Hubert Simmons Had A Short Career In The Negro Leagues But A Lasting Impact
By the time Hubert “Bert” Simmons reached the Negro Leagues, integration had already come to what was then referred to as Major League Baseball. The formal structure of the Negro Leagues was near an end.
Born in Tarboro, North Carolina, in 1924, Simmons played for the Raleigh Tigers, a Black semi-pro team managed by the legendary William “Bill” Foster, as well as several teams in the Negro Southern League, considered the minor leagues of Black baseball during the 1940s, sandwiched around his service in the Army during World War II.
Drafted into the Army in 1943, he landed at Normandy Beach 12 days after the D-Day invasion, before being discharged with a rank of sergeant. He then attended North Carolina A&T State University, where he was part of three championship baseball teams before graduating in 1949.
It was only then that Simmons joined the Elite Giants of the Negro American League, pitching and playing outfield in the Elites’ final season in Baltimore in 1950. He had a deceptive curveball and a nasty knuckleball, and he could hit and field quite well.
But when finances forced the Elites to move to Nashville the next season, Simmons remained in Baltimore to play for the all-Black, independent Yokely Stars for two years before hanging up his cleats. He eventually became a teacher, and spent 30 years in Baltimore City Public School System classrooms, including chairing the business department at Northwestern High School, before retiring in 1984.
For more than 40 years, Simmons also coached baseball as part of the James Mosher Little League, at Dunbar High School and at Copping State College. He served on the board of directors of the Negro Leagues Baseball Players Association and was elected to N.C. A&T’s athletic hall of fame. He signed autographs at Orioles community events, and even threw out a ceremonial first pitch at Camden Yards in 2004.
Along the way, he was honored for his community service by the mayor of Baltimore.
But what Simmons considered his greatest honor came in 2008. That year, as part of the formal MLB First-Year Player Draft of high school and college players, each big league team ceremonially selected a living former Negro League player, representing those who did not have the opportunity to play in what was then called “organized baseball” because of the color of their skin. Each player selected received an honorarium check.
The Orioles selected Simmons, and that sparked his biggest impact on the game.
With help from his wife, Audrey, and several others, Simmons created a Maryland museum with displays of biographies, photographs and artifacts honoring the men (and women) of the Negro Leagues. Three months after being “drafted” by the Orioles, the museum was incorporated as a non-profit, with plans to open the following year in the Lochearn Presbyterian Church, where the Simmons’ worshipped.
The group leading the museum took another step, and on May 7, 2009, Maryland’s governor signed a bill stating that the second Saturday in the month of May would come to be "Negro League Day” in the state.
Simmons died from cancer two months later. He was the last surviving member of the Baltimore Elite Giants. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum of Maryland opened in the church in September 2009.
On March 27, 2014, with support from Baltimore County officials, the museum moved to a permanent home in the new Owings Mills branch of the Baltimore County Public Library. State and county officials, former Negro League players and fans came to the opening, which unveiled a new name for the museum Simmons had started.
The Hubert V. Simmons Museum of Negro Leagues Baseball, located inside the library at 10302 Grand Central Avenue in Owings Mills, MD, is free and open to the public during regular library hours, Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; and Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.