Detroit, MI - 2014 - Presentations & Articles & Award Winners

Presentations: Click HERE for highlights from The Courier
Booker, Missy - Booker T. Washington: Baseball’s Quiet Ambassador
Brunson III, James - Black Style or Baseball Minstrelsy Reconsidered: Literary and Visual Representations, 1860 - 1889
Gillette, Gary - Unearth a Lost Diamond: Hamtramck Stadium, Lost & Found
Lindholm, Karl - William Clarence Matthews
Peterson, Todd - The Page Fence Giants: 1895 - 1898
Rushing, Lawrence - A Pretty Miserable Way to Make a Buck: The Mind-set of Jackie Robinson
Skornickel, George - The Greatest Manager in Negro League History: Vic Harris
Spivey, Donald - Satchel Paige in Pitching a New Perspective on the Black Renaissance & the Fight for Civil Rights
Steverson, Bryan - Motor City Meteor: When Speed Raced Through Detroit
Whirty, Ryan - William Binga: Blackball Stars a Branch in a Distinguished Family Tree
Wilkinson, Lizz - Statues of Limitations: Problematic Baseball Sculpture at Nationals Park

Articles:
Lester, Larry - "Bruce (Buddy) Petway: A Bad Brother"
Steverson, Bryan - "Norman Thomas (Turkey) Stearnes: Tennessee's Best"

PLAYERS:

• WALT "COACH O" OWENS --1953-55--p, Detroit Stars
• RON "SCHOOLBOY" TEASLEY --1945, 1948--of, 1b, Toledo Cubs, Detroit Wolves, New York Cubans, Carman Cardinals
• ERNIE "COKEY" NIMMONS --1952-- of, Indianapolis Clowns, Kansas City Monarchs, Philadelphia Stars
• PEDRO SIERRA --1954-58--p, Indianapolis Clowns, Detroit Stars
• MRS. MINNIE FORBES --1956-- owner, Detroit Stars

Special appearances by 1962 American League batting champion Alex Johnson, local historian and former player Orlin Jones, and Hank Aaron's first cousin, Bill Aaron.

Re-Dedication of Hamtramck Stadium by Gary Gillette, with several political figures and players in attendance.

The Norman "Turkey" Stearnes family presentation:
A very special presentation by Stearnes family set the bar especially high for future conferences.  Everyone enjoyed Nettie, his 95-year widow, along with daughters Rosilyn and Joyce, grandsons Gary, Cary and Tony, and granddaughters Karen and basketball coach Vanessa, an English teacher at Bloomfield Hills High School, as they shared their moments about the future Hall of Fame slugger.  Joyce sung "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again," from the Phantom of the Opera.  The lyrics reminded Joyce of special times with Dad and how much she misses him.  Joyce also provided a PowerPoint presentation of vintage family photographs.  The Stearnes family provided attendees with some unforgettable insights on one of black baseball's greatest dads.

Authors Panel:

• Lisa Doris Alexander - When Baseball Isn’t White, Straight and Male: The Media and Difference in the National Pastime
  
• Adrian Burgos, Jr. - Playing America’s Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line
  
• Joel Nathan Rosen & Robert J. Newman - Black Baseball, Black Business: Race Enterprise & the Fate of the Segregated Dollar
  
• Donald Spivey - If You Were Only White: The Life of Leroy "Satchel" Paige

$2,500 Scholarship Winners:

• Tiffany Bowman from Troy High School (Fullerton, CA)
  
• Abraham Griesbauer home-schooled (Troy, MO)

$1,000 Library Grants:

• East Point Elementary School - El Paso, TX
  
• J. Garfield Jackson Academy - East Orange, NJ

John Coates Next Generation Award

• Missy Reyes Tyer & Lisa Doris Alexander

Tweeb Webb Lifetime Achievement Award

• Lucky Smith & Bryan Steverson

Robert Peterson Recognition Award

• Joel Nathan Rosen & Roberta J. Newman

Trivia Contest Winner:

• Rod Nelson - Detroit, Michigan

Fay Vincent Most Valuable Partner (MVP) Award:

• Louis A. Manley, Jr. - Detroit, Michigan