The "More Than Likely You Never Heard Of This Fine Athlete!" Story

It was an ordinary day. Reading about a young man named William Clarence Matthews; baseball player extraordinaire.  Ever hear of him?  More than likely not, since I never knew of him until a few days ago...and I love the game of baseball and and have for years.  He played for Harvard University in the early 1900s.  At the time, Harvard had produced three big league players in catcher Jack Robinson (not Jackie Robinson), pitcher Walter Clarkson and second basement Eddie Grant.  Little was known of a guy by the name of William Matthews.  Why?  He was black!  William was born in Sellma, Alabama in 1877 which was at the tail of the Reconstruction Era.  He was raised in Montgomery and from 1893-97 attended Tuskegee Institute where he trained to become a tailor like his late father, William, Sr.  While at Tuskegee he organized a football team and baseball team, which he was captain of, and graduated as the salutatorian of his class.  At the time, Booker T. Washington was the director of the Tuskee Institute who helped Matthews get an opportunity to continue his college preparation at the prestigious Phillips Andover Academy, where Matthews was the only Black student in a class of nearly 100 young men.  

William Clarence Matthews 

Through his baseball, football and track feats, he earned the acceptance of his fellow students who particularly admired his willingness to move from shortstop to catcher to fill a need late in the season while playing through a particularly gruesome thumb injury.  When Andover beat arch-rival Exeter in the best-of-three series, Matthews was hailed as the hero.  His school newspaper wrote of him: "Captain Matthews behind the bat gave an exhibition of sand (meaning grittiness) that would have inspired any team to win."  His school Principal gave him a recommendation and before long was admitted to Harvard where his academic and athletic exploits continued.  During his four years at Harvard he stared for a team that went 75-18; a true testament to his talent.  

At the time there were no minor leagues, but collegiate ranks were much the same at the time.  He was coached in his freshman year by none other than Cy Young and then later by baseball star Willie Keeler.  Harvard produced three stars while Matthews was there; catcher Jack Robinson, pitcher Walter Clarkson and second-baseman Eddie Grant who was Matthew's double-play partner.  Matthews, however, was never granted access to the Major League stage.  Could it have been his size which was 5-foot-8, 145 pounds or the fact that he was...Black!  He wasn't welcomed by the crowds at his games even though he was a top-notch player and conducted himself in a gentlemanly manner.  But, it must be pointed out that the support he received from his teammates was noteworthy.  The team at Harvard, during his senior year, refused to play at Annapolis and Trinity (Duke University) because he wasn't welcomed at these locations.  All of this helped prepare him for what awaited him after he completed his Harvard career and ventured off to the only place where a Black man could find a place to play in a white man's professional league in 1905, the remote baseball bulwark of Burlington, Vermont.  It was on July 4, 1905, that Burlington's Athletic Park awaited their new shortstop.  For weeks his identity had been kept a secret, but on June 28, the Boston Globe revealed that William Clarence Matthews, star of the Harvard squad, was going to play for Burlington which wasn't affiliated with the Major Leagues.  The crowd cheered as he gathered 3 hits in a double-header that Independence Day.  At the time, the league he was playing in was integrated.  But, one of his white teammates was so disgusted by his arrival that he quit the team.  Much was written in newspapers up and down the coast about a Black player joining the league and the fact that it probably was going to break up the league.  That year he hit .314 in his first 13 games.  He had to be moved to the outfield since runners would try to spike him every time they slide into base when he had the ball waiting for them.  Matthews' words were placed in a Vermont newspaper: "I think it is an outrage that colored men are discriminated against in the big leagues.  What a shame it is that black men are barred forever from participating in the national game.  I should think that Americans would rise up in revolt against such a condition." He went on to say more, but it didnt' seem to make much difference.  Affiliated baseball, much like American society, in general, wasn't ready to accept him.  Seems he never was given a chance to play professional baseball and it wasn't until 42 years later that Jackie Robinson made his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers.  The cruel irony in all of this is that Boston, the city where Matthew's baseball feats were so widely reported and celebrated and where he could have made a big impact in professional baseball, wound up as the last major league city to integrate.  I guess affiliated baseball wasn't ready for William Clarence Matthews.  Doesn't matter I guess, since I probably wouldn't have ever read his story recently had it not been for the fact that he was such a great player who was never given a chance to prove just how good he was...or could have been.  His name will never appear in the baseball history books as being the all-time leader in hits...or doubles...or batting average...or whatever.  William Clarence Matthews enrolled in Boston University Law School and passed the bar in 1908.  William Clarence Matthews was athletically and intellectually talented.  He also had to have an incredible mental capacity to be able to put up with all the racism he was subjected to...legal racism to be exact.  Another great Black athlete, William H. Lewis, established a legal practice with William Clarence Matthews and both stayed involved in sports as coaches at the high school level.  In 1912 Matthews was appointed by President William Howard Taft as special assistant to the U.S. District Attorney in Boston.  Mr. Matthews eventually became legal counsel to Marcus Garvey who was the Jamaican-born leader of the Pan-Africanism movement and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.  He also became the leader of, believe it or not, the Republican Party's so-called colored section that generated support in Black communities for Calvin Coolidge in the 1924 Presidential election.  Black voters put him in office back then.  He was then appointed an assistant U.S. Attorney General which was his role when he died from a perforated gastric ulcer at the age of 51 on April 9, 1928.  In "The New York Age", a Black Weekly, his photograph appeared with the heading, "Matty' is Dead".

He was considered "one of the most prominent Negro members of the bar and leaders of the colored race."  I will remember him as one of the best ever baseball players I have read about, even though he never made it to the Big Leagues.  He was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014.  My hope is that those who read my blog will now know a bit more about one of the greatest baseball players of all time.  Remember that name forever when you think baseball...William Clarence Matthews!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Images of William Clarence Matthews throughout his life.