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Date
4-18-2024
Abstract
John W. Jackson, better known as Bud Fowler (1858–1913), was a Black baseball player, captain, manager, umpire, organizer, and promoter. He was also a barber, playwright, and song writer. His baseball career spanned at least 33 years, from 1877 to 1909. In 1878, Fowler became the first known Black baseball player in the major or minor leagues, and he went on to play for a total of 20 minor league clubs and numerous other teams with rosters composed predominantly of white ballplayers during the era of racial segregation. He played for teams from New England to southern California and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Consequently, he was the most widely known Black baseball player in the country during his lifetime. In 2022, Fowler was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. This monograph expands on earlier studies of Fowler’s life outside his performance on the diamond, including topics such as playing for multiple teams each year, confronting racism, occupations other than baseball, financial challenges, and the impacts of his baseball career on others.
Keywords
John W. Fowler, Bud Fowler, baseball history, integrated baseball, segregated baseball.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
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© The Author(s)
Recommended Citation
Eberle, Mark E., "Bud Fowler Beyond the Box Score" (2024). Monographs. 41.
DOI: 10.58809/FMIA7843
Available at:
https://scholars.fhsu.edu/all_monographs/41
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