How Kansas Jayhawks baseball honored Buck O’Neil — and the Negro Leagues — in KC
Kiona Sinks knows this would’ve delighted Buck O’Neil.
At Legends Park in Kansas City, Kansas, on Tuesday night, the University of Kansas baseball team wore replica uniforms from the Negro Leagues’ Kansas City Monarchs; Texas Southern, meanwhile, donned ones fashioned after the Homestead Grays.
KU brought this game to KC — naming it the Buck O’Neil Classic — to honor the Monarchs first baseman and manager who will be posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this summer.
“(Buck) would be smiling today,” said Sinks, the Negro League Baseball Museum’s community engagement manager. “ ... There’s no question that he’s proud.”
KU coach Ritch Price wants this to be a start of a custom as well. He would like to play in KC once a year to honor O’Neil and the Negro Leagues, while preferably playing a team from a historically Black college — much like Tuesday’s opponent Texas Southern.
The Jayhawks, as a team, attended the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in the fall, with Price saying that museum president Bob Kendrick gave his squad a two-hour personal tour. He also said KU specifically picked out Tuesday’s replica Monarchs jerseys — white with red sleeves, numbers and stirrups — because Kendrick said they were O’Neil’s favorite.
Sinks said that when O’Neil was first asked years ago what had motivated him to help start up a Negro Leagues baseball museum, he said: “So the players can be remembered.”
Because of that, Sinks said seeing both KU and Texas Southern in their throwback uniforms Tuesday was meaningful.
“That history is important. It’s important to understand the past, so we can honor the future. And history has no boundaries,” Sinks said. “The Negro Leagues didn’t care what color you were. All they cared about was, ‘Can you play?’
“So hopefully, these guys go out today and play and put Kansas City on the map and honor Buck.”
The game was also a partnership between KU and independent-league team Kansas City Monarchs president/general manager Jay Hinrichs, a former KU assistant athletic director himself.
O’Neil was also celebrated another way; KU second baseman Tavian Josenberger — a Kansas City, Missouri native and Park Hill graduate — changed his number from 12 to 22 on Tuesday.
“He’s just a legend and a Kansas City legend for sure,” Josenberger said of O’Neil. “Playing on the Monarchs, coaching, being the first African-American coach in the major leagues. It’s super special for me to wear this 22, and I’m honored.”
KU also received some social media attention for its throwback uniforms Tuesday, especially for the white-with-red-pinstripe Monarchs hat that bore the letters “KU” instead of “KC.” Those could be purchased at Tuesday night’s game and will be available at Rally House locations soon.
Price said he’d already received dozens of texts Tuesday from people wondering where they could get the new KU cap, while Josenberger described the uniforms as “super cool.”
As for the motivation behind wearing them ... Price hopes this is just the start of a long tradition for KU.
“Getting to understand what these jerseys represented,” Josenberger said, “it’s really special for us, getting to wear them now.”
