St. Paul Coloured Gophers Negro League - Full Button Front Jersey
Pay homage to the stars of the Negro League with this stunning St. Paul Coloured Gophers Full Button Front jersey from Headgear Classics. It features classic jersey construction with a rounded droptail hem. Vintage tackle-twill St. Paul Coloured Gophers logos offer a throwback-inspired jersey that showcases the rich and inspirational history of the Negro League.
July 10, the St. Paul Coloured Gophers of 1907 are celebrated. They were a small club of Black baseball players formed in St. Paul, MN, 40 years before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's colour barrier. The team was the brainchild of black businessman Phillip 'Daddy' Reid. Awareness about the history of Negro League Baseball and its legacy to the game has increased recently, but little is known about some of the teams around before the league formed in 1920. The St. Paul Coloured Gophers were part of the league's growth, as it sought to find suitable venues to play and determine which ones were effective and which were not. They chose cities where they could make money or where the players would want to live; Chicago proved successful, while St. Paul didn't. The St. Paul Coloured Gophers lasted only four years, as the market in St. Paul was too small to sustain them. Like other barnstorming teams of the time, however, they had a considerable impact on the desegregation of baseball. In 1909, the Coloured Gophers defeated what was considered to be the most powerful Negro baseball team, the Leland Giants. The Coloured Gophers are rarely mentioned in Negro baseball history, and statistics and rosters are hard to find. On occasion, the Minnesota Twins have honoured them by wearing replica throwback jerseys of the 1909 team.