Sports

Ambrose Gordon pictured as a member of the 1931-32 South Beloit High School basketball team. Contributed by Carolyn Lawrence.

Pictured are the 1983 Purple Knights basketball team at Beloit Memorial High School, including Ken Givhan (not pictured). Contributed by Floy Givhan.

Cheryl Johnson Caldwell's relative, Herron "Rookie" Johnson, stands outside the Fairbanks Flats in his baseball uniform. Contributed by Cheryl Johnson Caldwell.

The Black community of Beloit used sports as a way to meet new people and relax. Football, basketball, and baseball were particularly important sports to the community. Ersey Edmond said in an interview that children in Beloit had more opportunities for recreation than in the South.

“There were a lot more things to do [in Beloit than in Mississippi]: Little League baseball, football, basketball, track and field, all of those. That’s what I did: I played sports in high school. I tried to be a professional baseball player [for the Milwaukee Brewers], but they told me I was too small.”

—Ersey Edmond

David Price has fond memories of attending basketball games in high school. “I remember going to the basketball games,” he said. “While at Memorial [Beloit Memorial High School], they always turned the lights off. The lights were only on in the center court."

White teams played against Black teams in Beloit area baseball and softball games on weekends. “[From the ‘60s to the early ‘80s] we used to have slow-pitch softball teams,” said Ersey Edmond in an interview for the History Harvest. “Everybody put money in and then the winner took the money. It would be on Sunday, and we would go down to Turtle Creek. The losing team would buy the beer.”