While Waco motorists navigated past the corner of Eighth and Webster on a recent summer afternoon, most drivers barely slowed down.

Most probably were oblivious to the history they were rushing past. That confluence of downtown streets was once the site of Katy Park, a formerly-bustling epicenter of Waco’s professional sports scene.

Yes, that’s right — pro sports in Waco.

The Waco Wizards of minor league hockey, like many recent Waco professional sports teams, fizzled out.
Kelly Lemons/Waco Tribune-Herald, file

When it comes to this city’s athletic exploits, fans naturally think of Baylor, with its myriad of teams and successes, some dating back more than a century. Of course, the city’s passion for high school sports is perpetual, be it Paul Tyson’s football dynasty at Waco High in the 1920s or the Midway girls’ basketball program in modern times.

But Waco’s long — and sometimes surprising — pro sports history is far less documented and publicized, and remains a mystery to many local fans.

In recent years, Waco’s pro sports ventures have been marked by short-lived franchises that amassed losses both competitive and financial, from hockey’s Wizards to football’s Marshals to basketball’s Wranglers.

But go back several generations and you’ll find a sport that had some staying power.

The city’s minor league baseball history originated in 1889, when it began fielding teams in the fledgling Texas League. By 1897, Waco’s team started calling itself the Tigers, a mascot later made considerably more famous by Tyson’s Waco High teams.

According to Bill O’Neal’s book The Texas League, Waco’s reputation as a city of God-fearing church goers conflicted a bit with the baseball schedule, and the team shifted its Sunday games to nearby towns like Corsicana and Hillsboro.

Yet fans could be forgiven if they didn’t have much faith in those Waco teams at the turn of the century, which assembled a slew of mostly mediocre records.

In 1911, though, the franchise began a reversal of fortune after Texas League president W.R. Davidson hired Ellis Hardy, a TCU coach, to manage the club. Now known as the Navigators in an homage to the Brazos River, Waco finally started to sparkle on the diamond.

Navigators of success

The Navigators rode the right arm of beanpole hurler Eddie Donalds to a league-best 102-50 record in 1914, then proceeded to claim two more first-place finishes the next two seasons.

Fans had caught the fever and were pouring through the turnstiles at Katy Park, which opened in 1905.

“From the time that Katy Park opened in 1905, there was a lot of baseball activity there,” said Eugene Baker, a local historian who is writing a book chronicling Katy Park’s history. “People drive by there nowadays, and have no idea. We really ought to put a Texas state marker on that location, designating it as a landmark.”

The Waco Wizards were just one of several recent minor league teams that struggled drawing fans and earning a profit.
Tribune-Herald file photo

The Navigators eventually gave way to the Waco Cubs, a Texas League entrant from 1925 to ’30, and the Waco Dons, a semipro team that nevertheless gained quite a following, including an aspiring young sportswriter.

“My uncle was a fireman and firemen could get into the Waco Dons’ games for free, and he’d always take me with him,” said Dave Campbell, longtime sports editor of the Tribune-Herald . “I was just a kid, 12 years old or so, but those names were magic to us. Players like Ben Zoch and Ernest Evans and a guy named Charlie Barnabee, who pitched in the high minors. . . . It was a great time to watch them play.”

Waco baseball fans never knew what they might see. In 1930, a stumpy Waco Cubs outfielder known as Gene “Half-Pint” Rye made baseball history when he slugged three home runs in one inning of a game on Aug. 6.

When the Cubs opened the eighth inning of that game against Beaumont, they trailed, 6-2. By the time the inning was over, they led, 20-6, thanks to Rye’s unbelievable outburst.

Texas Sports Hall of Fame curator Jay Black called it “a feat that will probably never be matched or exceeded.”

The 1930 baseball season was also historic for the first night game in state history. The Waco Black Cardinals hosted the nationally-renowned Kansas City Monarchs under a portable set of lights furnished by the Monarchs, who handily won the game, 8-0.

Working into the night

The popularity of night ball caught the attention of the Texas League’s administrators, and Katy Park ended up hosting the first night game in that league on June 20, 1930. The Cubs throttled the Fort Worth Cats, 13-0, paving the way for a whole new form of nighttime entertainment in downtown Waco.

Following the 1930 season, the Cubs relocated to Galveston, but Waco was never without baseball for long in that era. By 1947, the Waco Dons earned minor league status as part of the Class B Texas State League.

Nearly 3,000 fans turned out one June afternoon in ’47 to see Monty Stratton make his pitching debut for the Dons. A former Chicago White Sox standout, Stratton had lost his right leg in a hunting accident following the 1938 season.

Yet he kept playing baseball, and he not only spun a shutout against the Paris Red Peppers in his first game with the Dons, but he raised plenty of eyebrows when he hit for himself, too.

“The managers agreed that if Monty got on base, he could leave for a pinch runner and still stay in the game,” Campbell said. “I remember one time during the game, he got a hit. The ball went into left field, and the leftfielder chased it down, and ol’ Monty was just hobbling down to first base on that peg leg of his. Everybody’s heart was standing still to see if he’d make it, and he did, just barely. It was unforgettable.”

Merging with Pittsburgh

A year later, the Dons gained affiliation with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Waco Pirates were born. They finished third in ’48, then rolled all the way to the Big State League championship in 1949.

But success was fleeting, as the Pirates spiraled to a lowly 29-118 record by 1952. Then disaster struck in ’53, as a devastating tornado tore through Waco, killing 114 people and flattening Katy Park.

“The tornado did a lot of damage to the ballpark. There was virtually nothing left,” Baker said. “But that wasn’t the end of Katy Park.”

Katy Park owner A.H. Kirksey, along with assistance from Pirates general manager Branch Rickey, refused to let Waco baseball die. Kirksey poured a reported $400,000 into rebuilding Katy Park, and Rickey agreed to a three-year contract to keep a team in Waco, resuming with the 1954 season.

The Navigators were the first successful baseball team to play at Katy Park. During the first half of the 20th century, Waco never went long without a baseball team.
Texas Sports Hall of Fame photo

And what a season it was. The Pirates turned in one of the great minor league seasons of all-time, accumulating a 105-42 record and cruising to the league title. Outfielder Roman Mejias torched opposing pitchers for a .354 batting average and 141 RBIs, and captivated fans with a staggering 55-game hitting streak.

But that was the peak of Waco’s minor league baseball ride.

Little League ousts Pirates

“It was going good, and that 1954 team had a sensational year,” Campbell said. “But shortly after that, Little League baseball caught on, air conditioning was established, and television started gaining popularity. The attendance fell off precipitously, and it drove the team out of town.”

Indeed, the Pirates played their last game in Waco in 1956. Less than a decade later, Katy Park had been sold and razed, clearing space for a parking lot.

In the years that followed, Baylor began to expand its sporting reach, introducing a variety of new women’s teams in sports like volleyball, softball and soccer. It seemed as if Waco’s days as a minor league sports town may have faded forever.

But by the 1990s, a few brave sports-minded entrepreneurs began giving the city a second look. Pro sports ventures started popping onto the scene again, usually with muted results. Some teams fizzled out before even playing a game, like a basketball team known as the Waco Jaguars.

In 1996, the city opened its arms to, of all things, ice hockey. The upstart Western Professional Hockey League chose Waco as a site for one of its franchises, and soon after the Waco Wizards introduced themselves to Central Texas.

The Wizards experiment was a failure on many fronts, though not always on the ice itself. In the 1998-99 season, the Wizards won the WPHL’s Central Division title. But the team averaged just 2,346 fans in its 115 home games at the Heart O’Texas Coliseum, the lowest figure in the league.

Two months into its fourth season, the franchise disbanded amidst heavy financial debt estimated at $3.5 million.

The Waco Marshals were members of the National Indoor Football League in 2000, but the group barely started before the team fell through. The Marshals played just six games and only three in Waco.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald, file

Indoor football

Four years later, the HOT Coliseum opened its doors again to a pro sports team, as the Waco Marshals signed on to lease the building for its inaugural season in the National Indoor Football League.

But the Marshals hardly left the gate before experiencing trouble, postponing its very first game by a week. They ended up folding after six games, including three before sparse crowds in Waco.

“Lack of management was the problem with the Marshals,” said HOT Coliseum president Wes Allison. “It had nothing to do with the product. It was a great product. Indoor football fits in well in Texas, and certainly Waco has plenty of football fans. But I think any minor league sports franchise starting up has to have quality management behind it.”

Steve Smith agrees. Smith, the senior vice president for sports and special events for the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce, thinks the recent run of failed sports franchises in Waco isn’t an indictment of the city as much as it is a lesson to any potential team owners out there.

“When you bring a product to the marketplace, whether it’s a retail store or a restaurant or a sports franchise, there are two main shortcomings that lead to failure,” Smith said. “Capital and management. My understanding is that those ventures (Wizards, Marshals) weren’t successful in those two categories.

“And if you don’t have that, it’s very, very difficult to survive. I don’t care if you’re in New York City or Los Angeles or Waco, Texas.”

bcherry@wacotrib.com

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