Sherman L. Jenkins - Ted Strong Jr.: The Untold Story of an Original Harlem Globetrotter and Negro Leagues All-Star

Ted Strong Jr.

Ted Strong Jr.

The Untold Story of an Original Harlem Globetrotter and Negro Leagues All-Star

Sherman L. Jenkins

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

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Copyright 2016 by Sherman L. Jenkins

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Jenkins, Sherman L., 1956

Title: Ted Strong Jr. : the untold story of an original Harlem Globetrotter and Negro Leagues All-Star / Sherman L. Jenkins.

Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016013400 (print) | LCCN 2016024554 (ebook) | ISBN 9781442267275 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781442267282 (electronic)

Subjects: LCSH: Strong, Jr., Ted, 19171978. | Basketball playersUnited StatesBiography. | Harlem GlobetrottersHistory. | Baseball playersUnited StatesBiography. | Negro leaguesHistory.

Classification: LCC GV884.S78 J46 2016 (print) | LCC GV884.S78 (ebook) | DDC 796.323092 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016013400

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Preface

Find the good and praise it.

From the grave marker of Alex Haley in Henning, Tennessee

E nglewood High School on the South Side of Chicago on a cold, early November afternoon in 1973: I was a junior looking forward to killing some time before track practice began at five oclock. I moseyed up to the library on the third floor of the ancient Chicago public school building to review some notes for a pop quiz scheduled in my history class the next day. On my way to the main study room, I met a fellow classmate who was leaving and I noticed to my left a group of guys huddled around a seated student.

I asked my classmate what was going on, and he whispered that Cardell Strong had a book about Negro Leagues baseball and he was showing them that his father and brothers were listed. Cardell and I were neighborhood buddies, and his braggadocio attitude was well known.

Curious, I made my way to the group.

See, heres my brother, Ted, Cardell said in an excitedly low tone. I told you, he added as he pointed to the book he had opened on the library table. You thought I was lying, didnt ya? he challenged.

As I stepped around the five boys, straining to see what Cardell was pointing to, he spotted me and motioned me to come closer.

Come here, Sherm. You need to see this, too, he declared. Cardell was an Englewood High School senior, several years older than I. We were from the same Woodlawn neighborhood and knew each other well.

Man, what are you talking about now? I said.

I am showing these guys that my father and brothers played baseball in the old Negro Leagues, he explained.

What?! Yeah, right, I scoffed.

I moved closer, and Cardell closed the book to show me the title on the cover: Only the Ball Was White by Robert Peterson. He reopened it to the page he was showing to the other boys:

STRONG, OTHELLO1950p, Chicago American Giants

STRONG, T. R. (TED)193748of, inf, mgr, Indianapolis Athletics, Indianapolis ABCs, Kansas City Monarchs, Indianapolis Clowns

See, right here, Strong, he stated and stabbed at the names with his finger. Ted Strong and Othello Strong are my brothers. My dad played too, but they dont have him in here.

I wondered and thought: Whats the Negro Baseball Leagues? It must have been something special to have a book written about it. Well, as I learned much later, the league at one time was an important element in the African American community, and Cardells brothers and father were part of the leagues history. I also discovered what Negro Leagues historians like Robert Peterson showed in his book: Cardells older brother Ted and their father were often blended as one player because of the closeness of their names. As you read this book, you will see what I mean.

You see, all you guys thought I was blowing smoke, Cardell exclaimed. I dont need to make it up. Its right here in black and white. That is why I am such an outstanding athlete.

Okay, Ive heard enough, one of the boys said with a smile.

The bell sounded for the final period of the day.

I realized that I needed to head for track practice. I hadnt noticed how the time had slipped by. Little did I know that this brief episode in my life would revisit me years later in a totally different way.

While taking a summer class in 1977, I was a junior majoring in news/editorial journalism at Northern Illinois University (NIU) in DeKalb. Two weeks into my required Article Writing course, we were given the task of writing a feature story and pitching it to area newspapers to see if we could get it published. I wanted a unique idea for a feature story. As was typical for many NIU students who were from Chicago, I boarded a Greyhound bus and made the sixty-five-mile trek from DeKalb to Woodlawn on Chicagos South Side to spend the weekend at home. I met the fellas and hung out. Cardell Strong and his younger brothers, Bredell and Odell, were with us. I looked at Cardell and immediately knew that I had the subject of my feature article.

Cardell, remember when you showed us that book with the names of your brothers playing in the old Negro Leagues? I asked.

Uh-huh, he replied.

You think your old man would let me do an article on him?

I dont know. You can ask him.

The next day I called Mr. Strong, explained what I was doing, and asked if he would allow me to interview him.

Surrrre, he replied in his soft, elderly voice.

When I set up our first meeting for the following weekend, I never fathomed that, in addition to the resulting article that I wrote about him for an August 1977 edition of the Chicago Defender newspaper, I would also write about his eldest son, Ted Jr. I didnt know about Ted Jr. When Strong Sr. suggested that I write about Ted Jr., I looked at him puzzled, to which Strong Sr. chuckled and explained that Ted Jr. was the oldest child from his first marriage. I knew only of his children like Cardell, Bredell, and others, whose first names ended in dell, with whom I grew up in the neighborhood. As I conducted my research for this book, the more I learned about the younger son Othello. Strong Sr. mentioned him playing in the Negro Leagues, but not as passionately. I learned that Ode, as Othello was fondly called by childhood friends, learned to play sports from Strong Sr. and briefly became a standout pitcher/player in the Negro Leagues and ManDak Leagues in Canada.

On top of that, who could have known that life would happen to me and that thirty-six years later I would write this book about Strong Sr.s eldest son, who lived an amazing life during the most tumultuous period in African American history?