With all the world – especially our neck of it – experiencing extreme Cubs-mania, the timing couldn’t have been better for Auroran Sherman Jenkins to publish his first book about a Chicago baseball superstar … who also happened to lead the famed Harlem Globetrotters to a World Basketball Championship.
You’ve probably never heard of Ted Strong Jr., despite his two-sport athletic prowess, which is all the more reason this book is so compelling.
Strong, whose family grew up in the same South Side neighborhood where Jenkins, now 60, was raised, was an All-Star in baseball’s Negro Leagues. And even though some experts believe he was an even better player than Jackie Robinson, Strong never got a chance to prove himself in the white leagues, which was always a source of “frustration and disappointment,” noted the author.
Jenkins did not begin writing “Ted Strong Jr: The Untold Story of an Original Harlem Globetrotter and Negro Leagues All Star” until after he retired in 2012 as the long-time executive director of the Aurora Economic Development Commission.
The book, nevertheless, was decades in the making, starting in 1977 when he was a journalism major at Northern Illinois University and had to come up with a feature story he could pitch to a newspaper for publication.
After “wracking his brain for a good idea,” Jenkins recalled the playground boasts his neighborhood buddy would make about his father’s and brother’s years of playing in the Negro Leagues.
Jenkins ended up interviewing Ted Strong Sr. – who was a pitcher from 1920-1927 – and writing a great story for his journalism class that was later printed in the Chicago Defender under the headline “A Tower of Strength.”
But it was only after Jenkins proudly showed the printed article to Ted Sr., that the then-83-year-old man – who lived in Aurora during his adolescence with an older brother and attended East Aurora High School — asked if he wanted to interview his son, Ted Jr. as well.
Up until that point, Jenkins hadn’t given even a second thought to the younger athlete; He didn’t know him like the rest of the family because he was from Ted Sr.’s first marriage (combined, the man had 24 children). But after doing just a little research, he realized the younger Strong had quite an extraordinary duo-sport career, and would make an even more fascinating subject than his father.
Unfortunately, just days before his scheduled interview with Ted Jr., the then 61-year-old former Negro League All-Star and Harlem Globetrotter died of an asthma attack.
Still, the more Jenkins learned, the more convinced he was that this unsung athlete deserved to be more than a footnote in sports history. And so Jenkins spent the next three decades doing research whenever he could … which is no easy task when trying to raise a family and build a career.
Strong’s professional baseball story began in the 1930s with the Indianapolis ABC’s and Chicago American Giants. But his star really shined when he was with the Kansas City Monarchs, where he was selected to play in seven Negro League All-Star games; and was teammate with such legends as Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, Buck O’Neil and Willard Brown.
At the same time he was excelling in baseball, Strong Jr. was making his mark with the Harlem Globetrotters, which he joined in 1930. He went on to be one of the captains when the team won the 1940 World’s Basketball Championship; and even appeared in the Columbia Pictures movie, “The Harlem Globetrotters,” starring Dorothy Dandridge.
After serving in the Navy during World War II, Strong remained in both sports until retiring to the South Side of Chicago in the late ’50s, where he remained until his death in 1978.
No one is certain why Strong, who was known as a switch-hitting power hitter who captured the home run crown of the Negro American League in 1946, never even got a tryout with a Major League Baseball team, despite promises that he’d get a shot. Also known for his strong arm and agility anywhere in the field, Strong was heavily scouted during the 1942 All Star game at Comiskey Park, where he went an unimpressive one for three. His father once told Jenkins his son liked to have a good time, and that his smoking and drinking likely did not help his baseball career.
While Jenkins never played the sport – he admits to being “more of a nerd … reading in the library while others were out playing” – he’s always been fascinated with the game and the contributions African American players made to it. Because of this book he became a member of the Society for American Baseball Research Negro Leagues Committee; and it was at its last convention where he met publisher Rowman & Littlefield, which officially released his first book a couple weeks ago. Next month he begins a series of promotional appearances, which include book signings at 2 p.m. Nov. 12 at Andersons Book Store in downtown Naperville; and 3 p.m. Dec. 3 at Santori Public Library in downtown Aurora.
Jenkins says this book adventure – he’d write every day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. with no interruptions – has taught him a lot about the publishing world; and he’s anxious to see where it goes. His next project, he added, will likely be a book about economic development, with a focus on the way Aurora is turning its fortunes and image around.
Of course, despite years of research that took Jenkins to many microfilm machines, including a research library in Austin, Texas, there are so many unanswered questions about this incredible athlete because the author missed out on that one chance to interview Ted Jr. before he died.
“Considering all the people he played with in baseball and basketball,” said Jenkins, “I can only imagine the stories he could tell.”
