Rube Foster

Andrew "Rube" Foster (September 17, 1879 – December 9, 1930) was an American baseball player, manager, and executive in the Negro leagues, and a co-founder of organized Black professional baseball. Born in La Grange, Texas, he was the son of Andrew Foster, a minister and elder of the local African Methodist Episcopal Church. He began his professional career in 1897 with the Waco Yellow Jackets, an independent black team, and played for the Hot Springs Arlingtons in 1901. Over the following years he built a reputation among both white and black fans before being signed by Frank Leland.

Considered by sports historians to have been one of the best pitchers of the 1900s, Foster founded and managed the Chicago American Giants, one of the most successful black baseball teams of the pre-integration era. In 1920 he founded the Negro National League, the first long-lasting professional league for African-American ballplayers, which operated until 1931. For this work he became known as the "father of Black Baseball."

Foster adopted his longtime nickname, "Rube," as his official middle name later in life. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981.