Object Type: Folder
In Folder: AF Subjects
Photographs documenting American Legion Baseball teams from the Austin Files collection
Group portrait of the 1919 Austin Black Senators Baseball Team. The Austin Black Senators were a minor league Negro league baseball team based in Austin, Texas. The Black Senators adopted the name of their white, Texas League counterparts sometime in the early 1910s. The team started as an independent, then joined the Texas Colored League 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, 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.
1919
Photographs from the Austin Files collection documenting The Austin Braves, a Minor League Baseball team in the East Division of the Texas League and were affiliated with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves. Known as the Austin Senators from 1956 to 1964, they played at Disch Field. In 1965, they became the Austin Braves,
Photographs documenting the Austin Hix baseball team from the Austin Files collection
Photographs documenting the Austin Pioneers from the Austin Files collection. The Austin Pioneers were a minor league baseball team in postwar Austin, Texas that lasted for nine seasons between 1947 and 1955. The Pioneers were a founding member of the Class B Big State League (1947-1957). Club owner Edmund P. Knebel was a local bottler of 7-Up and Nu-Grape.
Photographs documenting Disch Field which was a baseball field located in Austin, TX that opened in 1947 [1] and hosted many minor league teams and playoff series. The diamond is at the present time part of the park behind The Long Center for the Performing Arts and the Palmer Events Complex between W. Riverside Drive and Barton Springs Road in South Austin, along the Colorado River. The park includes an open area called Willie Wells Field, named[2] for the Austin-born Negro league baseball legend.
Photographs documenting baseball and baseball players in Austin, Texas from the Austin Files collection
Photographs documenting Little League baseball teams from the Austin Files collection
