Volume 11 , Issue 30

Looking Back ... Early 1900 Baseball & Grandpa Bill

They were known as "Alva the Champions!" The Baseball team pictured on the left played in the Alva, Greensburg and Hopeton area around 1904.

Listed Left to Right, Front Row: George Brannan, Jess Clifton, a dog, Lynn White, Ramsey; Middle Row: A Helena boy, Frank Crowell, Wilhite; Back Row: Museller, Quinlan, Bill McGill, Rolly Wilton, Ross Frazier.

Grandpa Bill McGill was born William Jacob McGill, 29 June 1880, died 29 July 1959, Alva, Oklahoma. On 23 March 1910 he married my Grandmother, Constance Estella Warwick. They divorced around the earlier 1940s and Grandpa married Blanche Miller in 1945.

Grandpa's baseball years ranged from 1902 to 1908. Beginning in 1902 & 1903, William "Bill" attended Northwestern Normal and was active in sports. By 1904, Bill was attending Friends University in Wichita, Kansas where he was considered to be a one-man track team, played football and baseball at Friends.

Around 1905 & 1906 he was pitching for the Austin Senators in the Texas Baseball League in Austin, TX. In 1907, Bill went to the Big Leagues and played with the St. Louis Browns.

In 1908, Bill was back in Oklahoma teaching school three miles north of Cherokee and in Woods County. He was also courtin' my Grandmother, Constance Estella Warwick, who was also a school teacher in Woods County, Oklahoma.
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