Category: History and More

As a kid I gobbled up as many football books as I could, and one of my favorites was Strange But True Football Stories.

Compiled by Zander Hollander and originally published in 1967, it featured a variety of off-the-wall gridiron tales, from Alabama’s Tommy Lewis coming off the bench to make a tackle against Rice, to Cumberland’s 222-0 loss to Georgia Tech.

The one that stuck with me the most – even though it took up just four of the book’s 184 pages – concerned Plainfield Teachers College.

Under the chapter “Dream Team,” I learned about a college football program in New Jersey that never even existed, but found itself getting a bit of notice from New York and Pennsylvania area newspapers in 1941.

In a nutshell, members of Wall Street brokerage firm Newburger, Loeb & Company (Morris Newburger was the mastermind of the deception, with help from Lew Krupnick and Bink Dannenbaum) decided to make a up a team – Plainfield Teachers – and call in its scores to publications such as the New York Times and Herald-Tribune. Not only that, they conjured a player named Johnny Chung, a Chinese halfback who was running roughshod over the opposition.

The ruse continued for a few weeks until an anonymous call to the Herald-Tribune caused sports desks to question everything they thought they knew about the “college.”

I was so enamored with the phony school that I once created a “Plainfield Teachers” team in EA Sports NCAA Football (leading them to a pair of MAC titles, if I remember correctly).

Just for fun, I decided to do some research and find out just how popular this phantom team became. Looking through available archives, about all I could find were bogus scores. But according to a 2016 New York Times story, the hoax was much more elaborate:

There was a groundswell of press interest about this small-college football powerhouse. Mr. Newburger gave birth to a sports information director for Plainfield Teachers College. His name was Jerry Croyden, fashioned from Newburger’s familiarity with the Croydon Hotel on the Upper East Side. Mr. Newburger became Mr. Croyden, and was the only one who answered the new, $5-a-month phone line that was installed at the brokerage firm.

Jerry Croyden (Mr. Newburger), with Mr. Dannenbaum’s help, began producing news releases with a Plainfield Teachers letterhead. The team acquired a nickname (the Lions) and was outfitted in the school colors (mauve and puce). Its coach was Ralph “Hurry Up” Hoblitzel, a former Spearfish Normal star who devised the W-formation, in which both ends faced the backfield. One of the ends was “Boarding House” Smithers.

But Chung was the star, and the stats Newburger provided via his press releases (Chung – nicknamed the “Celestial Comet” – had supposedly scored 57 of Plainfield’s 98 points through four games) duped New York Post columnist Herbert Allan into mentioning Chung prominently in his “College Grapevine” column.

In reality, though, the most nationwide publicity Chung and Plainfield Teachers received was when the prank was uncovered. A story written by William Tucker of United Press International appeared in newspapers across the country on November 15, 1941.

“The flying figments not only are unbeaten and untied, they are unreal,” Tucker wrote. “But for the better part of this football season their fabulous deeds on the gridiron received some due notice in some of the nation’s leading newspapers.”

The story revealed that Plainfield’s foes (Chesterton, Scott, Winona, Randolph Tech, Ingersoll, Appalachian Tech, Harmony Teachers and St. Joseph) were also fictitious.

Talk about fantasy football.

In an era when calling in scores was common practice and newspapers were the primary source of information, who knows how long the deceit would’ve continued?

Yet, someone apparently thought the joke was no longer amusing, and his tip on November 11 prompted newspaper employees in the northeast to check Plainfield’s credentials.

They had none.

Tucker wrote:

“Plainfield’s brief but terrific saga as a pigskin power ended last Tuesday when an anonymous tipster telephoned the Herald-Tribune sports department and said: ‘I’ll give you fellows a tip. There ain’t no such college as Plainfield Teachers. Bunch of fellows down on wall street are kidding you.’”

Eighty-two years later, I still think it’s pretty funny.

Split seasons have long been common in baseball’s farm system. Once the first half of a schedule is completed, the records are reset and the second half of the slate begins.

But a season that sees a club split from its minor league circuit in order to move up to the majors?

That’s quite the rarity.

However, that was the turn of fortune for the Birmingham Black Barons (and Memphis Red Sox) 100 years ago. They started out the 1923 season as franchises in the Negro Southern League – then considered a minor league – only to finish as associate members of the top-tier Negro National League.

The “traditional” season began on May 1 at Rickwood Field, where 5,000 fans were on hand to watch the Black Barons – managed by Poindexter Williams – defeat the Red Sox, 16-4. According to press reports, the game featured 27 hits, seven stolen bases and 10 errors.

Birmingham, down 3-0 entering the bottom of the third, scored five runs in the frame and cruised from there.

In fact, that year the Black Barons spent much of their time in the Southern League cruising past the opposition. The team was overflowing with talent, from power-hitting left fielder/first baseman (and future National Baseball Hall of Famer) George “Mule” Suttles to shortstop Geechie Meredith to pitcher Harry Salmon, who boasted a 2.19 ERA in 1923.

Birmingham took one game of a doubleheader from Memphis on July 15 to improve to 54-6, having long since clinched the first half of the NSL title. According to a Birmingham News story, the team also held their Tennessee rivals scoreless for 63 innings during a stretch in May.

The clubs were scheduled to meet again at Memphis’ Lewis Park on July 16, but that didn’t happen.

Instead, both organizations became associate members of the National League, prompting the Southern League to cancel the rest of its 1923 season.

The big league was founded by Rube Foster on February 13, 1920, and featured some of the game’s top players. Among them were future Hall of Famers Bernardo Baro, Oscar Charleston, Valentin Drake, Pete Hill, Biz Mackey, Jose Mendez, Bullet Rogan, Ben Taylor and Cristobal Torriente.

Foster, who was a great player before becoming a manager and executive, was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1981.

The 1923 Negro National League was made up of the Kansas City Monarchs, Chicago American Giants. Detroit Stars, Indianapolis ABCs, Cuban Stars West, St. Louis Stars, Toledo Tigers (replacing the Cleveland Tate Stars, which dropped out of the league midseason) and Milwaukee Bears. Black Barons team owner Joe Rush put up $10,000 to help make the move up possible, and the addition of the Red Sox gave the Negro National League solid footing in the Deep South.

Before ever playing a game, Birmingham’s team was in the national spotlight.

“For the first time in the history of the Negro National League, the American Giants and Chicago will leave home during the middle of the season and make a trip South, playing in Birmingham on Aug. 20, 21 and 22,” touted The Chicago Defender. “These three days will be gala days in the Southern metropolis and many people are expected to come out and witness the new Southern entry in the Negro National League play Rube Foster’s club, thrice winners of the league pennant.”

The Black Barons’ first major league outing resulted in a 4-4 draw with Milwaukee on July 19 at Rickwood, a clash that earned a glowing review from the Birmingham News:

“The Birmingham Black Barons opened their career as Major Leaguers at Rickwood Field on Thursday afternoon by fighting the famous Milwaukee giants to a 4-4 tie in the 10 hectic and exciting innings of real baseball. Seldom has the old park seen such a fiercely waged battle as was fought within the confines of its walls Thursday. The game was featured by the diminutive Black Baron shortsmith, Geechie, and the hitting of (Charles) Wesley, the local keystoner (second baseman).”

Birmingham went on to win the series, which also made news far from the Magic City.

Wrote the Pittsburgh Courier: “The Birmingham Black Barons, pride of the South, made an auspicious debut into the big-league circles last week when they won two games from the Milwaukee Bears of the Negro National League, lost one and tied one.”

Birmingham’s season ended on September 29 with a 5-3 home loss to the American Giants. In 45 Negro National League games that summer, Williams’ charges compiled a 16-25-4 record and earned the support of overflow crowds at Rickwood Field.

The Black Barons existed from 1920 to 1960, and during that time competed in the Negro Southern League (1920-1923, 1926, 1931-36); Negro National League (1924-25, 1927-30); and Negro American League (1940-1960). They claimed four NAL titles (1943, 1944, 1948 and 1959).

On Dec. 20, 2020, Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced that the sport would correct “a longtime oversight in the game’s history” by granting all Negro Leagues as well as their 3,400-plus players official major league status.

“All of us who love baseball have long known that the Negro Leagues produced many of our game’s best players, innovations and triumphs against a backdrop of injustice,” Manfred said in a statement. “We are now grateful to count the players of the Negro Leagues where they belong: as Major Leaguers within the official historical record.”

Turns out the Black Barons were big leaguers even before they reached the big stage a century ago.

(If you’re in or near Birmingham and want to learn more about the history of the Black Barons and these leagues, visit the Negro Southern League Museum across from Regions Field. It’s open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday).