America’s baseball population was first introduced to a young Ralph Garr when he appeared in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” section of its June 26, 1967 issue. The national recognition capped a brilliant senior season at Grambling College in…
Author: Jay Sokol
Jay Sokol is the founder of Black College Nines in 2009. Longtime researcher of college baseball and former general manager and lead recruiter of the Delaware (Ohio) Cows of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League – a summer collegiate wooden bat pro prospect developmental league. Previously Sokol served as the volunteer sports information director for baseball at Ohio Dominican College (now Ohio Dominican University) in the mid-1990s. He is a member of the National College Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) and a founding member of the HBCU-Pro Sports Media Association (HBCU-PSMA).
Condredge Holloway of Tennessee – Vols’ First Black Ballplayer
Condredge Holloway was known as the “Artful Dodger” in college at the University of Tennessee, but he’s one Dodger who chose a career in professional football instead of baseball. A man who has earned more than his share of…
Charles Thomas of Ohio Wesleyan University – Inspiration to Branch Rickey
The plight of Charles Thomas, Ohio Wesleyan University’s baseball and football star of the early 1900s is well documented. His story is known not only in the local Delaware, Ohio community, but nationally as well. Thomas, the lone black ballplayer…