Negro League Baseball Executive. Originally a domestic servant and post office clerk, he became a scorekeeper for the amateur Hilldale club in 1910, and eventually took control of the club from Austin Thompson. He transformed the club into a professional team, which eventually joined the Eastern Colored League, a league he helped found, in 1923. Hilldale won three straight league championships from 1923 to 1925. After spending a few seasons away from baseball, Bolden formed the Philadelphia Stars, and helped the club win the 1934 Negro National League Championship. Bolden was known for his tireless marketing efforts, and proudly boasted that his clubs were black-owned. He also preached "gentlemanly behavior" and demanded that his players and fans respected everyone in the ballpark. By the 1940s, Bolden helped set a precedent that Negro league clubs were fairly compensated for players that left to join the Major Leagues. He died in 1950, and was considered for election into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005, but was not among the seventeen members elected in 2006.
Negro League Baseball Executive. Originally a domestic servant and post office clerk, he became a scorekeeper for the amateur Hilldale club in 1910, and eventually took control of the club from Austin Thompson. He transformed the club into a professional team, which eventually joined the Eastern Colored League, a league he helped found, in 1923. Hilldale won three straight league championships from 1923 to 1925. After spending a few seasons away from baseball, Bolden formed the Philadelphia Stars, and helped the club win the 1934 Negro National League Championship. Bolden was known for his tireless marketing efforts, and proudly boasted that his clubs were black-owned. He also preached "gentlemanly behavior" and demanded that his players and fans respected everyone in the ballpark. By the 1940s, Bolden helped set a precedent that Negro league clubs were fairly compensated for players that left to join the Major Leagues. He died in 1950, and was considered for election into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005, but was not among the seventeen members elected in 2006.
Bio by: Adam Penale
Advertisement
See more Bolden memorials in:
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
