HUMBOLDT — October has been a red-letter month for Humboldt since the first Biblesta occurred in 1957, and it’s about to get a shot of adrenaline.
Beginning on Oct. 3 — also Biblesta day — Humboldt will host the Smithsonian Institute’s traveling Hometown Teams exhibit in City Hall. The exhibit is designed to show how sports shaped America. Panels telling the story of sports, supplemented in great measure by local contributions, will be on display through Nov. 15.
For several months a committee of Humboldt folks has met to plan how to localize and take advantage of the Smithsonian’s offering. Saturday morning committee members, led by Jan Coykendall, met at the public library.
Plans are to feature Humboldt athletes who made a name for themselves —including some who still are — on fields of competition as well as peripherally through coaching, as fans and in other ways.
Humboldt landmarks, such as Walter Johnson Athletic Field at the southwest corner of town, will be featured in real life. The complex, with a hand-laid stone stadium and surrounding wall, was built in the 1930s, an adjunct of federal works programs to employ those idled by the Great Depression.
Old-time baseball players will compete there and at George Sweatt Field, putting games on dusty fields as they were played before artificial turf was invented.
Naturally, two of Humboldt’s favorite sons, Johnson and Sweatt, will be prominently remembered. Johnson was one of the very best major league pitchers, holding the record for strikeouts with 3,508 until the modern era. Perhaps most remarkably, Johnson pitched 110 shutouts.
Johnson was born on a farm about three miles north of Humboldt, and often returned in the off-season to pitch exhibition games.
Sweatt was just as noteworthy. Being black, he was denied opportunity to play in Major League Baseball, but excelled in all sports at Humboldt High, at what today is Pittsburg State University and then in Negro League Baseball, including in its World Series with the Kansas City Monarchs in 1924 and 1925 and the Chicago American Giants in 1927.
Henry Thomas, Johnson’s grandson and author of “Walter Johnson, the Big Train,” and Phil Dixon, a Kansas Citian who has made it his mission in life to keep alive memories of the Negro League and its stars, will be in Humboldt for special events.
To the make the Smithsonian visit all-encompassing, much of what Humboldt has to offer with be brought to the fore, including the motor speedway two miles east of town. A number of events open to all ages are in the development stage, including a fishing tournament. Golf, fun runs and walks and Humboldt museums also will promoted.
For those who covet days when a trip to the movies cost but a dime, Humboldt’s Cozy Theater, a gathering place for young and old before and after World War II, will be brought to life with film clips and memories.
Coykendall said she and committee members are excited about the Smithsonian’s six-week presence in Humboldt, which, incidentally, includes the Humboldt High all-school reunion for grads of 40 or more years on Oct. 9-10.
The Smithsonian exhibit is under the auspices of the Kansas Humanities Council.
Baseball exhibit coming to Humboldt
