Bill "Bojangles" Robinson Was A Founder Of The New York Black Yankees!

The New York Black Yankees were a professional Negro league baseball team based in New York City, Paterson, NJ, and Rochester, NY which played in the Negro National League from 1936 to 1948. The team was founded in Harlem as the Harlem Black Bombers in 1931 by financier James "Soldier Boy" Semler and dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. Between games, the entertainment impresario would entertain crowds with his celebrated tap dance routines.

Yankee Stadium, in New York City, was historically supportive of the Negro Baseball League. The New York Times reports, "On July 5, 1930, about 20,000 fans filed into seven-year-old Yankee Stadium for a baseball doubleheader. What made this day special was that the teams, the New York Lincoln Giants and the Baltimore Black Sox, were the first Negro leagues clubs to play at the Stadium, which was essentially for whites only, like so many other public places in the United States at the time. Jacob Ruppert, the owner of the Yankees, had donated the use of the Stadium for the games to benefit of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the nation’s first successful black union."

Satchel Paige and other Negro leagues stars played at Yankee Stadium in the 1930s, during World War II and after the majors were integrated. CreditAssociated Press, via National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

The New York Black Yankees was later owned by NY underworld figure "Soldier Boy" Semler. Despite their dismal record the Black Yankees remained one of black baseball's "glamour" franchises principally because of its home field, Yankee Stadium, and the high visibility the park offered to visiting Negro League teams.

Notable players included Satchel Paige, Fats Jenkins, Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe, George "Mule" Suttles and Willie Wells.