Blog: City Blog

Remembering Knoxville's Pioneering Black Baseball Players

Check out this video, in which Beck Cultural Exchange Center President Renee Kesler talks about the amazing 1920 Knoxville Giants, an inaugural Negro League team that won the first league championship in Atlanta:

The Giants ballplayers of the 1920s and '30s were certainly memorable - and so were their great nicknames.

Southpaw Knoxville Giants hurler Walter Claude "Steel Arm" Dickey threw with such velocity, he was virtually unhittable.

Few catchers could handle his heat or his curve ball. He backed up his skill with swagger. Once, he reportedly directed his whole team to leave the field and go into the dugout - and then, with no fielders to back him up, he struck out three batters in a row.

Walter Claude "Steel Arm" Dickey, courtesy of Beck Cultural Exchange Center

Walter Claude "Steel Arm" Dickey
Photo courtesy of Beck Cultural Exchange Center

Rivaling Dickey for best nickname was another Negro League star in Knoxville in the 1920s - Forrest "One-Wing" Maddox.

Maddox, who played and pitched at Morehouse College and later taught as a professor there, had lost his arm in a boyhood accident. As an outfielder, he would catch a ball with his gloved hand, toss it into the air, remove the glove, then grab the ball again and throw it back to the infield - all in one quick fluid motion.

Forrest "One-Wing" Maddox, courtesy of Beck Cultural Exchange Center

Forrest "One-Wing" Maddox, courtesy of Beck Cultural Exchange Center

Forrest "One-Wing" Maddox
Photo courtesy of Beck Cultural Exchange Center

The Knoxville Giants and their fans "loved the game," Kesler says. "It was so wonderful, because people came out to see the game. And actually, there were many people who crossed those color barrier lines because that was how exciting baseball was, to see these extraordinary Black players."

With a new multi-use publicly-owned stadium coming to East Knoxville, history lovers like Kesler say it's a unique opportunity to share the stories of the Giants ballplayers.

It's also a chance to talk about the experiences of the Knoxville African-American families and business owners who had lived and worked in the area where the stadium is being built - an area near First Creek that had been known as "The Bottom." Five decades ago, the Riverfront-Willow Street Urban Renewal Project decimated that part of Knoxville's Black community.

Kesler is pleased that the public and private partners who are creating new public venues around the stadium will be paying tribute to the local African-American community and culture.

"On the exact spot where the stadium and all this development are going to be is that location, the center heart of 'The Bottom,'" she says.

She envisions a trip to a ballgame to also be a cultural celebration.

"You can go down to 'The Bottom,' see monuments and markers," Kesler says. "As we enjoy our baseball team, we also will enjoy our rich history and the legacy of not only Negro League baseball but also of that community."

Knoxville Giants, 1935, courtesy of Beck Cultural Exchange Center

Knoxville Giants, 1935, courtesy of Beck Cultural Exchange Center

Knoxville Giants, circa 1935
Photo courtesy of Beck Cultural Exchange Center

Posted by evreeland On 25 February, 2022 at 2:18 PM