Buck O'Neil

O'Neil was born in Carrabelle, Florida, to John Jordan O'Neil (1873–1954) and Louella Campbell (maiden; 1884–1945).

O'Neil was initially denied the opportunity to attend high school owing to racial segregation.

Florida had only four high schools specifically for African Americans.

He grew up in Sarasota, Florida in the Newtown community.

O'Neil worked the celery fields in Sarasota while his father ran a pool hall in Newtown.

He then later moved to Jacksonville with relatives and attended Edward Waters College, where he completed high school and two years of college courses.

John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil Jr. (November 13, 1911 – October 6, 2006) was an American first baseman and manager in the Negro American League, mostly with the Kansas City Monarchs.

After his playing days, he worked as a scout and became the first African American coach in Major League Baseball.

In his later years he became a popular and renowned speaker and interview subject, helping to renew widespread interest in the Negro leagues, and played a major role in establishing the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.

He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022 as an executive.

In 1934, O'Neil left Florida for several years to participate in of semi-professional barnstorming experiences (playing interracial exhibition games).

O'Neil signed with the Memphis Red Sox for their first year of play in 1937 in the newly formed Negro American League.

His contract was sold to the Monarchs the following year.

O'Neil had a career batting average of .288 between 1937 and 1950, including four .300-plus seasons at the plate, as well as five seasons in which he did not top .260.

He also posted averages of .345 in 1940 and .330 in 1949.

He played in three East-West All-Star Games in three different seasons and two Negro World Series.

O'Neil's baseball career was interrupted for two years (1944 and 1945) during World War II when he joined the U.S. Navy after the close of the 1943 season.

He served his enlistment in a naval construction battalion in New Jersey.

In 1946, the first baseman led the NAL with a .353 batting average and followed that in 1947 with a .350 mark in 16 games.

He returned to the Monarchs at the start of the 1946 season.

O'Neil was named manager of the Monarchs in 1948 after Frank Duncan's retirement, and continued to play first base as well as a regular through 1951, dropping to part-time status afterward.

He managed the Monarchs for eight seasons from 1948 through 1955 during the declining years of the Negro leagues, winning two league titles and a shared title in which no playoff was held during that period.

O'Neil is sometimes incorrectly credited with also having signed Hall of Famer Ernie Banks to his first contract; Banks was originally scouted and signed to the Monarchs by Cool Papa Bell, then manager of the Monarchs' barnstorming B team in 1949.

He played briefly for the Monarchs in 1950 and 1953, his play interrupted by Army duty.

O'Neil was Banks' manager during those stints, and Banks was signed to play for the Cubs more than two years before O'Neil joined them as a scout.

O'Neil was known to have played full-time in 1951 and as a reserve and pinch-hitter as late as 1955, but Negro leagues statistics for the period 1951 and after are considered unreliable, and rapidly dropping below major league quality.

His two undisputed pennants were won in 1953 and 1955, when the league had shrunk to fewer than six teams.

When Tom Baird sold the Monarchs at the end of the 1955 season, O'Neil resigned as manager and became a scout for the Chicago Cubs, and is credited for signing Hall of Fame player Lou Brock to his first professional baseball contract.

He was named the first black coach in the major leagues by the Cubs in 1962, although he was not assigned in-game base coaching duties, nor was he included in the Cubs' "College of Coaches" system, and was never allowed to manage the team during that time.

O'Neil was a member of the 18-member Baseball Hall of Fame Veterans Committee from 1981 to 2000 and played an important role in the induction of six Negro league players from 1995 to 2001 during the time the Hall had a policy of inducting one Negro leaguer per year.

After many years with the Cubs, O'Neil became a Kansas City Royals scout in 1988, and was named "Midwest Scout of the Year" in 1998.

In 1990, O'Neil led the effort to establish the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) in Kansas City, and served as its honorary board chairman until his death.

O'Neil was prominently featured in Ken Burns's 1994 documentary series Baseball. His life was documented in Joe Posnanski's 2007 book The Soul of Baseball.

O'Neil gained national prominence with his compelling descriptions of the Negro leagues as part of Ken Burns' 1994 PBS documentary on baseball.

Afterwards, he became the subject of countless national interviews, including appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder.

In 1996, O'Neil became the recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Business Administration degree from the University of Missouri – Kansas City in Kansas City, Missouri.

In February 2002, at the end of the NLBM's Legacy Awards annual banquet, O'Neil received an induction ring from the baseball scouts Hall of Fame in St. Louis.

O'Neil and all-star Ichiro Suzuki developed a relationship, with Ichiro attending the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum alongside O'Neil and seeking O'Neil's knowledge of the game when the Seattle Mariners would have road games in Kansas City.

"With Buck, I felt something big. The way he carried himself, you can see and tell and feel he loved this game."

On May 13, 2006, he received an honorary doctorate in education from Missouri Western State University where he also gave the commencement speech.