Cum Posey
| Birthdate | 6/20/1890 |
| Death Date | 3/28/1946 |
| Debut Year | 1911 |
| Year of Induction | 2006 |
| Teams | Negro Leagues |
| Position | Executive |
Manager, executive then owner of the Homestead Grays, Cum Posey was also considered by many to be the greatest basketball player of his era.
Leave a commentIn the collection:
Homestead HS diploma autographed by Cum Posey as director
Homestead HS diploma autographed by Cum Posey as director
One of the most gifted, talented, and hard-working athletes of his day, Cumberland Posey is the only man enshrined in both the baseball and basketball Hall of Fame.
In 1908 Posey led Homestead High School to the Pittsburgh City Championship. The next season he founded a semi-pro, all-black team called the Monticello Athletic Association. That team won the Colored Basketball World Championship in 1912. After a name change due to its sponsorship, the team sent on to win four straight Colored Basketball World Championships.
Posey played basketball collegiately at Penn State, University of Pittsburgh, and Duquesne.
It is in baseball that Posey found his greatest fame. In 1910, he organized a group of Homestead steelworkers to form the semi-pro Homestead Grays.
The principal owner of the Homestead Grays, Posey also served as a player and manager of the team. His 35-year association with the Grays started in 1911 when the club was semi-pro and lasted into Negro League era until Posey died in 1946.
Always in pursuit of superior talent for the Grays, Posey saw 11 Negro League Hall of Famers play for him. So strong were Posey’s Grays that the earned nine consecutive pennants form 1937-1945.
When Cum Posey was enshrined into Cooperstown in 2006 autograph collectors scrambled to find his signature. Soon it was uncovered that Posey served as director for Homestead High School in Pennsylvania and signed a number of the diplomas.
Initially this brought the price down below $1,000 for a Posey autograph. Soon the supply ran out and prices began to rise.
In the collection is a Homestead High School diploma from 1938 adorned with Posey’s autograph.
2006 National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum yearbook with Cum Posey on the cover
2006 National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum yearbook with Cum Posey on the cover
In 2005, the Hall of Fame put together a special screening committee to find people associated with the Negro Leagues who were most deserving of induction.
An original list of 94 nominees was cut to 29 candidates and finally 17 new members of the Hall of Fame to be inducted. in 2006. The cover of the 2006 Hall of Fame yearbook shows those 17 and including Cum Posey, the only man inducted into the baseball and basketball Hall of Fame.
The mlb record books would be soooooo incredibly different if blacks were never banned from baseball for 60 years??????????????????
No doubt, Kirk! Thanks for visiting the site.