African Americans History

The tall man in the middle of the back row of this August 1921 team photo of the Cumberland Cubs is Clarence Smith. One of Cumberland's outstanding baseball pitchers of a half-century ago, he was better known as, "Cannonball" or "Bullet-Ball" due to his reputation as a fast-ball hurler. He was the strike-out king and mound ace for John Brown's "Cumberland Cubs". John Brown's Cubs played the best black teams of the early 1920's, including the Homestead Grays, Baltimore Black Sox, Harrisburg Giants, and Pittsburgh Orioles.

Clarence M. Smith, 1895 - 1969

Clarence Smith was one of Cumberland's outstanding baseball pitchers of a half-century ago. Better known as, "Cannonball" or "Bullet-Ball" due to his blazing fast balls, he was the strike-out king and ace pitcher for John Brown's "Cumberland Cubs." From 1923 to 1925 Smith pitched for the Fairmont, West Virginia Giants and in one game struck out 20 players, only to lose the game by one run to the Harrisburg Giants by a score of 5 to 4.

Danny Darr and Marsha Williams-Vickers

On December 17, 2010, Danny Darr and Marsha Williams-Vickers became the fifth and sixth African-Americans voted into the Allegany High School Sports Hall of Fame.

Goss Construction Company basketball team

In 1965 the Goss Construction Company basketball team won the American Division title in the Men's Rec Basketball League. Depicted in this Cumberland Evening Times photo from March 4, 1965 are, from left to right, Danny Keyes, Reginald Johnson, Jim Arrowood, James Washington, Walter Younger, and Charles Denmark, manager. Missing when the photograph was taken are Mervin Pope, Junie Perry, Jim Wright and Gary Frisby.

This photograph, from about 1963 or 1964, depicts the Bedford Road Optimists Basketball team.
Kneeling in the front row, left to right are: Alvin Harris, Brooke Davis, Robert Lewis, Billy Powell, and Leon "Buddy" Brashears.
Standing in the back row, left to right are: Gary "Bud" Stephens, Lawrence Lewis, Rodney Keys, Tom McMahon, Rick Cage, and Buddy Franciosi.

In the 1970s, members of the Piedmont Junior High School Basketball team included

front row, left to right, Coach Gary Evans, Peter Smith, Donald Twyman, George Jessie, Rick Niland, and Benny Twyman.

In the second row, left to right, are Kippy Price, Shawn Price, John Crawford, Gary Ray, Derick Walker, James Garland, Rick Niland, and William Price, Manager.

Keyser High School is located in Keyser, West Virginia, Mineral County. This is just across the Potomac River from Maryland.

The year 1918 brought the opening of Cumberland High School, a black high school located on Frederick Street. In keeping with the Supreme Court's ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, the new school for black students was, in theory, to be, "separate but equal." B.H. Smith was the principal and it was initially established as a two-year institution.

In 1919 E.A. Gibson became principal, the school implemented a four-year curriculum, and in 1922 the name was changed to Frederick Street School, and in 1941, to Carver High School.

This is Ron Lytle, a member of the St. Patrick's Catholic Church of Cumberland's "Irish" basketball team. The photograph was taken on April 4, 1968. Ron is now a professional photographer living in Hagerstown where he owns and manages The Contemporary School of the Arts and Gallery, Inc.

Depicted at the very top of this circa 1956 Fort Hill High School basketball team photograph is John Wesley Wormack. As a Junior, John was the only black on the varsity Fort Hill High School football team. This was out of 35 players, plus coaches and managers. As seen here he is the only black depicted on the varsity basketball team as well. This would make him one of the first, if not the first black to play these two varsity sports at Fort Hill. The 1956 Sabre did not depict any blacks on the varsity baseball or track teams.