RESEARCH

SOFTBALL

1950 Monowatt
1951 Garelicks
1952 Imperial Knife
1953 Ace Hardware
1954 Ace Hardware
East Providence FOP #1 (B)
1955 Mancini Hardware (A)
Superior Fuels (B)
1956 Mancini Hardware (A)
St. Regis Paper (B)
1957 Coventry Creamery (A)
St. Regis Paper (B)
1958 Ace Hardware (A)
St. Regis Paper (B)
1959 Local 57 Engineers (Major)
General Insulated Wire (A)
Providence Merchants (B)
Greenville Fire Co. (Slow Pitch)
1960 Penn TV
1 Club of Woonsocket (B)
The First & Last Chance Cafe (Slow-Pitch)
*B played in (A) tourney

1950 Riverside Townies
1951 Riverside Townies
1952 Riverside Townies
1953 Conimicut A.A.
1954 Conimicut A.A.
1955 Conimicut A.A.
1956
1957
1958
1959 Conimicut AA
*1960 Conimicut Indians- NE Women's ASA

INDOOR TRACK & FIELD

1903-04 - 1910-11 N/A
1911-12 Technical
1912-13 - 1914-15 N/A
1915-16 Moses Brown
1916-17 N/A
1917-18 Pawtucket East ?YB
1918-19 Pawtucket *
1919-20 Pawtucket Z
1920-21 Pawtucket Z
1921-22 Pawtucket Z
1922-23 Pawtucket Z
1923-24 Pawt East z YB Tech?
1924-25 Pawt East Z YB Com?
1925-26 Commercial ?

OUTDOOR TRACK & FIELD

1899 Hope
1900 Hope
1901 Hope - EP
1902 Hope - EP
1903 Hope
1904 Hope* YB05 X
1905 Tech
1906 X
1907 Hope
1908 Tech
1909 Technical PJ
1910 Tech
1911 Hope* YB12 Z
1912 Hope
1913 Hope
1914 Hope
1915 X
1916 Tech
1917 Cranston
1918 Pawtucket*
1919 Hope
1920 Cranston
1921 Cranston
1922 Cranston
1923 Cranston
1924 East Providence
1925 Hope & Classical
1926 East Providence

CROSS COUNTRY

SEMI-PRO FOOTBALL
COLONIAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

1950 Club 400
1951 City Hall A.C.
1952 Club 400 & Burrillville Mules

Tri-State Football League

1952 Grande Campaign Club

Semi-Pro Teams

Lonsdale Shamrocks
1951 Bristol Colts
1952 Rhode Island Colts
Grande Club
South Providence Barons
Burrillville Mules
Woonsocket Stars
Silver Lake Merchants
Club 400
Charles Street A.A.
S & S

Pawtucket Amateur Football League
Albert J. Lamarre Trophy

1935 Central Falls Somersets
1936 P.A.C.C. Cadets
1937 P.A.C.C. Cadets (A)
Charlies Inc. (B)
1938 Berkeley Mustangs (B)
Central Falls Wildcats (C)
1939 Berkeley Mustangs (A)
Harps A.C. (C)
1940 Berkeley Mustangs (A)
Central Falls Wildcats (B)
Fairlawn Cardinals (C)
1941 Carter's Hats (A)
Monk's Cleaners (B)
?

Rhode Island Amateur Football League

1938 Pawtucket Cosmopolitans & P.A.C.C. Cadets
1939 Hartford Tigers?
1940 Hartford Tigers?
1941 Hartford Tigers?
1942 Cranston Fifth Ward
?

Blackstone Valley Amateur Football League

1930

Inter-State Semi-Pro Football League
Rhode Island Division

1941 Berkeley Mustangs

Rhode Island Independent Amateur Football League

1940

Providence Steam Roller

1950-59 None
1960 New England Professional League
1961 ?
1962 Atlantic Coast Football League
1963 Atlantic Coast Football League
1964 Atlantic Coast Football League
1965 Rhode Island Indians
1966 Rhode Island Steelers

High School State Soccer Champions

1928 Technical
1929 Technical
1930 Technical
1931 Pawtucket
1932 Pawtucket
1933 Pawtucket
1934 Pawtucket
1935 Pawtucket
1936-49 N/A

Amateur Football
1910
1911
1912
1913
1914
1915 Apponaug
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
1921 Brunswick
1922
1923 Edgewood A.A. or East Greenwich A.A. or Chevrons?
1924 Bristol Yellow Jackets
1925 Rumford A.A. or East Greenwich A.A.?
1926 Rumford A.A. or Assumption C.C.?
1927 Nickerson Tigers
1928 Nickerson Tigers
1929 Nickerson Tigers
1930
1931 Natick Sacred Hearts
1932 Natick Sacred Hearts
1933 Natick Sacred Hearts
1934 Natick Sacred Hearts
1935 Providence Pros

The 1916 Brown Bears football team was an American football team that represented Brown University as an independent during the 1916 college football season. In its 15th season under head coach Eddie N. Robinson, Brown compiled an 8–1 record and outscored opponents by a total of 254 to 27.[1] The team played its home games at Andrews Field in Providence, Rhode Island. The team featured star Fritz Pollard. Following their appearance in the Rose Bowl, expectations for the 1916 football season were high. Relying on Pollard’s skill, Brown swept through the first six games of the season, surrendering only 3 points. The Bruins made history that year by defeating both Yale and Harvard — the first team to do so in the same season. He led the school's football team to the Rose Bowl in 1916. Pollard was the first African American to play in the Rose Bowl. He also was only the second African American named as an All-American in football.

1908 Colored Giants
1919 Prov Colored Giants
1921 Cleveland (Gibbons) vs Prov Independents (Cooney, Murphy)
1922 Cleveland vs Gray (Kinsley), Prov Colored AS VS Boston Tigers (Whitehead organized)
1923 Colored AS (Colored NE Champs) vs Prov Independents, Cleveland vs White clubs, Brooklyn Colored Giants (World ColOred Champs) vs Roller vs Colored AS
1924 Brooklyn Colored Giants vs Bristol (Whitehead organized), Dan W Colored AS VS St Matt, Cleveland (Canada, Champs of RI) vs Valley Falls
1925 Royal Colored Giants vs Valley falls, Gibbons death, Prov Colored Giants vs Roller
1926 Boston Royal Colored Giants vs Warren, RI Suburban League (Prov Colored Gaints mgr Dan W), Moanarchs (Daddy, Joe Gomes) vs Annex AC, Phil Colored Giants vs Prov Colored Giants & Crompton
1927 Cleveland (Dan W MGR) VS Wanskuck, Colored Giants, Phil CG vs H OF D
1928 Woon vs Boston Colored Tigers, Cleveland vs Phil
1929 Cleveland Colored Giants (Whitehead) vs Wanskuck AS & nd, Monarchs (Black)vs Compton, PHIL vs BOS (Whitehead "A" Day)
1930 Havana Red Sox, Colored Monarchs, Gladstones football (Dixie & Gomes), Whitehead promote orgaized games Phil Colored Giants, Cleveland (Whitehead) vs Woon
1931 Colored Giants (Daddy Black) vs Phil, Colored Monarchs BB, Colored Panthers (Daddy, Davis Bros), Prov Colored Giants (Black, Boston Twilight) vs Cuban House of David vs Black Yankees in Polo Grounds, Whitehead chairman of Emancipation Day Celebration
1932 Dixie Prov colored all-stars, Colored Tigers, Prov Colored Giants (Whitehead, Dixie) vs URI (Gomes & Mathews), Gladstone Colored Giants, House of David (Grover) vs Amateur teams, Irving Brown
1933 Phil Colored Giants, Dixie Prov Colored Giants, Dixie Mathews Colored All-Stars vs Bristol AS
1934 Dixie Royal Colored Giants, Phil 1st time in awhile
1935 Prov Colored Giants, Dixie Prov Colored Giants, Phil Colored Giants, Phil vs Dem City Club
1936 ?

Three men with close ties to Rhode Island participated in the Negro Leagues and distinguished themselves as outstanding athletes. Joseph Gomes, Charles Thomas, and Gideon Spence Applegate successfully competed "in the shadows" of segregation and thrilled loyal fans who appreciated their performance as a distinct form of social and cultural expression. Baseball certainly strengthened community within black neighborhoods, but both fans and players never lost their determination to integrate America's national pastime. Outstanding players like Gomes, Thomas, and Applegate used the power of their abilities to demonstrate that they were second to none and, as such, acted as pioneers in the struggle to desegregate the game and country they honored.

House of David
Benjamin Purnell was a sports enthusiast and encouraged the members of the Israelite Community to play baseball to build physical and spiritual discipline. The team members wore long hair and beards as they played. By the late 1920s, needing more skilled players, the House began hiring professionals, the most notable being Grover Cleveland Alexander, Satchel Paige, and Mordecai Brown. Some professional players grew their beards out to show respect towards the God of Israel, while others wore false beards. They were known for their skill and played against some of the greatest teams in the country. The House of David played against Major League, Minor League, independent and Negro league teams, with all the same spirit of competition and fair play.

Dixie Mathews

Joe Gomes
Joseph "Joe" Gomes from East Providence

Earlier, Gomes

Gideon Applegate
Gideon Spence Applegate made his professional debut at McCoy Stadium as a member of the New York Cuban Giants in 1943 and competed for two full-seasons while still a student attending East Providence High School.

During the 1943 season, he initially played under an assumed name, most likely Spearman, and the following year starred for the New York Black Yankees. Upon completion of his military service, Applegate attended a try-out at McCoy Stadium and joined the Pawtucket Slaters for spring training in 1948. Later, in 1949, he joined the Kingston, Ontario team, a farm club for the Boston Braves, where he became the first African-American player in the Braves organization. Applegate played for the Kingston Ponies in 1949 and 1950 in the Canadian Border League before winding up with Waterloo in 1951. The following season he helped the Superior Blues, a Chicago white Sox farm club, capture a league championship by pitching two no-hitters against rival teams in Sioux Falls and St Could. During his minor league years, he was selected to play in three all-star games. He played semi-professionally for the state's premiere black club, the Invaders where he again competed against the best talent in the Negro Leagues with games against the New York Black Yankees and Philadelphia Stars.

The Invaders
In 1945, the best non-white ballplayers in Providence formed the Invaders Baseball Club and quickly became New England's most successful African American semi-professional team. These players competed against prominent regional clubs, both black and white, including the powerful Boston Colored Giants. The Invaders also hosted hard-hitting barnstorming clubs like the Philadelphia All-Stars and Washington Pilots with rosters that listed mostly professional Negro League players.

Circle A.C. and Charles Butler As legend goes, Duarte told his ballplayers that the name of their club would be the Circle A.C. because nothing is more perfect than a circle that's what he expected from his players. The team won the amateur championship by defeating the highly favored Tutelo's club on a two out, two-run double in the bottom of ninth which scored the tying and winning runs by pinch hitter Charles Harris. The local press reported that "the idea of mixing races in the big leagues was quite a problem to the club owners but to Biffo it seems to be routine. He has managed to secure the better ballplayers of both races and not once has there been any inkling of misunderstanding among players or managers."

Ralph "Tilly" Davis
Ralph graduated from East Providence High School in 1934. Along with his two older brothers Dexter (Class of '28) and Maynard (Class of '30), and younger brother Clinton (Class of '39), the gifted foursome excelled in varsity sports and were heralded statewide.   At the time of the Letterman's honoring event, The Providence Journal Bulletin further spread the news of the Davis Brothers' extraordinary athletic achievements and artfully captured the foursome in a character portrait penned by the newspaper's acclaimed illustrator, Frank Lanning.  Ralph achieved interscholastic all-state honors in baseball for both his junior and senior years and captained the East Providence Townies to an undefeated season in 1933.  Ralph "Tilly" Davis owns a significant piece of Rhode Island baseball history. In 1933, as a member of the East Providence Belmonts, he helped integrate the Pawtucket Twilight League as a smooth fielding first baseman. Ralph also hit .360 that year, and it became apparent that he would soon advance to the highly competitive Pawtucket Inter City League. As expected, Ralph became the first player of African American descent to play in the Inter City League as a member of the semi-professional East Providence Townies. During this period, "Tilly, divided his playing time between the Inter City League and several African American independent teams including the Dixie Matthews Athletics, The Douglass Athletic Club, and the Providence Colored Giants, and the Royal Colored Giants. He earned inclusion on the Boston Chronicle's African American All-Star team for 1933, 1934, and 1935.

Circle A.C. and Charles Butler As legend goes, Duarte told his ballplayers that the name of their club would be the Circle A.C. because nothing is more perfect than a circle that's what he expected from his players. The team won the amateur championship by defeating the highly favored Tutelo's club on a two out, two-run double in the bottom of ninth which scored the tying and winning runs by pinch hitter Charles Harris. The local press reported that "the idea of mixing races in the big leagues was quite a problem to the club owners but to Biffo it seems to be routine. He has managed to secure the better ballplayers of both races and not once has there been any inkling of misunderstanding among players or managers."

Charles Butler played baseball at Central High School under renowned coach Walter "Pard" Pierce and concurrently starred for his neighborhood team the West Elmwood Raiders. Upon his release in 1946, he resumed his ballplaying career as a hard throwing right-handed pitcher for the city's black semi-professional team, the Invaders. Later, in 1949, he helped the first truly integrated amateur team in the city's history, the Circle Athletic Club, win the Independent Amateur League championship. As the team's premiere pitcher, he helped lead the team to a 20-2 overall record. Butler, a versatile athlete played the outfield when not on the mound. In 1951, he joined a very select group of athletes, both black and white, to represent the state in the National Baseball Congress world Championship in Wichita Kansas.

Carter "Speed" Braxton and John Braxton brothers reunited one last time when both participated as members of the famous Circle Athletic Club, the first integrated team in Rhode Island's legendary Tim O'Neil League. With Carter playing second and John at short, the brothers helped the Circle Club win the League's championship title in 1949. John gained recognition for his bat and Carter for his speed.

But this follow-up article is about my close friend, pioneer and very gifted athlete, Charles Butler, who just passed away this past March at age 94. Charlie was one of the Black ballplayers and one of the stars who played for the Circle Athletic Club or the Circle "O" team as it was called back in the summer of 1949. It was one of the most celebrated and historic amateur teams, conquering all its divisional opponents in the Independent National League and then beating the American League for the Amateur Championship. In essence, the Circle "O" players made history as the first truly "integrated" team in Providence's then 48-year history of organized amateur baseball.

The House of David ball club would come to town and wore long hair and beards to show respect towards the God of Israel played against some of the greatest teams in the country. The House began hiring professionals, most notably Grover Cleveland Alexander and Satchel Paige.  Some professional players grew their beards while others wore false beards while playing. The House played the Providence Colored Giants and Philadelphia colored Giants at Kinsley Park

In 1945, the best non-white ballplayers in Providence formed the Invaders Baseball Club and quickly became New England's most successful African American semi-pro team. These players competed against prominent regional clubs, both black and white, including the powerful Boston Colored Giants.