harry kenyon

Harry C. Kenyon was a remarkably versatile and well-travelled player for a number of Negro league teams in the 1920s, appearing at seven positions (at least), pitching and playing both outfield and infield, and even catching occasionally.  He was roughly a Negro league average hitter and pitcher, which, combined with his versatility, made him a pretty valuable commodity at the time. 

In 1921 Kenyon hit two bases-loaded triples for C. I. Taylor’s ABCs in the famous 18-18 game with the American Giants.  Later in his career he added managing to his portfolio; he was guiding the Memphis Red Sox in 1929 when one of his pitchers, Robert Poindexter, took offense at a joke told by first baseman J. C. McHaskell and shot him in the foot, ending his baseball career.

Perhaps understandably, Kenyon left big-time baseball after that.  A graduate of Arkansas Baptist College (he was also a minister), he had taught high school in Arkadelphia and coached sports at Shorter College in North Little Rock during the Negro league off-season, and he went on to a long career in secondary education, teaching at high schools in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.  In 1946 he published a monograph on the relationship between grades and IQ, drawing his data from a study of freshmen students at Prairie View University.

And he’s recently been discovered to have gained another distinction.  Although a number of well-known Negro leaguers hailed from Arkansas (Jelly Gardner, the various Spearman brothers, Connie Rector), the work of Caleb Hardwick of the Arkansas Baseball Encyclopedia has identified Kenyon as the only Negro leaguer confirmed to have been buried in Arkansas.