On April 26, 1925, Alton’s own Rip Van Winkles baseball team played a game at Sportsmans Park against Negro National League team, the St. Louis Stars (originally the St. Louis Giants).
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Sportsmans Park was built in the early 1900s on the north side of Broadway, where the Alton Plaza Shopping Center now stands. (An earlier Sportsmans Park was built in the 1880s on the south side of Broadway, but the land was sold to Illinois Glass Works around 1906.) The Rip Van Winkles was a social club for married people in Alton, and they often threw dancing parties.
The St. Louis Stars planned to bring an impressive lineup: John Reese in center, Wilson Redus at shortstop, Candy Jim Taylor at third, Percy Miller at first, Sam Bennett as catcher, and George Brown, Deacon Myers, and possibly George Womack (listed in the Alton Evening Telegraph as Warmack) as pitchers. Cool Papa Bell was on the 1925 St. Louis Stars roster but is not listed as one of the players at the game against the Rip Van Winkles. Admission to the game cost 50 cents. The St. Louis Stars won 13-1. The Stars came back to play against the Rip Van Winkles again in May and against the Alton Buicks in June. They won every game.
While it is a fun story that Cool Papa Bell probably played at Sportsmans Park in Alton, the racism and segregation in sports that led to the St. Louis Stars (and other National Negro League teams) playing baseball against local club teams instead of other professional baseball teams is a tough reality of 1920s America. The National Baseball Hall of Fame has an incredibly helpful timeline of segregation and integration from 1865 to the present on their website:https://baseballhall.org/civilrights
In 2020, Major League Baseball took a very big step to acknowledge racism in the sport’s history by formally designating more than 3,400 players from Negro leagues that operated between 1920 and 1948 as major league players and updating the rankings and statistics accordingly. Players from the St. Louis Giants and St. Louis Stars now have the recognition they have always deserved.
Sources
“1925 St. Louis Stars.” Agate Type Research LLC, 2011-2023.https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/team.php?yearID=1925&teamID=SLS
“Alton Buicks Make Debut Against Stars.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), June 4, 1925.
Beckman, L.H. “St. Louis Stars. World's Champions National Negro League World Series.” Missouri Historical Society. Identifier: N22514https://mohistory.org/collections/item/N22514
“Buicks Beaten by Negro Club in Close Game.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), June 8, 1925.
“Buicks to Meet St. Louis Stars Here Tomorrow.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), June 6, 1925.
“The History of Baseball and Civil Rights in America.” National Baseball Hall of Fame, 2024.https://baseballhall.org/civilrights
Kepner, Tyler. “Baseball Rights a Wrong by Adding Negro Leagues to Official Records.” The New York Times, December 16, 2020.https://web.archive.org/web/20250305170457/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/16/sports/baseball/mlb-negro-leagues.html
“Rips Beaten by St. Louis Stars.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), April 27, 1925.
“Rips to Battle St. Louis Stars Here on Sunday.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), April 23, 1925.
“Rips to Play Stars, Sunday.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), May 15, 1925.
Rogers, Ann. “History of St. Louis' Negro Leagues Stars.” Published January 5, 2021. MLB Advanced Media, LP., 2025.https://www.mlb.com/news/st-louis-cardinals-negro-leagues-history
“St. Louis Stars Again Win from Rip Van Winkles.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), May 18, 1925.
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