Feb. 27, 2006
Cumberland Posey, Duquesne's first recorded black athlete who later went on to become a player and principal owner of the Homestead Grays, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame today.
Posey, who led the Dukes basketball team in scoring for three seasons from 1916-18 under the name of Charles Cumbert, was one of 17 candidates elected from of pool of 30 Negro League greats.
The 17 electees will be honored in Cooperstown, New York, during Induction Ceremonies on July 30, joining Bruce Sutter, the lone electee from the Baseball Writers' Association of America election announcement in January.
The electees will join 18 Hall of Famers from the Negro leagues already enshrined in Cooperstown: Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston, Ray Dandridge, Leon Day, Martin Dihigo, Bill Foster, Rube Foster, Josh Gibson, Monte Irvin, Judy Johnson, Buck Leonard, Pop Lloyd, Satchel Paige, Joe Rogan, Hilton Smith, Turkey Stearnes, Willie Wells and Smokey Joe Williams.
Prior to making a name for himself in baseball Posey, along with Harvard grad Edwin Henderson, is considered to have been instrumental in introducing basketball to the black community in the early 1900s.
The enterprising Posey formed the Monticello Rifles - one of the first great black barnstorming basketball teams. The Rifles, under Posey, absorbed all of Pittsburgh's best black fives to form the Loendi Big Five, a team that became a dynasty by winning four straight Colored Basketball World Championships between 1920 and 1923.
Here is Posey's bio from the National Baseball Hall of Fame website:
Born: June 20, 1890, in Homestand, Pa.
Died: March 28, 1946, in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Cum Posey, the principal owner of the Homestead Grays, spent 35 years (1911-1946) in baseball as a player, manager, owner and club official before succumbing to cancer. He built a strong barnstorming circuit that made the Grays a perennially powerful and profitable team, one of the best in the East.
After starring in basketball in college, Posey began playing baseball for the semi-pro Grays in 1911. He soon ended his playing career to become field and business manager. He took control of the Grays in 1920 and turned them into a highly successful regional enterprise as an independent team. The Grays' strong identity in Pennsylvania and surrounding states enabled them to survive the depths of the Great Depression.
Posey, an aggressive talent seeker with the Grays, at one time or another had 11 of the 18 current Negro leagues Hall of Famers playing for him. He was often accused of raiding other clubs' rosters, enticing their best players to join his team. He suffered a heavy dose of the same in the early 1930s when he lost several stars to the well-financed Pittsburgh Crawfords. The Grays rebounded and became a member of the second Negro National League in 1935, soon dominating the circuit. Posey's teams reeled in nine consecutive pennants form 1937-1945.
Posey unwisely attempted to start the East-West League in 1932 during the Depression, but it did not last the season. He later became an officer of the Negro National League, and was a major force at its meetings throughout the rest of his career. He also was a frequent critic of the league, both before and after joining it, in his regular sports columns for the Pittsburgh Courier, a leading black weekly newspaper.
Courier sportswriter Wendell Smith once wrote of Posey: "Some may say he crushed the weak as well as the strong on the way to the top of the ladder. But no matter what his critics say, they cannot deny that he was the smartest man in Negro baseball and certainly the most successful."
Authored by Jim Overmyer
