Living HBCU Baseball History with the Legends – Earl Sanders of Jackson State University

Earl Sanders is part of Jackson State baseball royalty.

And in a few months, he’ll be celebrated nationally as a College Baseball Hall of Fame inductee after the Black College Legends and Pioneers Committee voted Mr. Sanders into the 2026 class.

“I’m still in disbelief,” he said.

That’s probably how a lot of opponents felt when meeting Mr. Sanders on the diamond during his Jackson State years from 1984-86. A two-way force for Head Coach Robert Braddy’s Tigers, Mr. Sanders went from a freshman ready to quit the team to a first-round draft pick. In between, he helped bring Jackson State baseball to the top of the SWAC.

In his sophomore and junior seasons, he batted a combined .417 with 30 home runs, 30 doubles and 122 RBI in 94 games. On the mound those seasons, he posted a 19-3 record with 13 complete games and 173 strikeouts in 166 innings. After an All-American season in 1986 when he led Jackson State to the SWAC Tournament championship, Mr. Sanders was drafted in the first round by the Toronto Blue Jays, primarily as a pitcher.

A shoulder injury derailed his professional career after seven seasons in the minor leagues, but he has found a home at Tougaloo College where he helped re-establish the Bulldogs baseball program.

In between his team’s fall workouts, Mr. Sanders took time to visit with Black College Nines writer Douglas Malan and talk about his journey starting from his hometown of Moss Point, Mississippi.

What was it like growing up in Moss Point? I noticed a good amount of professional athletes have come out of there.

It was a hotbed of football and basketball. Just a small community. The community always supported me. Back then, all the kids would be out in our yards playing football, basketball and any type of sport. That’s just what we did. When we got older, we realized there was a league we could play in. And that’s how it got started. The leagues were still segregated back in the ‘70s.

It was one of those things where we picked up the newspaper and we found out about the white kids’ baseball league. We were 9 years old, so we don’t know. We actually walked down to the field where they were doing the registration. I’ll never forget it. We went to sign up for baseball and the guy told us, “Well, this league isn’t for you all. Your league is on the other side of the track.” It didn’t affect us until we went home and started talking to my Mom (Franzetta Sanders). She said, “They told you what?”

If you ever met my Mom back in the day, she’s a soldier. She was very active with the NAACP. We were just trying to be part of a community. My Dad (Earl Sanders Sr.) really didn’t say a lot. My Mom said “no” and she marched us right back up there. The rest is history. Me and my little brother (Rodney) were the first black kids to play in that league.

Then my friends matriculated in there. It was a lot of fun. At the time we didn’t know the significance of what we did. It just kind of changed the culture. Moss Point American League had some really good ballplayers who played through it all the way up to 17 and 18 years old. Every summer we played every day. We’d have a game at the field or go to each other’s neighborhoods. It was just a year-round thing for us.

I always have to include my baby brother. Most of the white kids who had brothers, they put them on the same team. What they did when we had tryouts, none of the coaches wanted to draft us. Mr. Cluff, my first coach, he drafted me and I guess the other coaches decided they weren’t going to let him get both of us. Another coach drafted my brother. Coach Cluff gave me the opportunity to play, but the team that drafted my little brother, he never played. The game wasn’t as fun for him as it was for me. Even to this day when I talk to him, I say it was unfair. And he’ll say, “What are you worried about? I didn’t want to play. Mom told me she wasn’t gonna have one of us up here and not the other.” He always supported me.

If I had been drafted to another team and Rodney went to Coach Cluff, you might be talking to him instead of talking to me. I just got drafted by the right coach and was able to continue to grow.

Were you playing with and against the same group of guys up through high school?

A year before I went to high school, I was playing against all these guys who were gonna be at Moss Poss. I’ll never forget the summer before my 10th grade year. I remember those guys already on the varsity team. They told me I wasn’t going to play much once I got to high school. I was just playing because it was fun. I said I was going out for the team and see what happens. Sure enough, I make the team as a sophomore and started as a sophomore. There were some guys from the team who really didn’t like that. I just loved the game so it didn’t matter what other people said. And that’s the thought process I’ve always had when it comes to the game of baseball.

When did you start to think you could really do something with baseball?

I always thought I’m the biggest guy out here so that’s probably why I’m having this success. I never took myself that seriously.

It takes my brother to tell this story. But I had just gotten my driver’s license and there was a tryout in Biloxi for the Cincinnati Reds. My Mom was telling us at the time not to get into that car and things like that. But, of course, they’re at work. And I dragged my baby brother everywhere, so I said let’s go to this tryout. We go to the tryout in Biloxi and you’ve got all these college guys. Everybody has to throw, run, hit and all this. They started sending the college guys away and there were four ballplayers left. The scouts started asking us where do we go to college. So they got to me and I said, “Well, I’m in 10th grade in high school.” (laughing) They said I may really have some opportunities, and that woke me up a little bit.

We thought that was the greatest thing. The scout gave me his card and said he’d see me in a couple of years. So we get home and park the vehicle. Mom gets home and then the news comes on saying, “The Cincinnati Reds held a tryout in Biloxi…” (laughing) She found out. We laugh about that all the time. But that’s really when I thought maybe this is a possibility, maybe I’d get drafted out of high school. And I had a pretty good high school career, but I didn’t get drafted. And that was ok. Had the Cincinnati Reds not put that in my brain, I never would’ve thought that was a possibility.

Were colleges contacting you soon after that?

By senior year, I had quite a few offers – San Diego State, Tulane and a couple of other schools. But when my Mom met Coach Braddy of Jackson State, it didn’t matter who else wanted me. She said, “No, you’re going to Jackson State.” She thought I’d relate to him better because I was going off to play ball and we’re still dealing with black and white issues. That’s how I ended up at Jackson State.

Jackson State wasn’t even on my radar, even though my two oldest brothers (Jerome Gladney and Henry Sanders) went there. Neither one of them were athletes. They were students. My brother talked to Coach Braddy, which I didn’t realize, and he told Coach Braddy he had a brother who could maybe play. And Coach Braddy said, “Everybody says their brother can play.” So Coach Braddy saw me play, but he wasn’t there to see me play. And that’s how I ended up at Jackson State.

What were you thinking as you were going to Jackson State as a freshman?

I never thought past the here and now. When I got there, the first thing I noticed was, of course, it’s a historically black college so everybody looked like me. I had never been on a team where that much talent looked like me. I thought, wow, this is amazing. I found out the Jackson State baseball program was one of the top NAIA programs and they had just gone to Division I. I think they had nine players drafted in 1983, the year before I got there. I quickly learned about the history of Jackson State baseball.

Did you feel like you could compete immediately?

I realized I could compete, but it was the level of mental preparation, the consistency of it, the grind of college baseball. And you’re on a team where there’s so much talent. You’re having to compete every day. I was holding my own as a freshman. It was a learning curve, of course, but I had some teammates that were really good and I just watched their work ethics. I wasn’t at that level mentally.

I almost quit that first semester. I had never gone through a regimen like that. Coach Braddy signed me as a pitcher because I threw 90 mph. I got there for fall practice and we ran like it was cross country. And I thought, what is this? Every day. Every day. The pitching coach, Scipio Spinks, had his thing. He’s from Chicago. He’s gruff. And I’m struggling. I can’t run. I’m throwing up. And I’m like, I don’t even want this. I went to Coach Braddy and told him I don’t think I’m gonna play anymore. And he said, “What are you talking about?” I told him I don’t want to pitch, I want to hit. And he looked at me and said, “If you can prove to me you can hit college pitching, I’ll consider it.” So he started letting me take BP and swinging with position guys. And he said, “You still gotta pitch, though.” I’m trying to get away from that! (laughing)

He came up with a plan where I just split time with the pitchers and split time with the position players. The toughest thing for me was Scipio thought I should’ve just concentrated on pitching. And I always think about what he used to say to me, “You’ve got a million-dollar arm, but a nickel brain.” I’m just a freshman and I’m thinking, “What is he talking about?”

But I didn’t care. All that running, I just wasn’t prepared. I didn’t understand because I didn’t have to do all that in high school. As the season went on my freshman year, I understood because I would get gassed. I wasn’t in the best shape. But I swung the bat pretty decent. It was challenging but it let me know what I needed to do to prepare for the next year. I had the opportunity to go to the Cape Cod League my freshman year and I found out you had to be selected to play there. I learned so much that year in the Cape from the competition and it elevated my college career to a whole new level.

My sophomore year I think I hit .400, 8-1 on the mound. It was just a transformation. Same thing the following year. I went to the Alaskan League. I came back my junior year and I was light years ahead of what I looked like or felt like as a freshman. You’d see all these scouts in the stands. It was crazy. But it came and went super quick.

What games stood out during your Jackson State years?

I remember we played the University of New Orleans at Jackson State and they were ranked. I pitched against UNO at our place and had 13 punchouts in that game. My junior year we played Nicholls State opening game of the season and I struck out 17. USM came down to play us on campus. We lost the game 3-2, but I hit two solo home runs.

All of the conference games were just dogfights because I was kind of the target guy. I had to be prepared mentally every game. It was weird. The media, the newspaper…it was like an onslaught. It was a heck of a ride. I ran from it as much as I possibly could. I’d see the news media or the sports guy coming, and I’d go the other way. I ran from any opportunity to have to talk to the media.

Was there bad blood in the conference or just good, hard competition?

It was just competitive. We had some really good teams. If you look at that era from the ‘80s to the ‘90s, so many guys made it to the big leagues off of those teams like Grambling and Southern. Week in and week out, you had to hold your own. I remember my freshman year. It was punishment. The nerves would get me because everybody could play. I couldn’t just throw the fastball. I had to learn how to pitch. When I first got there, our biggest rival was Grambling because Grambling had won the conference two years in a row. After that, it became the Jaguars at Southern. Those two teams and then with Alcorn being in the state, they always brought their A games. They were competitive and a lot of fun. I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Did you make time to get involved in anything on campus?

I did not. I couldn’t tell you what was going on on campus. People will get excited about homecoming or talk about the events while we were there. I don’t have any of those memories. I was on the baseball field, in my residence hall. I didn’t mingle like that. I wasn’t an outgoing person. I had my close group of friends who were my teammates.

What lessons did you learn at Jackson State that you pass on to your players at Tougaloo?

When I got drafted out of Jackson State, I was a junior. I didn’t have my degree yet. So what happened when I got hurt, I thought I had played pro ball so I could get a job and coach high school. I realized you need some type of credentials. Even to get a decent job, you need to have a degree. When I started the program at Tougaloo in 1999, all I was thinking about was myself being that age. I was blessed to get this job. I started working here and encouraging kids to get their degree, and I felt like a hypocrite. So I went back to school and got my degree from Jackson State in 2009.

First thing I need to do is make sure these are good students and they want to get a college degree. Then I want them to get involved. That’s why it was ironic when you asked me if I did anything else in college. When I talk to parents and kids, I say I need you to get the full college experience. I need you to understand you’re here to get a degree. And I want you to get involved in clubs, organizations, leadership and Greek letter organizations. I want you to be a well-rounded person.

And I tell them I can’t remember anything about college except baseball. The majority of my friends are baseball guys. I need you guys to have friends from all of the arenas that college has to offer. And then you talk about networking. And I’ve seen in my 20-plus years here that by me being able to provide the avenue for those young men, these guys are doing things in all sectors of life because of being involved in more than just baseball. That’s my sales pitch. I’m not selling the kids or parents on professional baseball. I’m selling them on the opportunity to play college ball and also build relationships and have a career if baseball does not work out for them after their four years at Tougaloo.

I’m thrilled every year to see the rotation of young men coming in and taking advantage of it and then they move on and do wonderful things in life.

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Douglas Malan is a journalist and visual artist living in Connecticut. His works include short stories, poetry and books. Among the books Malan has authored is a history of Muzzy Field in Bristol, Conn., which has hosted icons of the Negro Leagues, Major Leagues and NFL since 1913. Other books include a history of the Georgia-Yale football series from 1923-1934, and a children’s book titled Let’s Go to the Ballpark. He enjoys exploring the intersection of history, sports and sociology through his work with Black College Nines.