Kansas City Monarchs Celluloid Stadium Souvenir Pin (c. 1940’s)

This souvenir pin is from the 1940’s and was sold at ballparks where the Baltimore Elite Giants played. During the 1940’s and 1950’s, celluloid team pins were probably the most popular souvenir fans could buy at the ballpark to support their team. The souvenir pins were cheap and could be worn all over town, long after the game was over.

Kansas City Monarchs (1934)

The beginnings of the Kansas City Monarchs team can be traced back to 1912 when James L. Wilkinson organized a team in Des Moines, Iowa that he called the All Nations. The All Nations baseball team had African American, Cuban, Hispanic and Asian players as well as a female player. This team included the great Negro League players Jose Mendez and John Donaldson. The team moved to Kansas City in 1915. In 1920, Wilkinson added several players from the U.S. Army 25th Infantry baseball team to form the Kansas City Monarchs. Dobie Moore and Andy Cooper were among the players that came off the 25th Infantry baseball team. The Monarchs played in the Negro National League from 1920-1931. They dropped out of the league and played a barnstorming schedule from 1932 to 1936 because Wilkinson felt the Monarchs could be financially more successful by not playing in the league. In 1937, however the Kansas City Monarchs joined the Negro American League and played a full league schedule for every year until the league folded after the 1963 season.


Highlights of the Kansas City Monarchs franchise include:

          Negro League World Series Champions          1924 and 1942

           Negro National League Champions                 1923, 1924, 1925 and 1929

           Negro American League Champions               1937, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942 and 1946

           Negro National Champion (1st half title)          1926

           Negro American League (1st half title)            1949

           Negro American League (2nd half title)           1948

           Negro American League West Division Title     1950


Over the years, nine National Baseball Hall Of Famers played for the Kansas City Monarchs:

            Ernie Banks                      -      1950

            Willard “Homerun” Brown     -    1935-1943, 1946-1951 and 1957-1960

            Willie Foster                     -      1931

            Jose Menedez                   -      1920-1926

            Satchel Paige                    -     1935-1936, 1939-1948, 1950 and 1955

            Wilber “Bullet Joe” Rogan     -      1920-1938

            Norman “Turkey” Stearnes   -      1931, 1934 and 1938-1941

            Cristobel Torriente              -      1913, 1916-1917 (All Nations) and 1926

            Willie Wells                        -      1932 and 1934



The Kansas City Monarchs were one of the most stable, best known and most successful of all Negro League teams. Tom Baird became a co-owner of the team in 1929 with J.L. Wilkinson and then became the sole owner of the team after the 1948 season. Baird continued the success of the Monarchs until he sold the team to Ted Rasberry of Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1955. Rasberry was the last owner of the Kansas City Monarchs. Under Rasberry’s leadership the Monarchs and the Negro American League would continue until 1963. Even after the Negro American League folded, the Monarchs continued to barnstorm periodically from the mid to late 1960’s. Most of their barnstorming tours were in the Great Lakes area and into Canada.