Pensacola honors the Little League team that broke the color barrier in 1955
Back in 1955, kids across the country were trying to emulate the exciting style of play personified by Jackie Robinson, who had broken the Major League Baseball color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers just eight years earlier.
The young 11-and-12-year-olds who played baseball for the Pensacola Jaycees Little League team in 1955 copied more than his style of play. That year, the team became the first Black Little League team to compete against a white team, the Orlando Kiwanis, in the Deep South.
On Thursday, that game and the players from both teams were memorialized forever in Pensacola with the dedication and unveiling of a historical marker at the Community Maritime Park commemorating the landmark game that was played in Orlando and won by the home team 5-0. On the front of the marker is a description of the game and its historical significance. On the back are the names of both teams, as well as team rosters. Orlando dedicated its own memorial to the game in 2022.
Related: Now on Netflix: Documentary on 1955 Pensacola Jaycees all-black Little League team
"It would have been nice to win," said the Rev. Freddie Augustine, 81, who played second base for the Pensacola squad that season. "But the game was so much more important than the score, though we didn't really know that at the time."
Augustine is one of four players remaining from the Pensacola team who are still alive, along with Willie Preyer, Admiral LeRoy and Pesslean Brye. Only Augustine and Preyer were able to attend Thursday's marker dedication on a grassy area just west of Blue Wahoos Stadium at the Community Maritime Park.
The Pensacola Jaycees team went to the Little League State Championship tournament in Orlando in August 1955 as the regional champions from Northwest Florida.
That's because the all-white teams from the Panhandle didn't want to play against an all-Black team, like the Pensacola Jaycees, and instead forfeited the regional games.
Augustine said there was no animosity between the Pensacola and Orlando teams.
"We all realized we like the same things," Augustine said. "We were more alike than we were different."
Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves and former Mayor Grover Robinson spoke at the event, which was attended by several other local officials.
"On Aug. 10, 1955, history was made at Orlando's Lake Loran Doone Park," Reeves said. "This was a game unlike any played in Florida, or anywhere in the Deep South. Those kids broke the color barrier for Little League Baseball. As this marker states, 'The Jaycees bravely bridged a divide at a time when racial segregation defined the South. And in a time of great discrimination, 27 Little Leaguers integrated the world of youth sports.'"
The groundbreaking, but long-forgotten game inspired new interest with the release of the 2018 documentary "Long Time Coming: A 1955 Baseball Story" about the Pensacola-Orlando matchup. The film was later screened at the Library of Congress. Also in 2018, players from both teams were honored by the Pensacola Blue Wahoos during a pregame ceremony. A few players remaining from the Orlando team made the trip to Pensacola for the event.
Preyer, 81, played center field and pitched for the Pensacola team in 1955.
"It's nice that (the marker) is here," he said. "At the time, we just wanted to play baseball. I played all the sports and would ride my bicycle to practice. That's what it was about ‒ just having the opportunity to play."
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Jaycees Little League marker set at Community Maritime Park
