Several members of the University of Kansas men’s basketball program spent part of their weekend visiting the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo.
The trip came just days after the United States government recently made the June 19 Juneteenth celebration a federal holiday, which commemorates the day, in 1865, that enslaved African-Americans in Galveston, Texas, were told they were free.
“Freedom Day has been a big deal in the African-American community for a long time, so we wanted to make sure we had a good program for our men’s basketball student-athletes,” said Paul Pierce II, KU’s assistant athletic director and interim chief diversity officer. “We wanted to educate them, not only on the importance of Juneteenth but also on some of the histo-ry that is right here in our back yard in Kansas City. We learned a lot. We had the opportunity to learn about some in-dividuals who paved the way for young men and young wom-en of color to participate in athletics at a high level. It was a really good day.”
In addition to taking a guided tour through the museum, the Jayhawks who attended the outing walked over to the Paseo YMCA to observe the building’s mural of former players who starred for the famed Negro Leagues team the Kansas City Monarchs.
KU’s director of basketball of operations, Fred Quartlebaum, wore a replica of the jersey worn by his late grandfather, Jim Weedon, who played for the Harrisburg (Pa.) Giants of the Eastern Negro Baseball League in the 1950s.
“Today was a celebration, an opportunity to learn about eman-cipation,” Quartlebaum said in a news release. “It was a bless-ing that we were able to do something unique today by going to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and learn about his-tory and hear the great stories. I (cannot) thank Bob Kendrick and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum staff enough for showing us outstanding hospitality.”
Added KU senior David McCormack: “This means a lot. We learned so much from our visit to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the area in general. This was a celebration of liberation.”
