My good friend J.B. Hogan of Fayetteville has published Angels in the Ozarks (Pen-L Publishing, 2013) on the history of professional baseball in the Ozarks during the Great Depression. For seven years the Arkansas-Missouri League operated as a Class D minor league, bringing not only baseball to the Ozarks but also providing a much-needed diversion to a region struggling to pull itself from the worst economic downturn in history.
The organization was named the Arkansas State League at its birth. But before long nearby Missouri cities were added. Nine Ozark towns sponsored teams during the seven-year history of the league, although not all at the same time. Baseball promoters believed any town able to take in $600 monthly from admission fees could support a team. The teams often played at county fairgrounds. Local newspapers provided extensive coverage and promotion of league games.
Here is how University of Arkansas journalism professor and ardent baseball fan Walter Lemke described the Fayetteville franchise at its birth in the spring of 1934: “Naturally, they operated on a shoestring.
League rules permitted each club to carry 14 players, whose salaries ranged from $25 to $40 a month. Equipment was scarce, especially baseballs, which cost the club 80 cents each. On at least two occasions, the ball game came to an abrupt end when the supply of balls was exhausted.”
Several of the teams changed names during the brief history of the league.
The Fayetteville team originally carried the less-than-rollicking name Educators, no doubt a well-intentioned nod to the town’s history as the home of the University of Arkansas. The name seemed inappropriate for a variety of reasons, not the least being that many of the players were nearly illiterate. Lemke wrote: “Before the 1935 season opened, some less idealistic soul than Manager [Fred] Hawn recognized the anomaly of applying the sobriquet of Educators to infielders who never got past the fourth grade. So the Educators became the Bears and promptly climbed from last place up to next-to-last.”
The Fayetteville team changed its name once again in 1937 when economic necessity reared its head. The Bears uniforms were so deteriorated that one wag suggested a New Deal program to replace the Fayetteville team uniforms. Finally, the Ponca City, Okla., team donated their uniforms to the Bears. Upon opening the boxes, Fayetteville team owners were shocked to discover “lettered in script on the beautiful 100-percent wool baseball shirts was the name ‘Angels.’ ” The owners decided to rename the team rather than go to the expense of replacing the ornate monogramming.
Fayetteville was not the only team to change its name. The Bentonville team started play as the Office-Holders before quickly switching to the White Sox and then to the Mustangs in 1936. The town of Cassville, Mo., fielded a competitive team under the name Tigers but later chose the name Blues. Rogers began play in 1934 when the league formed, choosing a name that harkened to the apple heritage of the area, the Apple Knockers. The team later adopted the name Rustlers.
The eccentric nature of the Ark-Mo League did not escape local notice. Lemke summarized it well, noting that “where else in the hundred-year history of organized baseball can you find a one-armed umpire and a one-eyed umpire, a barefoot pitcher, a woman playing an entire game of league ball?”
The woman Lemke referred to was Frances Dunlap, a resident of Farmington, Ark., who played on the Fayetteville team. On Sept. 6, 1936, Miss Dunlap played an entire nine-inning game with the Fayetteville Bears. Farmington was also home to another Bears player, pitcher Thornton Buchanan, known popularly as “Hornbuckle Buck.” Lemke described Buchanan as “a fabulous left-hander” who was accustomed to walking to Fayetteville to pitch a twohour game, walking home for supper, then returning to town again to participate in a 10-round fight at the American Legion.
Neosho, Mo. fielded a good team under the name Pirates, often leading the split-season standings. During the 1938 season the Neosho team stole an incredible 315 bases.
During the 1938 season the Siloam Springs Buffaloes were affiliated with the St. Louis Browns. The Browns tried out many of their promising players with the Buffaloes, causing the team to be ridiculed as a transient one.
The Arkansas-Missouri League never prospered. Tough economic times made every season a challenge. Gate receipts were never adequate, and some teams folded after only a season or two. Several teams benefited in 1938 when U.S. Rep. Claude A. Fuller of Eureka Springs underwrote attendance at numerous games as a campaign gimmick.
Economic challenges grew worse during the 1940 season as attention turned to the growing war in Europe. On May 25, 1940, only 88 people watched as Fayetteville and Siloam Springs fought to a 3-2 Angels decision. Within a month the Fayetteville Angels were $600 in debt, a large amount for the time. On June 28, 1940, the Fayetteville franchise was turned over to the league. The league itself, which for much of a decade provided lively entertainment for Northwest Arkansas and adjacent Missouri through a persistent depression, soon collapsed.
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Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living in Pulaski County. Email: [email protected].
Editorial, Pages 84 on 03/23/2014