Gus Greenlee

William Augustus "Gus" Greenlee (December 26, 1893—July 7, 1952) was a Negro League baseball owner and an African American businessman.

Gus Greenlee was born in Marion, North Carolina in 1893 and migrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Hill District in 1916. After working several menial jobs, he established a bootlegging business that he operated from his taxi. He later made his reputation as a numbers runner and racketeer, as well as the owner of the Crawford Grill nightclub and the Negro League baseball team the Pittsburgh Crawfords.

The Crawfords were the best-financed team in black baseball during its early years. Revenue generated from his gambling and bootlegging operations allowed Greenlee to sign black baseball's biggest names. It also enabled him to build his own ballpark. When he bought the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1930, he was insulted that his players were not allowed to use the dressing rooms at venues like Forbes Field, Ammon Field, and others. In 1932 he opened Greenlee Field, the first black-owned and black-built baseball field in America. The Pittsburgh Crawfords' 1935 squad is arguably the best ever to play in the Negro Leagues, as it fielded five Baseball Hall of Fame players. In 1933 Greenlee organized the annual East-West Classic, an all-star baseball game in Chicago between Negro League stars.

He was also known as a philanthropist who helped fellow blacks in his community with scholarships for schooling and with grants to buy homes.

Greenlee died of a stroke July 7, 1952. He is buried in Pittsburgh's Allegheny Cemetery.

External links

* [http://www.negroleaguebaseball.com/teams/Pittsburgh_Crawfords.html Negro League Baseball website]

References

*cite book | author=Bankes, James | title=The Pittsburgh Crawfords | location=Jefferson | publisher=McFarland & Company | year=2001 | id=ISBN 0-7864-0992-4