1955 Pensacola Jaycees Little League Baseball Team honored with historical marker at Community Maritime Park
PENSACOLA, Fla. (WKRG) — The City of Pensacola honored a monumental day in history on Thursday with a dedication to the Pensacola Jaycees 1955 Little League Baseball Team.
The team was the first all-Black Little League Baseball team to compete against an all-white team during segregation, marking the first integrated Little League Baseball game in a southern state.
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Former players and family members of the 1955 Pensacola Jaycees Little League Baseball Team were there Thursday, looking at the new historic marker at Community Maritime Park in awe, taking in the dedication that’s honoring the history they were a part of.
“This morning, Pensacola does its part to honor our kids who are a little bit older and may take a little bit longer to round the bases, but as this marker states, the Jaycees bravely bridged the divide at a time when racial segregation defined the south,” Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said. “In a time of great discrimination, 27 little leaguers integrated the world of youth sports.”
In 1955, the team became the Northwest Florida Little League Champions after five all-white teams refused to play against them and forfeited the district title. With no challengers, the Jaycees advanced to the Florida Little League Championship in Orlando.
Met with significant backlash, the Pensacola Jaycees went on to play against the Orlando Kiwanis in the semifinals.
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But the road to that game had its challenges in more ways than one.
“Things were tough,” Freddie Augustine, who played on the Pensacola Jaycees 1955 team, said. “At that particular time, they had five service stations. Texaco, Pure Oil, Standard, Gulf would not even allow you to use their bathroom or drink from their water fountain. So there was a service station by the name of Philip’s 66 from Pensacola to Orlando, Florida, and Orlando back to Pensacola. We could use their bathrooms and drink from their water fountains, so God has always made a way.”
While the Kiwanis beat the Jaycees 5-0 and advanced to the championship game, the history of two teams playing for the love of the game has lived on and will now be forever remembered.
“It recounts the story of a kid’s love of baseball and of a deeply divided and segregated south and of the courage of some kids to make that trip to Orlando and to help change history,” Pensacola City Council member Allison Patton said.
“It’s awesome; it’s something that everybody doesn’t get a chance to experience,” Augustine said. “That you can have something sitting on grounds like these that people will pass by and see what the city has done and being a part of. It is absolutely marvelous.”
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