The Chatham Colored All-Stars have earned Canada’s highest sporting honor for their lasting impact on and off the field.
The championship baseball team from the 1930s will receive the Order of Sport and be inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame on Oct. 6 in Toronto.
The All-Stars and the Preston Rivulettes women’s hockey team will be the first two inductees in the new trailblazer category for individuals and teams who are notable for their contributions to sports, their impact on the wider culture and their influence on the next generation of athletes and builders.
“More than a decade before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947, the Chatham Colored All-Stars were barnstorming their way through Southern Ontario and challenging discriminatory perceptions of what Black athletes could accomplish in white-dominated leagues,” said a news release from Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
The All-Stars were formed in 1932 and made history in 1934 as the first Black team to win an Ontario Baseball Amateur Association championship. They beat Penetanguishene in the intermediate B final.
“Despite their championship calibre, the Chatham Colored All-Stars regularly faced discrimination on and off the field, playing through racial taunts and threats of violence, injuries deliberately perpetrated by opposing teams, and questionable officiating calls,” the Sports Hall of Fame said. “They also encountered difficulties traveling to games at a time when Black people were often barred from restaurants and hotels in Southern Ontario, and financial resources were much more difficult for colored athletes to secure than their white counterparts.”
The All-Stars’ historic championship in 1934 was also the first OBAA title for a Chatham team.
The All-Stars vied for provincial championships again in 1935 and 1939. They broke up during the Second World War when several members signed up for military service.
“Formed in a city that was once a stop on the famed Underground Railroad, the Chatham Colored All-Stars showed tremendous courage, fortitude and dignity as they left their indelible mark on a sport that was often unkind to them,” the Sports Hall of Fame said.
The All-Stars’ relatives and supporters have also been working for several years to get them inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, but the team was not elected again this year.
The All-Stars were inducted into the Chatham Sports Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Baseball Ontario Hall of Fame in 2018.
This year’s other inductees to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame are: four-time Olympic hockey gold medallist Hayley Wickenheiser, Olympic canoe-kayak champion Adam van Koeverden, Olympic rowing medallist Tricia Smith, sportscaster Brian Williams, soccer player Dwayne de Rosario, lacrosse player John Tavares, Arctic sports builder Edward Lennie and para swimmer Tim McIsaac.