Alex M. Rivera Athletics Hall of Fame
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With the signing of Jackie Robinson by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946 to organized baseball, a renewed effort was made by several CIAA colleges and universities to restore baseball in their athletic programs. Among the CIAA institutions playing baseball were North Carolina College, Shaw University, A&T College, Virginia Union University, St. Augustine's College, Howard University, Lincoln University (Pa.), Delaware State College, and Hampton Institute.
Not since 1934 had baseball been on the athletic schedule of North Carolina College. According to an article in the N.C.C. newspaper, Coach E.C. "Pops" Turner, who took up where Coach Leo Townsend had left off with North Carolina College baseball, believed that "the revival of collegiate competition is the best thing that has ever happened for Black professional baseball as well as "for Black athletes themselves."
Coach Turner was able to field his first baseball team at North Carolina Central in the spring of 1947. The team was selected from over thirty-five candidates, and included players with high school experience and several with semi-pro and armed service experience.
The first game in this revival was played on Easter Monday, 1947, between North Carolina College and Shaw University at Chavis Park in Raleigh, N.C.
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