THE 1896 BLACKBURN BASEBALL TEAM:
A REMARKABLE SEASON, A LASTING LEGACY
by Tom Emery
July 17, 2013, Carlinville, IL— Intercollegiate athletics at Blackburn College are traced to a baseball
game at Illinois College on March 29, 1882. In those early years, sports were offered intermittently and
were dependent on funding and the participation and organization of the student body.
Today, a high percentage of Blackburn students are involved in one or more sports today, and the school
enjoys a strong fan base that is both the envy, and bane, of opponents. Athletics in the late nineteenth
century also had enthusiastic backing from Blackburn students, who called for better facilities, more
teams, and the importance of sports not only for school spirit but also for physical health.
Nothing at Blackburn, though, matches the baseball team of 1896, whose story is among the most
remarkable in the entire history of the school. Nearly 120 years after that magical spring, the College
still feels the effects.
Baseball, like other sports, was played sporadically in the 1880s and 1890s, though the frequency of
games improved, as did the team’s performance. In 1895, Blackburn played seven intercollegiate
baseball games, fashioning a 5-2 record.
The team was also on solid financial ground, largely due to the squad’s business manager. C.H.C.
Anderson was a first-year student from Carlinville, and he brought a sorely needed business acumen to
the squad. After leaving Blackburn in 1899, Anderson became a successful businessman and generous
donor to the College. In 1954, the new Blackburn student center was named in his honor.
With relentless fund-raising efforts that included admission fees to baseball games and tight
management, Anderson kept the money flowing not only for the baseball team but for the school’s
Athletic Association, a board that oversaw the budding athletic program. That such an association was
even in existence is indicative of the interest in sports at Blackburn at the turn-of-the-century.
In the spring of 1895, the Association issued the following report:
“Manager Anderson should be commended for the work he has done for the Blackburn
University Base-ball Team, and for the careful way in which he has handled the finances of the
Athletic Association. Never before has this Association been in such prosperous circumstances.
The ball team has been able, through his management, to pay its own expenses, and the
expenses of about seven visiting teams. He has bought for the Association a great deal of
athletic goods, and has ended up the year with a good round sum in the treasury.”
There were also plans for wholesale improvements to the Blackburn baseball field. A fence was
proposed around the field, on which advertising could be sold, and the grounds were to be enclosed.
Other plans called for the erection of a grandstand.
Buoyed by the success of 1895, Anderson made plans for an ambitious schedule in 1896. In a 1960
thesis, Blackburn history student Charles Giles wrote that Anderson compiled “ a long schedule against
some of the best teams in the West,” and an analysis of the slate leaves little doubt.
In those days before the formation of the NCAA, teams played each other regardless of size, and
Blackburn took on all comers. Anderson’s schedule included four members of the newly formed
Western Conference, later known as the Big Ten--Wisconsin, Purdue, Northwestern, and the University
of Chicago (which left the conference in 1946). Also on the schedule was Indiana University, which
joined the Big Ten in 1899, though that game was later called off due to the death of an Indiana player.
The most talented ballplayers that Blackburn had to offer filled the roster, which comprised a high
percentage of the male student body. Among them was Justin Titus Bennett, whose fame was just
beginning. That year, he saw ample time at shortstop, third base, and on the mound, but his time at
Blackburn proved brief. There is no record of his graduation from the school.
By 1899, Bennett was playing minor league baseball, and he worked his way through the ranks before
being drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1905. He spent the next two years as the starting second
baseman in St. Louis, becoming the only Blackburn athlete to play in any of the four major American
sports leagues. He led the National League in at-bats in 1906. Following his stint in the majors, he
played in the minors in the Pacific Northwest until 1917.
Teammate Frank Carbellion had his own story. The dark-skinned Carbellion dealt with the racism of the
day, which came to a head that fall as a member of the fledgling Blackburn football team. In a game
against Shurtleff, an Upper Alton school that closed in 1957, one opponent refused to play if Carbellion
lined up against him at center, his normal position. Carbellion switched to guard in a 22-0 Blackburn
loss. Although the Shurtleff player apparently thought Carbellion was black, Giles believes that
Carbellion may have been American Indian.
Meanwhile, another team member, Charles Burnett of Carlinville, was waiting on some big news. With
the help of his local congressman, he had applied for admission to West Point, and during the third week
of April, he received word of his appointment, to the delight of his many friends in town and on campus.
It was just the beginning for Burnett, who became a star end on the Army football team before his
graduation in 1901. He rose to brigadier general in a distinguished career that saw him serve as an aide
to John J. Pershing in the Phillippines before three tours of duty as military attache to Tokyo. Prior to his
death in 1939, Burnett was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, as well as commendations from at
least seven foreign governments.
There was no real nickname for the baseball squad, as Blackburn did not adopt the moniker “Beavers”
until 1947. But there was plenty of enthusiasm to go around, especially from the Blackburnian, the
school newspaper, whose bravado reflected the high-spirited nature of college athletics in the era. And
there was plenty of that Blackburn in 1896.
*****
The season opened with a 21-1 rout of a local Carlinville team in an exhibition on April 4, the first of two
meetings between the squads (Blackburn also won 11-9 on May 16). The real season opener, though,
was on April 8, a day that the Blackburnian called “damp and disagreeable.” Still, a “fair crowd” was on
hand to watch Blackburn edge a “semi-professional” team from Staunton, 9-8.
A game against Carrollton was canceled on April 15, but that date gave Staunton a chance at “revenge,”
which did not happen in a 19-9 Blackburn victory. April 18 brought Shurtleff to town, and the rivalry
between the two schools provided no balance in a 23-0 Blackburn blowout.
The toughest competition, though, was yet to come. The day after the Shurtleff game, Blackburn
boarded a Chicago and Alton train for the Windy City, where they spent the night before opening a
stretch of five road games in five days. First up on April 20 was the University of Wisconsin in Madison,
described by the Blackburnian as “the strongest in the west.” Wisconsin made good on their billing in a
7-0 win over the tiny school from Carlinville.
The Carlinville Democrat, though, found cause for optimism. The paper reported that, for whatever
reason, the Blackburn bats “did not arrive in time,” and the field was “too muddy” due to recent heavy
rains. Still, the paper proudly noted that Blackburn had battled hard and “were not puny antagonists by
any measure.”
From there, Blackburn traveled to Lake Forest College, north of Chicago, beating the hosts 11-3 despite
a reception that was “not as cordial as it might have been.” The “reception” was even cooler the next
day at Rush Medical College, when the scheduled game was canceled amid a dispute over scheduling.
The Blackburnian blasted Rush for “as dirty a trick as one college could pay another.”
A date at Northwestern University had been scheduled for April 23, but that game was apparently not
played. Records for all Blackburn games that season are scarce, and Anderson’s original schedule
changed a number of times. As a result, many scores are not mentioned in either the Blackburnian or
the local papers. Replacing Northwestern was a game with St. Ignatius, and Blackburn worked out some
of their frustrations in an 11-2 victory.
The next game was at the University of Chicago, a date arranged by legendary Maroons coach Amos
Alonzo Stagg, who is best remembered for his contributions to football. Blackburn kept with the hosts
before falling 12-9 in a game attended by a host of Blackburn alums and “ardent supporters,” including
members of the Rowett and Rinaker families.
Blackburn finished the trip with a game on the way home at Lincoln College on April 25, and the visitors
rolled to a 16-0 win despite a pleasant distraction. The Blackburnian cheerfully reported on the “fair coeds” of Lincoln who “helped make things lively.” Indeed, the paper noted that “Lincoln will always be
remembered by the Blackburn boys.”
*****
After several days of rest, Blackburn was back in action on April 30 - May 1 with two home games
against the University of Missouri, another much larger opponent. Although the Blackburnian reported
that Mizzou “was licking their chops” and looked to “give us a few pointers,” the Blackburn boys had the
last laugh in a 4-0 win in the opener. The Democrat wrote of the “quick, snappy plays” enjoyed by the
“goodly-sized crowd” and chided Missouri for “receiving a basket of goose eggs” – a slang term for the
zeroes on the scoreboard.
The next day was even more lopsided, as Blackburn scored five runs in the first inning and pounded out
15 hits in a 15-2 rout. Six Blackburn players had multiple hits in a game cut short so the “Tigers might
catch the train to St. Louis.” The Democrat called the departed Missouri players “gentlemanly young
men” who left a positive impression on the locals. But they were no match for Blackburn, which the
Democrat called “the strongest team that has ever played in this city.”
Three games on the road against a local Beardstown team followed, a squad that the Blackburnian
called “a strong professional nine.” The first game on May 6 was a 4-2 Blackburn loss, but the next day
ended in a 3-3 tie against what the Blackburnian called “an aggregation of robbers.” That game had
apparently ended in a 5-3 Beardstown lead, but a call was reversed to allow for the tie. On May 8, the
teams were invited to Rushville, and Blackburn gained a measure of revenge in a 16-4 romp. Games
scheduled against Purdue in Carlinville on those days were apparently canceled.
However, the local fans got to see a Big Ten member on May 21-22 as Stagg’s University of Chicago
team came to town. Six Blackburn players had at least two hits in the opener, and the squad hammered
out 15 hits in all to win 11-2 despite heavy rains that left wet grounds. Six Blackburn players had at least
two hits in the game, and the bats kept burning with 11 more hits in a 7-6 win the following day for yet
another win over a much larger opponent.
On May 25-26, Blackburn finally took on an easy opponent, sweeping Diels Brothers, an amateur team
from St. Louis, by the scores of 18-0 and 7-5. Diels, though, would have other things to worry about. The
day after the second game, a massive tornado tore through St. Louis, decimating the downtown and
leaving 255 dead.
A 9-0 loss in Springfield followed on May 30 despite the best efforts of 75 “rooters” who made the trip
from Carlinville, no small feat in an era before automobiles. The loss, though, did not dampen
Blackburn’s spirits. The school paper noted that Springfield had played tough against a professional
team from Baltimore, which in turn had beaten the National League team in St. Louis.
The season concluded on June 2-3 in Carlinville against Illinois Wesleyan, and Blackburn finished the
magical spring in style with wins of 7-4 and 6-5. The Wesleyan games were particularly satisfying, for
IWU, like Blackburn, were members of the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Association, a loose
confederation of Illinois institutions of varying size.
Wesleyan was the only team in the IIAA who played Blackburn that season, and the Blackburnian
declared that other association members were “scared.” It was likely not an idle boast. As it was,
Blackburn finished the season with a remarkable 22-4 record and never lost a game at home.
*****
Any discussion of the greatest sports teams in Blackburn College history must include the 1896 baseball
team. Clearly, it was the greatest baseball team in Blackburn history, and few other teams in any sport in
the 131-year history of intercollegiate athletics at the school can match its levels of success and
celebrity. Among them are the 1984-85 men’s basketball team that won 20 of their last 21 games on the
way to a National Small College Athletic Association championship, and the 1992-93 women’s basketball
team that won all seventeen of their conference games and an NSCAA title of their own.
The 1896 baseball squad may have actually saved the school. Blackburn had suffered through financial
distress through much of the 1880s and 1890s, and by the spring of 1896, there were grave concerns for
the school’s future. On April 17, 1896 -- during the baseball season -- Blackburn trustee Thomas Rinaker
presented a resolution to the board that called for
“Blackburn University to be closed at the end of the present College year, unless the Prudential
Committee shall be able to secure some plan of management which shall secure the use of its
property for a school, without expense to this Board beyond the insurance of its property.”
The resolution was defeated, and the reasons are clear. The baseball season sparked a revival of
interest in Blackburn and brought the school statewide attention. More importantly, donations began to
rise, both from “friends of the college” and “friends of the team.” Giles wrote that “Anderson has
always said (and believed by many) that the great success of the baseball team of 1896 saved Blackburn
from closing down.” Giles himself echoed Anderson’s argument, as did former College president Glenn
McConagha in his sesquicentennial study of Blackburn history.
Nearly 120 years later, the Blackburn baseball team of 1896 is an indelible part of school history not only
in its incredible success, but for its contributions to the legacy, and mere existence, of the College today.
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