Percy Parker
1898- 28 September 1956
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Born in Raleigh Township, Ontario to Alfred Parker and Geraldine Henry. He had eleven siblings, Grace, Louella, Augustus, Amos, Teresa, Bertha, Harry, George, Freda, Marguerite, and Casper. He married Bertha Holden in September 1923. Before coaching the All-Stars, he played with the Chatham Giants, a largely African-Canadian team in the 1920s. Primarily a third-base coach for the All-Stars, he was also known for amusing the crowd with catch-phrases and comments. After coaching he worked as a labourer.
In Other Words
“Percy Parker gave Sarnia fans a treat with his yellings and antics in the third base coaching box. ‘Lovely, boys, lovely, lovely,’ Percy would holler and the fans alternatively yelped approval and disapproval” ("Stars Seem to Have Something," Chatham Daily News, September 10, 1934).
“Percy Parker, third base coaching box vaudevillian of the Stars’ organization puts on a little floor show by himself during the game. Saturday he had the Sarnia fans in high glee throughout the contest. He earned the name of ‘Feet’ as he went through his own version of a highland fling” ("Stars Will Draw Them," Chatham Daily News, September 12, 1934).
“He had one of those original chants, too, didn’t he? Now they have mascots for baseball teams but Percy Parker used to yatateeyat [sic] --what was that yell? Can you remember that yell that he used to give? He was loud, you could hear it all over the east end”(Harding-Milburn, "The Chatham All-Stars: An Interview with Kingsley Terrell," Polyphony 7, (1985): 111-120).
Resources
Articles
- Art Cartier, "The First Colored All-Stars Team: Ontario Title 1934," in Politics and Other Games, vol. 2 (London: London Free Press, 1966).
- Daniel J. Kelly, "The Chatham Coloured All-Stars 1933-34," http://scholar.uwindsor.ca/hardingpub/1
- Lauren A. Miceli, "The 1943 Chatham Colored All-Stars: Barnstorming to Championships," The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History 4 no. 1 (2016): 8-16.
- Wanda Harding-Milburn, "The Chatham All-Stars: An Interview with Kingsley Terrell," Polyphony 7 no. 1 (1985): 111-116.
Newspapers
- Lisa Gilbert & Jim Gilbert, "Chatham Colored All-Stars Were Heroes of 1934: If Only Kingsley's Old Glove Could Talk," Chatham Daily News, July 27, 2002.
- "Stars Seem to Have Something," Chatham Daily News, Septemer 10, 1934.
- "Stars Will Draw Them," Chatham Daily News, September 12, 1934.
- Ian Kennedy, "Chatham Giants: Chatham-Kent Sports Black History Month." Chatham-Kent Sports Network, February 20, 2013.