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As interest grows, expansion set for Negro Leagues Museum
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KANSAS CITY (AP) -- Sparked by growing interest in the important story it tells, big things are happening for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
The historic building down the street where Rube Foster founded the Negro Leagues in 1920 will soon house the museum's offices, creating more floor space for exhibits. Money is being raised to open a research and educational center as well as interactive exhibits.
A growing circle of friends such as San Diego Padres owner John Moores is helping curators obtain artifacts. A television miniseries on the Negro Leagues is even in the works.
"Can you imagine anything worse than to lose your sense of history?" Moores said. "That's what almost happened with the Negro Leagues."
When the museum opened in 1990 in the midtown 18th and Vine Jazz District, many felt its future was bleak.
Many of the game's most valuable artifacts were already in the hands of private collectors, who had sought out the aging players and their widows two decades earlier before black baseball memorabilia became fashionable.
The early years were a struggle, but now the museum is bustling as never before.
The biggest project is the restoration of one of the oldest black YMCAs in the country. It was in that three-story structure in 1920 that Foster, a Chicago businessman, persuaded the owners of seven other independent black teams to form the Negro Leagues.
From then until after Jackie Robinson broke the major league color barrier in 1947, the Negro Leagues showcased many of the greatest athletes who ever played the game. And, just as important, it also gave those who one day would break the color line a place to play.
Its stars -- among them Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Bullet Rogan and Cool Papa Bell -- would bring white fans jumping to their feet, then that night be refused service at the local diner by those same people who had cheered them.
So they slept in their uniforms on the bus. They ate peanut butter and crackers while traveling to the next town, to be cheered and jeered, admired and ridiculed all over again.
Within the black community, the Negro Leagues were a focus of pride and hope as well as entertainment.
"Outside of the fact they were a bunch of great athletes, it's a wonderful story and needs to be told," said Moores, who has given the museum some valuable pieces from his own collection.
The old YMCA, built in 1914, already has been declared a national historic landmark. The museum was not allowed to purchase it without promising to approach the renovation as strictly as a preservation project.
"We have to maintain certain aspects of the building, which makes the work a little more expensive," said Bob Kendrick, the museum's director of marketing. "But it's important to save the integrity of that building. The building itself is steeped in history and very significant to our story."
The research and education center will be named in honor of Buck O'Neil, the former player and manager of the Kansas City Monarchs who serves as the museum's adviser and goodwill ambassador.
"It will include a research library where folks can learn more in-depth information about the Negro League teams and the communities they impacted," Kendrick said. "It will give us an opportunity to reach out to scholars, students and authors. We will try to make history relevant to what is happening in people's lives today.
"We document a history that is not in the history books."
O'Neil and other museum officials have also agreed to be consultants on a four-hour TV miniseries on the Negro Leagues that producers hope to air in the fall of 2006. The project has been bought by Warner Brothers.
As it has struggled to grow, the museum has never gotten much financial support from the major leagues. The target for the building project is $14 million, and Moores hopes to get his fellow owners involved.
"I think some individual owners would be receptive," he said. "I don't know what the contribution level has been from various clubs. The Padres have been supportive. I would think it is obviously in the best interests of baseball to have the story of the Negro Leagues endure."
Only a few major league players have taken an interest.
"So many athletes -- they have no sense of things that happened before they were born, which is astonishing," Moores said. "You'd think these guys would be all over the history of their game, because baseball is so rich in history. But they aren't. It's sad to say. But I think it's true."
But as the museum's success grows, Moores said, so should its collection of artifacts.
"Guys like me die off," he said. "They have something and they want to make sure that it's taken care of. My guess is that if the Kansas City hall stays the course, stuff will roll in."
The historic building down the street where Rube Foster founded the Negro Leagues in 1920 will soon house the museum's offices, creating more floor space for exhibits. Money is being raised to open a research and educational center as well as interactive exhibits.
A growing circle of friends such as San Diego Padres owner John Moores is helping curators obtain artifacts. A television miniseries on the Negro Leagues is even in the works.
"Can you imagine anything worse than to lose your sense of history?" Moores said. "That's what almost happened with the Negro Leagues."
When the museum opened in 1990 in the midtown 18th and Vine Jazz District, many felt its future was bleak.
Many of the game's most valuable artifacts were already in the hands of private collectors, who had sought out the aging players and their widows two decades earlier before black baseball memorabilia became fashionable.
The early years were a struggle, but now the museum is bustling as never before.
The biggest project is the restoration of one of the oldest black YMCAs in the country. It was in that three-story structure in 1920 that Foster, a Chicago businessman, persuaded the owners of seven other independent black teams to form the Negro Leagues.
From then until after Jackie Robinson broke the major league color barrier in 1947, the Negro Leagues showcased many of the greatest athletes who ever played the game. And, just as important, it also gave those who one day would break the color line a place to play.
Its stars -- among them Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Bullet Rogan and Cool Papa Bell -- would bring white fans jumping to their feet, then that night be refused service at the local diner by those same people who had cheered them.
So they slept in their uniforms on the bus. They ate peanut butter and crackers while traveling to the next town, to be cheered and jeered, admired and ridiculed all over again.
Within the black community, the Negro Leagues were a focus of pride and hope as well as entertainment.
"Outside of the fact they were a bunch of great athletes, it's a wonderful story and needs to be told," said Moores, who has given the museum some valuable pieces from his own collection.
The old YMCA, built in 1914, already has been declared a national historic landmark. The museum was not allowed to purchase it without promising to approach the renovation as strictly as a preservation project.
"We have to maintain certain aspects of the building, which makes the work a little more expensive," said Bob Kendrick, the museum's director of marketing. "But it's important to save the integrity of that building. The building itself is steeped in history and very significant to our story."
The research and education center will be named in honor of Buck O'Neil, the former player and manager of the Kansas City Monarchs who serves as the museum's adviser and goodwill ambassador.
"It will include a research library where folks can learn more in-depth information about the Negro League teams and the communities they impacted," Kendrick said. "It will give us an opportunity to reach out to scholars, students and authors. We will try to make history relevant to what is happening in people's lives today.
"We document a history that is not in the history books."
O'Neil and other museum officials have also agreed to be consultants on a four-hour TV miniseries on the Negro Leagues that producers hope to air in the fall of 2006. The project has been bought by Warner Brothers.
As it has struggled to grow, the museum has never gotten much financial support from the major leagues. The target for the building project is $14 million, and Moores hopes to get his fellow owners involved.
"I think some individual owners would be receptive," he said. "I don't know what the contribution level has been from various clubs. The Padres have been supportive. I would think it is obviously in the best interests of baseball to have the story of the Negro Leagues endure."
Only a few major league players have taken an interest.
"So many athletes -- they have no sense of things that happened before they were born, which is astonishing," Moores said. "You'd think these guys would be all over the history of their game, because baseball is so rich in history. But they aren't. It's sad to say. But I think it's true."
But as the museum's success grows, Moores said, so should its collection of artifacts.
"Guys like me die off," he said. "They have something and they want to make sure that it's taken care of. My guess is that if the Kansas City hall stays the course, stuff will roll in."
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