielders {{Negro-league-baseball-infielder-stub