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MURFREESBORO – Decades ago, people used to pack Murfreesboro’s Riverside Park each week to watch the Hertford County’s local baseball teams play.

Black men from Murfreesboro, Como, Ahoskie, Winton, and other parts of the county formed the teams. Crowds cheered them on for every homerun hit, every base crossed, and every strikeout pitch. The games were something people looked forward to each weekend.

Now a new history marker commemorates the stories of those teams and players.

An unveiling event was held on Saturday, Nov. 9 at the park. It was sponsored by the Hertford County African American History Coalition – their third history marker after previous ones recognizing the Ruffin Brothers Store and African American education at Riverview Elementary. Money for the marker was privately donated.

The local Black baseball teams started in the 1930s and continued into the 1960s. Teams over the years included the Como Eagles, Murfreesboro Tigers, Murfreesboro Red Sox, Chowan Bees, the Ahoskie War Hawks, and more.

Plenty of people participated in or watched the games during the league’s heyday, even including Willie Mays – later, a national Baseball Hall of Famer – who played games in Hertford County in 1952-1953 while he was stationed with the U.S. Army at Fort Eustis, VA.

Coalition member and Murfreesboro Town Council member Berna Stephens welcomed attendees at Saturday’s event.

“This was something awesome for this area,” she said. “It gave the adults and children an activity for Sunday afternoons. When you came into Murfreesboro, you could see the cars lined up. Families would be here. They enjoyed watching the ‘cornfield boys.’”

During the event, attendees were encouraged to share their stories about baseball games of the past.

Pricilla Cooper Epps said her grandfather and uncle were team owners for the Como Eagles, and she was excited to see the marker recognize the baseball league.

“As a young girl, they taught me how to keep score,” she said, and also recalled getting scolding for leaving church early on Sundays so she could go watch baseball.

Gloria Odum shared how her father had played in the league, and ended up with two broken knees. She recalled that he wasn’t too pleased to be sidelined by the injury after that. Odum added that she was happy to see the new marker unveiled.

Curtis Jordan recalled playing on a Murfreesboro team in the 1960s for young men.

“We played in jeans, a white shirt, and a pair of tennis shoes,” he recalled, noting that visiting teams often laughed at their lack of uniforms.

“We had a team that came down – they were semi-pro – out of the city,” Jordan recalled. “They came down with their big bus. They came in here and saw us out here with these jeans on, and they just laughed. They fell down on the ground laughing.”

But Jordan said his team got the last laugh in the end.

“But I tell you what, when they went back home, they had tears coming out the exhaust of the bus,” he said, grinning.

Jordan recounted the names of several players and how skilled they were in the position they played. And he told the story of how he scored the winning run in one game by jumping over the catcher who was waiting to tag him out at home plate.

He acknowledged the older men who played too, and who also encouraged the younger ones like him to participate.

“They kept us from running around in the streets,” he said. “They took care of us. We’d practice every day out here at this field. This is a precious place for me.”

His wife, Joyce Jordan recalled what it was like being a spectator back in those days. Among teenagers like herself at the time, the games were a hot topic of conversation each week. And, she added with a laugh, that they always had chaperones take them to the games since they were going to watch the boys play.

“This park was filled up to the hilt with people on Saturdays,” she said. “We had a good time, and it was good for the neighborhood.”

She said she’d like to see a baseball league played here again.

Stephens said something similar during her own remarks.

“We need to revitalize a lot of things that we used to do,” she said. “It would be a light for the youth in this area. Something for them to participate in.”

As a town council member, Stephens’ focus is on recreation. While the town does offer some programs now, she also said, “we as a community need to get back to the basics, working together and teaching and training our youth to work together.”

Much of the history about the local Black baseball teams is recorded in the book “They called us the Cornfield Boys” co-written by Raymond Whitehead and E. Frank Stephenson. Coalition member Brandon Vaughan said their work preserving history has made the group’s efforts to preserve history just a little bit easier, and part of what made the marker possible.

Following a closing prayer and a group photo, the unveiling event wrapped up with refreshments and fellowship, right near the park’s baseball field, where so many others have gathered for the same kind of community connection in years past.