- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJohn Jordan O'Neil
- Nicknames
- Foots
- Nancy
- Skip
- Height6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
- As a boy near Sarasota, Florida, Buck O'Neil hung around the New York Yankees spring training camps, and occasionally would be allowed inside to see them play. However, as a young black boy in 1920s America, O'Neil had no chance to play baseball in the major leagues. Nevertheless, he started out as a first baseman with the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues, soon becoming known for his solid performance with the bat and his dazzling glove work in the field. He labored in the Negro Leagues well after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the major leagues, and was soon considered too old to ever play for any of the major league teams. He became known as a manager and led the Monarchs to several pennants. However, a lifetime in baseball had provided O'Neil with the strategic and tactical know-how needed in a good coach, so in 1962, O'Neil became the first black appointed as a coach in the major leagues, filling that position for the Chicago Cubs. Although Robinson was the first black to play in the modern major leagues, O'Neil was the first black to make decisions affecting the play on the field. In later years, particularly after his appearance in Ken Burns' epic Baseball (1994), the engaging and eternally affable O'Neil was in great demand as a motivational speaker. His cheerful optimism sustained him even when, in 2006, he missed induction - by one vote - into the Baseball Hall of Fame as part of a group of Negro League players and executives. In July 2006, he became the oldest man ever to appear in a baseball game when he appeared in a minor-league All-Star game.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jane Margaret Laight
- John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil was a first baseman and manager in the Negro American League. After his playing days, he worked as a baseball scout, and became the first African American coach in Major League Baseball.[1] In his later years he became a popular and renowned speaker and interview subject, helping to renew widespread interest in the Negro leagues, and played a major role in establishing the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.- IMDb Mini Biography By: hayden_cb
- SpouseOra Lee Owens(January 17, 1946 - November 2, 1997) (her death)
- Baseball player in the Negro American League. With the Memphis Red Sox in 1937; remainder of career with the Kansas City Monarchs.
- A great baseball player and manager, he sent more Negro players to the "white" major leagues than anyone in baseball history.
- After his death in October 2006, his body lay in state at the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, which he helped found.
- Played in the Northern League All-Star game for the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks and then the Kansas City T-Bones on July 18, 2006 at the age of 94. He drew two intentional walks and never actually played in the field.
- On 24 October 2007, before the first game of the World Series between the Colorado Rockies and Boston Red Sox, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig announced that O'Neil will be honored with a statue at the Hall of Fame and by the establishment of the the Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award. O'Neil will be the first recipient of the award at the 2008 Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. The award's purpose is to honor an individual "whose extraordinary efforts enhanced baseball's positive impact on society, has broadened the game's appeal, and whose character, integrity and dignity are comparable to the qualities exhibited by O'Neil".
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