Lexington Hustlers Baseball Team

The Negro League Baseball team, the Lexington Hustlers, was formed in 1947. Prior to that there had been an earlier Lexington Hustlers baseball team since at least 1911; the officers of that earlier club were Harvey Rhodes, president; William Madison, secretary; Samford Turner, manager; and Henry Jones, field manager [source: "Colored Notes," Leader, 02/26/1911, p. 6]. Newspaper articles about the older team can be found in the Leader from 1911-1950s. Shelby Lee Moxley was a pitcher on the older team and a coach for the newer team. The newer team played against other Negro League teams that had such players as Hank Aaron, Satchel Paige, and Josh Gibson. Coach John W. "Scoop" Brown added player Bobby Flynn to the team in 1947; Flynn was white but had been rejected by the white teams because he was small. By 1949, white players made up one third of the Lexington Hustlers, the first integrated baseball team in the South. The team integrated the same year that Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball. Bobby Flynnm who later become a Kentucky Senator, is the father of former Major League Baseball player Doug Flynn. For more see "Hustlers Tip Caps to Past," Lexington Herald-Leader, June 17, 2010, pp. A1-A2.