Slideshow: Baseball dreamers are growing up
Hear members of the Monarchs reminisce.
CHARLES FOX / Inquirer Staff Photographer
Duane Wyse is a junior at Lincoln University. He lists Jackie Robinson as his favorite ports figure.
In 1995, a group of 10- and 11-year-olds from the Marion Anderson Recreation Center in South Philadelphia became the first all-black team to play baseball and soccer in the Devlin League and Philadelphia's Department of Recreation Leagues. The Monarchs continually used Jackie Robinson as a role model and inspiration in this endeavor.
In 1997, the team celebrated the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's breaking the color barrier in the major leagues by going on a 13-day barnstorming tour in a 1947 bus.
"Those guys," recalled coach Steve Bandura, "were the Jackie Robinsons of the Philadelphia leagues."
- Charles Fox
