For Herman ‘Dusty’
Rhodes, the last half-century has gone way too fast.
“It just brings back memories of what we did,” Rhodes said.
In 1959, Rhodes was a freshman for the ‘Southern Nine,’ the Southern Jaguar baseball team who became the first all African-American team to be invited to the NAIA Championship.
“I didn’t know we were the only black team invited,” Rhodes recalled. “We just went up there and played baseball.
Coming from the SWAC to the NAIA Championship, the ‘Southern Nine’ had a few things to get accustomed to.
They had never played a night game, but the real shock came a few games later, when the all-white crowd started cheering for the Tournament’s only all-black team.
“They started pulling for us because their team got knocked out by the team we were playing,” said Rhodes, who played first base for the Jaguars. “They didn’t like them anyway, so they started pulling for us. After that we were the home team.”
On June 7, 1959, the Jaguars delivered beating Omaha University, 10-2, to take home the title.
“A lot of guys I still respect and admire, especially the way we played that first year.”
Southern was never able to repeat the success of ’59, but Rhodes believes what that team did back then helped pave the way for Southern baseball today.
“When I see how far Southern has come from that time,” Rhodes, who went on to play for the White Sox organization after college. “Back then there was segregation; we didn’t play white schools, they didn’t play against us.”
