Ed Bolden

Baseball

Negro League pioneer; Owner of the Philadelphia Stars

Born in 1881, Ed Bolden ranks among the most important leaders in Philadelphia's sports history.

Bolden devoted most of his life to baseball and provided young Black men with opportunities not available to them in the Major Leagues. Through his work with the Darby-based Hilldale franchise, Bolden made the Philadelphia region a premiere region for Black professional baseball in the eastern United States. His heated rivalry with Andrew Foster, who was based in Chicago, shaped the creation of competitive Negro Leagues in the 1920s. After leading Hilldale to a World Series, Bolden left baseball, returning later with the Philadelphia Stars.

With the Stars, Bolden performed the rare feat of taking a second team to the championship in their league. He built connections with members of the local community and helped to make the Stars an important part of the city's culture in the 1930s and 1940s. Bolden remained with the Stars until his death in 1950, and the Stars franchise continued for two more seasons without its leader.

Bolden's lengthy career in baseball began at a time when baseball, like the rest of American society, was divided along racial lines. In 1910, Darby boasted an amateur team called the Hilldale Daisies; the team was composed of young Black pre-teens and teenagers. One of the players asked Bolden to keep score of one of their games. Though the twenty-nine-year-old Bolden had never played baseball, he had a steady job at the central post office in Philadelphia and was an ideal person to provide some leadership to the young Hilldalers. He maintained his job at the post office while slowly yet steadily transforming Hilldale from a sandlotlike team to a professional organization. Bolden pooled his finances with other Black leaders to create the Hilldale Baseball Corporation and, in 1917, officially made Hilldale a professional baseball team. They had their own ballpark at 9th and Cedar Streets in Darby and quickly became the top Black professional baseball team in the eastern United States.

The 1920s witnessed the advent of league organizations in Black professional baseball, and Bolden played a vital role in that development. Andrew Foster spearheaded the first Negro National League (NNL) in 1920, and he eyed Bolden's Hilldale franchise a key addition to make his dream of a national league a reality. Hilldale briefly joined the NNL, but Bolden bristled at Foster's oversight and decided to form his own league, the Eastern Colored League (ECL) in 1923. Bolden and Hilldale enjoyed their greatest success as members of the ECL, appearing in the Negro Leagues' first World Series in 1924 and winning the title in 1925. Afterwards, both Bolden and Hilldale suffered downfalls; Bolden had a nervous breakdown and then a falling out with other members of the Hilldale Baseball Corporation. Bolden was ousted from the corporation and then the Hilldale franchise dissolved. Following his ouster, Bolden's baseball career appeared to be over, but a new NNL and an opening in the Philadelphia market paved the way for his return.

For his second act in Black professional baseball, Bolden worked with Ed Gottlieb on a franchise that officially bore his name'd Bolden's Philadelphia Stars. The Stars debuted in 1933 and quickly made a splash, winning the NNL title in 1934 for Bolden's second championship. The 1934 title marked the peak of the Stars' success and demonstrated Bolden's deftness in building a championship-caliber roster. While Bolden occasionally clashed with other NNL owners, he remained a major member of the league's leadership from the time the Stars joined the league in 1934 until the league dissolved in 1948. More importantly, he remained an important and respected member of the Philadelphia community. State and local dignitaries regularly attended Stars' games and participated in lavish Opening Day ceremonies.

Bolden died in September 1950, and the honorary pallbearers at his funeral attested to the respect he earned throughout his lifetime. Those pallbearers included Gottlieb, Stars' field manager Oscar Charleston, Municipal Court Judge Herbert Millen, Philadelphia Postmaster Raymond Thomas, Attorney Raymond Pace Alexander, and Henry Deal, the Superintendent of the Philadelphia Post Office's Middle City Section. Bolden ranks among the greatest leaders in the Philadelphia region's history, and his induction into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame places him among the elite from the city's sports history.

By Courtney Smith