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Baseball and Soul Food at Omaha Rockets Kanteen

June 23, 2017 2 comments

Baseball and Soul Food at Omaha Rockets Kanteen

Story by Leo Adam Biga

Photography by Sarah Lemke

Originally published in Omaha Magazine (http://omahamagazine.com/articles/baseball-and-soul-food/_)

 

When baseball still ruled as the national pastime, Omaha showcased the game’s still prevalent but loosening black-white divide. In 1947, the year Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier, the barnstorming Omaha Rockets began to play. In an era when entire leagues and teams were drawn along racial lines, the all-black Rockets faced both segregated and integrated foes. A few Rockets went on to make history or gain fame. Most faded into obscurity.

Although the Rockets were not formally in the Negro National League, an association of teams made famous by Satchel Paige and Buck O’Neil, the Rockets were an independent semi-pro farm club of the league’s famous Kansas City Monarchs.

The Omaha team even trained with the Monarchs. Three former K.C. players— Horatius Saunders, Mack Massingale, and James “Cool Papa” Bell—variously managed the club.

Donald Curry pays homage to this black baseball history at his Omaha Rockets Kanteen. The soul food eatery inside the Lake Point Building (at 24th and Lake streets) is packed with memorabilia relating to black ballplayers and teams. Dedicated menu items include Octavius Cato’s Jerked Turkey Taco, the Willie Mays Soul Wrap, and Birmingham Black Baron Sweet Potato Pie.

Curry’s Southern Pitch soul food truck features the same concept.

The Omaha native operated similar-themed food businesses in Chicago, where he befriended ex-Negro Leaguers. One, Alvin Spearman, informed him of the Rockets. Curry knew Omaha was a stomping ground for the Monarchs. Learning that the city fielded a black team, which enjoyed close currency with the Monarchs, sweetened the pot and provided his current establishment’s name.

Curry says he’s created “a living memorial” to black owners, managers, and players in admiration of “their fortitude” pursuing professional baseball careers despite lacking the talent or opportunity to play higher-level organized ball. He likes the lessons imparted.

“They didn’t cry or complain about the situation,” he says. “Everyone goes through things, and everyone is denied certain things in life. But if you keep your head up and push forward, you can overcome those obstacles and succeed in what you set your mind to. They created their own leagues and styles of ball. Some of them became pretty well-off for that time.”

The vast majority of black ballplayers, just like their white counterparts, never played for a paycheck, but for love of the game. Whether competing for semi-pro, town or company baseball teams, or fast-pitch softball teams, they lived out their diamond dreams. 

Curry hopes to add Rockets’ materials to “the treasure trove” of signed photographs and other lore displayed at Kanteen. He may name some dishes after Rockets. Curry’s collection includes personal scrapbooks of Pittsburgh Crawfords legend Jimmie Crutchfield.

The team’s owner, Will Calhoun, launched the Rockets after he got the “baseball bug.” He rented out flats at 25th and Lake, which he generously called a hotel. Touring black athletes, denied by other establishments, stayed there. The Tyler, Texas, native and World War II veteran got into the game just as minor and major league strictures lifted and the Negro Leagues declined. Calhoun pressed on anyway, boasting, “I’ve got a little money. I know why so many of these teams failed. They tried to get by on a shoestring and didn’t have anything to offer the public.” He promised to “add a little more show to my Rockets.”

The Omaha World-Herald termed the Rockets his “noble experiment.”

The team made Legion Field in Council Bluffs its home park and barnstormed across Nebraska and into Iowa, South Dakota, Kansas, and Colorado via its own bus. The club even went into Canada and the Pacific Northwest. Its opponents included town teams and other touring teams, such as House of David.

At least one Rocket, Kenny Morris, claimed local ties. The former standout Boys Town athlete played outfield and third base for the Rockets. Mickey Stubblefield, William McCrary, and Eugene Collins all spent time with the Rockets between moves up and down organized baseball. Stubblefield, a journeyman pitcher, became the first black in the Kitty League and among the first blacks in the Nebraska Independent League. He ended his career in McCook, Nebraska, where he raised a family of 10. He later moved to Atlanta, Georgia. In 2011 he returned as Grand Marshal of McCook’s “Heritage Days” festivities.

Dick “Night Train” Lane was a multi-sport star in his native Austin, Texas. He then moved north to live with his mother in Council Bluffs, where a baseball scout signed him to play for the Rockets. He played one year of football at Scottsbluff Junior College in Nebraska. After entering the U.S. Army and excelling on military teams, he signed with the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and went on to a Hall of Fame career.

Teams like the Rockets faded as baseball popularity waned and televised sports cut into attendance. Ever the promoter, Calhoun paired his Rockets with the Minneapolis Clowns in 1950 to try and boost crowds.

The Rockets soon disbanded but Curry celebrates them within larger black athletics history. His Kanteen is now home to Nebraska Black Sports Hall of Fame displays.

His food, culled from family recipes, celebrates African-American cuisine—collard greens, cornbread dressing, red beans and rice, mac and cheese, candied yams—only prepared healthier. Smoked turkey, for example, replaces ham hocks. Olive oil replaces butter.

Curry takes seriously the Kanteen creed: “Enjoy the food, digest the history.”

“We might as well be a museum serving food,” he says.

Visit omaharocketskanteen.com for more information.

This article appears in the July/August issue of Omaha Magazine.

Categories: African-American Culture, Baseball, Don Curry, Food, Negro Leagues Baseball, North Omaha, Omaha Rockets Kanteen, Soul Food, Sports, Writing Tags: , , , , , , ,

Pot Liquor Love: Soul food eatery Omaha Rockets Kanteen conjures Negro Leagues past and pot liquor love menu

November 17, 2016 2 comments

Don Curry banks on his “healthy” version of soul food catching on at his niche Omaha Rockets Kanteen and Southern Pitch food truck. His niche concept is wed to a Negro Leagues baseball passion that permeates his brick and mortar and mobile eateries.  Follow my Pot Liquor Love food blogging at leoadambiga.com and on Facebook at My Inside Stories. And since food and movies are such a good pair, remember to follow my Hot Movie Takes on the same two social media platforms.

©by Leo Adam Biga

Appearing in November 2016 issue of The Reader

Pot Liquor Love:

Good Memories and Good Eats

Soul food eatery conjures Negro Leagues past and pot liquor love menu

IMG_9176.jpg

Omaha Rockets Kanteen in the Lake Point Center at 24th and Lake is a “healthy” soul food eatery with a Negro Leagues Baseball theme and a community empowerment thrust.

The baked, not fried, turkey legs, wings, greens, stuffing, candied yams, smothered chicken and oxtail stew prepared from family recipes come in a wrap option. All of it’s served amidst a casual, memorabilia-filled, stadium-inspired space. Signed photos and paintings depict Negro Leaguers and other black baseball players Kanteen co-owner Don Curry befriended in many cases.

The joint, whose tagline is “Enjoy the food, digest the history,” is named after a barnstorming semi-pro, independent all-black town team, the Omaha Rockets. The club fed players to the Negro American League and played exhibitions against clubs like the Kansas City Monarchs.

Since opening in July, Kanteen’s been championed by city officials and community leaders as a catalyst for more development in this historical African-American business corridor that’s seen better days. Plans call for the area to recapture its arts-entertainment and small business district past.

Curry’s been through the revival thing. His now defunct Negro League Cafe was heralded as a spark for the Brownsville section of Chicago. That restaurant enjoyed a five-year run before he reached an impasse with his landlord and couldn’t find an affordable new space to lease. He took that brick and mortar on wheels with his Southern Pitch food truck. Two fruitful years came to a halt when city officials cracked down on illegal operators and enacted strict rules that stifled legit operations like his own.

The entrepreneur. who did part of his growing up in North Omaha, was twice ready to try his soul food-baseball concept here but each time could not drum up enough support. Finally, he and co-owner Marcus Johnson, an Omaha firefighter and fellow entrepreneur, got it done.

Curry’s justifiably proud of the concept behind his place.

“It’s damn near, I’ve been told, brilliant,” he said. “My target market’s three-fold: history buffs, sports fans and foodies.”

He said even legendary Omaha restaurateur Willy Thiesen has praised his “niche” idea.

Curry harbored his Negro Leagues-themed restaurant fancy several years before launching it in 2004. His interest in the Negro Leagues started while attending Virginia State University. It went to a new level in Chicago, where he worked in the financial industry. During a Negro Leagues tribute night at Comiskey Park he marveled at the rainbow spectrum of fans queuing up for autographs from ex-players.

Inspiration hit.

“If these people are willing to stand in this long line to get their autographs, I thought, why wouldn’t they patronize a restaurant with the same theme.”

Curry saw a moneymaking vehicle for celebrating a rich chapter of African-American history.

“After I got the vision, I had to make sure i was well-versed in the history. I immersed myself in reading and seeing anything I could. I mean, it was the look in their faces in the photographs. They didn’t bitch about nothing. They said, ‘If you’re not going to let us play this game with you, we’re going to learn the game, master it, and compete straight up.’ ”

He said “the economics” struck him as well.

“The Negro Leagues World Series outsold the Major Leagues World Series, and we’re talking about nobody but black folks going to watch baseball. They would dress up to the nines. That alone compels me, especially after befriending a lot of Negro Leaguers and hearing their stories. They told me it beat the hell out of sharecropping. They’d be gone weeks on end but would come home with a pocketful of money and not be in debt.”

Teams often couldn’t find hotels or restaurants to serve them and so stayed at black boarding houses or private black homes where soul food was the going cuisine and pot liquor the savory brew. Kanteen pays homage to it all.

A chance encounter with Negro Leagues legend Buck O’Neil, who loved the idea for the eatery, emboldened Curry, but he was too busy climbing the corporate ladder to take the plunge.

Still, he said, “it kept gnawing at me.”

He said once he opened his Chi-Town cafe it took off as a stop” for ex-sports stars like the late “Mr, Cub,” Ernie Banks.

He’s banking his Omaha Kanteen becomes a destination, too.

“Baseball is a reflection of American society and I believe I have something that brings people together and embraces a piece of our culture people find wonderful. I look at it as being a true melting pot because some of everyone is coming in here.”

He will expand evening hours once he adds live jazz acts and liquor sales. He’s bullish on the area’s potential.

“There’s oil in North Omaha and I’m drilling for it. Why not be the first? It seems like speculation but I know it’s about to happen.”

He knows the area needs more of a critical mass of attractions to stimulate big commerce.

“It’s going to take a lot more people willing to come here and do it. It’s going to take all the vacant lots to be in filled with establishments from Lake to Hamilton.”

He wants his business – he’s already looking to expand in the metro and in Kansas City – to be a beacon of hope and a source of employment for more inner city residents.

“My mantra is to pick people up.”

Avenue Scholars youth will learn the culinary trade there as interns. He wants to give young people positive options that counteract the miseries he saw claim too many friends.

Look for his Southern Pitch food truck to hit the streets this fall.

Visit www.omaharocketskanteen.com.

Categories: African-American, African-American Culture, Don Curry, Food, Negro Leagues Baseball, North Omaha, Omaha, Omaha Rockets Kanteen, Pot Liquor Love, Restaurants, Soul Food, Writing Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum exhibits on display for the College World Series; In bringing the shows to Omaha the Great Plains Black History Museum announces it’s back

May 17, 2012 13 comments

Negro League Baseball MuseumNEGRO LEAGUES BASEBALL MUSEUM

 

 

Black baseball will get its due this spring in Omaha, the home of the College World Series and the Triple AAA Omaha Storm Chasers, when three exhibitions from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo. show here.  The presenting organization bringing the exhibits to town is  Omaha’s own Great Plains Black History Museum, a long troubled institution that’s made a rebound under its new president and board and that with this coup is announcing that it’s back.  If you’re interested in reading more about the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and its late co-founder and goodwill ambassador, Buck O’Neil, you’ll find stories I wrote about each on this blog.  You’ll also find stories on the blog about the Great Plains Black History Museum, the College World Series, and the former CWS home venue, Rosenblatt Stadium.

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum exhibits on display for the College World Series;

In bringing the shows to Omaha the Great Plains Black History Museum announces it’s back

©by Leo Adam Biga

Originally appeared in The Reader (www.thereader.com)

 

Three traveling baseball exhibitions on view in the metro this spring chart a history with local overtones and signals a comeback for a local organization. The exhibits are courtesy of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Omaha’s own Great Plains Black History Museum is presenting the photo shows at family-friendly venues.

The exhibits are happening in the heat of the baseball season, too. The last few weeks of their run coincide with the College World Series.

The history of black baseball is told in Discover Greatness and the life and times of Kansas City Monarchs player-manager Buck O’Neil, who co-founded the Negro Leagues museum and served as its goodwill ambassador, is celebrated in Baseball’s Heart and Soul. Both exhibits show May 20 through June 26 at Conestoga Magnet School, 2115 Burdette Street, in the heart of Omaha’s black community.

Conestoga’s an apt host site as Negro leagues teams barnstormed through North Omaha, sometimes playing exhibitions with the Omaha Rockets, a semi-pro black independent club. The Monarchs and other Negro leagues teams stayed at black boarding and rooming houses in North O, including one operated by Von Trimble’s parents. Trimble says he has fond memories of meeting legends Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, playing catch with them in his yard, riding with them to the ballpark on the team bus, and sometimes sitting in the dugout during games.

Trimble’s expected to share his anecdotes on some future date at Conestoga.

Then, too, the school’s only a few blocks from the black museum’s long closed home, where artifacts from Omaha native and Cooperstown member Bob Gibson, who was offered by the Monarchs, were displayed.

A third exhibit, Times, Teams and Talent, offers an overview of the Negro leagues. It can be seen during eight Omaha Storm Chaser games May 17 through May 24 on the main concourse, behind section 114, at Werner Park, 12356 Ballpark Way in Papillion. That exhibit then moves to The Bullpen at the Omaha Baseball Village, adjacent to TD Ameritrade Park, for the June 15-26 CWS.

 

 

Kansas City Monarchs

Star file photoBuck O’Neil and a bust of Josh Gibson at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

Pittsburgh Crawfords
Intentional about having a strong youth focus, organizers recruited 36 youth ambassadors from 11 area schools, all but one in OPS, to be paid greeters and tour guides at Conestoga. An anonymous donor funded an April 30 motorcoach trip that 22 of the youth made to the Negro Leagues museum in Kansas City, Mo.

“We wanted to give our youth ambassadors some first hand knowledge about the exhibits and the museum,” says Beatty. “We wanted them to understand our level of commitment to them and the fact this is a serious effort  They got to tour the museum, to hear directly from its president, Bob Kendrick, and to receive some training from staff there. As an added bonus they got to meet two players from the latter years of the Negro Leagues.”

As an Omaha Public Schools administrator and product himself (1966 Omaha Central graduate), Jerry Bartee is pleased the district is heavily involved in showcasing the exhibits. He says when Beatty asked him to be the organizing committee’s honorary chair he couldn’t resist because of his own deep connections to baseball: he was scouted by none other than Buck O’Neil and went on to a short career in the minors.

“Obviously I love the game of baseball. I appreciate all the pioneers but particularly the African-American players that paved the way for future generations, including my own,” Bartee says. “Negro Leagues baseball was really a rallying point for black America and brought a sense of pride to the black community.

“The historical value of it all is immeasurable. I am so pleased the Omaha Public Schools is a partner in this endeavor.  What we hope to accomplish with all this is for parents and grandparents to talk about these times with their children and grandchildren.”

Jim Beatty

 

 

Conestoga long ago expressed interest in supporting the museum, so when Beatty asked the school to be a host site, principal David Milan quickly agreed. Milan says the museum serves an “important” function sharing the history of African-Americans in Omaha and beyond. Besides, he says, “the Negro leagues served a great purpose in history and the story needs to be told.”

The exhibits are in Omaha as the result of collaborations the Great Plains Black museum has undertaken with the Negro Leagues museum, OPS  the Mayor’s Office, Douglas County and private enterprise. After a decade of well-publicized struggles the organization has a new board led by Beatty and new life that’s seeing it do programming after years of dormancy.

Beatty and Co. received grant funding and in-kind support from multiple sources to bring the exhibits here, including Werner Enterprises transporting the materials for free. It’s also a case of two black organizations helping each other, as the Kansas City museum endured its own struggles after O’Neil passed in 2006 and it’s only recently rebounded under Kendrick.

Kendrick and Beatty say they’ve struck a long-term agreement to bring Negro Leagues museum exhibits here annually around CWS time.

“This is a multi-year commitment,” Beaty says, adding, “We’re very excited about that.”

 

Werner Park

Fan Fest and Omaha Baseball Village with TD Ameritrade Park in the background

 

 

“It’s important for us to have these kinds of partnership relations and bridges with other cultural institutions,” says Kendrick. “It’s going to be great for the museum to have that exposure in Omaha. We’re excited about expanding this partnership. This is not a one-and-done thing. We’re looking forward to many years of working side- by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder with this great organization.

“I think one of the most important aspects of this whole collaboration is the intimate involvement of young people, empowering them not only to learn about Negro leagues history but employing them to share this history with the general public.”

“This is a growth opportunity for the kids,” says Beatty.

At a February press conference Beatty stood alongside Kendrick, Bartee, Mayor Jim Suttle, Omaha City Councilman Ben Gray and Douglas County Commissioner Chris Rodgers in a show of solidarity Omaha’s black museum hasn’t enjoyed before.

“The museum is trying to reestablish and reassert itself and we wanted to make a statement to the community that the Great Plains Black History Museum is back and we’re serious about our mission. Being able to pull something like this off and gather the support needed is a clear signal to civic, community and business leaders that the museum board is serious about its role. This project is a significant and great example of the commitment.

“The museum has been a series of false starts and we’re trying to put that in the rear view mirror. There’s been too many words passed by the museum and not effort put forth of a substantial nature. Hopefully this will show the community one more effort we’re doing among others.”

 

Leonardo Daniels Jr. greets people at the door of the transformed gymnasium at Conestoga Magnet School. (Photo by Angel Martin)

A collection of three exhibits from Kansas City, MO are now on display through June 26th in North Omaha. (Photo by Angel Martin)

 

Those efforts include organizing a History Harvest with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and co-sponsoring an April 12 talk by author Isabel Wilkerson. The museum had its collections stored and cataloged by the Nebraska State Historical Society. Consulting historians continue working with the collections. The museum’s commissioned J. Gregg Smith Inc. to do a strategic planning process that Beatty says “will give us the definition we need to go forth from an exhibit, programming and facility standpoint.”

Kendrick’s impressed the Omaha museum is doing programming despite not having a workable site of its own.

“Even though right now they don’t have a functioning building they are demonstrating their viability by creating this meaningful opportunity to expose the citizens of Omaha and visitors to the College World Series to the rich history of Negro leagues ball. I think it speaks volumes to their mindset as an institution, to the direction they want to go, and to the inherent value of what they represent.”

For exhibit days, hours and admission, call 402-572-9292 or visit http://www.gpblackmuseum.org.

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Categories: African-American Culture, Baseball, Buck O'Neil, Entertainment, Great Plains Black History Museum, History, Negro Leagues Baseball, North Omaha, Writing, Youth Tags: , , , ,
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