In the early 1920s, a baseball diamond and grandstand were built in Broadway Park at 35th Street and Broadway. The baseball park was used by the Council Bluffs Athletic Association from 1921 through 1933 according to an Omaha World Herald article from January 13, 1952. The association organized the Southwest Iowa Baseball Tournament that drew pro, semi pro and amateur players to Council Bluffs. The teams in the tournament were formed by residents representing towns in the area, including Council Bluffs, Hazel Dell, Pisgah and Glenwood. The ballpark also hosted local high school teams and recreational leagues like the Beno Clowns, Maccabees, Union Pacifics and DeVol’s Legion. Once the Council Bluffs Athletic Association withdrew their sponsorship for the ballpark, the American Legion began leasing the grounds and organized baseball games at the venue throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
In 1945, the American Legion Rainbow Post No. 2 purchased the baseball field in 1945 for $2,000. The American Legion planned to turn the park into a civic center for staging outdoor activities, according to the August 11, 1945 issue of the Daily Nonpareil. Lighting was installed by Giant Manufacturing, a local Council Bluffs industry, in 1946 to allow nighttime games to be played. The Daily Nonpareil reported in their March 3, 1946 issue that other improvements were made including “repairing and painting the grandstand and installing all new wire, erection of a new scoreboard and filling in the diamond” in preparation for the 1946 baseball season. The field was planned to be used by an independent club in Council Bluffs, “Iowa and Nebraska semi-pro and independent teams,” and the “Negro professional leagues.”
Before Jackie Robinson made his Major League Baseball debut in 1947 for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he came to the American Legion Baseball Park on October 15, 1946. The game was a part of a barnstorming tour “after [Robinson led] the Montreal Royals of the International League to a win in the Junior World Series,” according to Alan Cohen in his article, The Jackie Robinson Barnstorming Tour of 1946. Robinson’s team, dubbed the Robinson All-Stars, was made up of “several players from the Dodgers organization as well as players from the Negro Leagues.” They faced off against the Omaha Firemen on a chilly Fall evening in front of a crowd of about 500 people. The Firemen scored three runs in the last inning, winning 8 to 7. Other notable baseball players that came through Council Bluffs and played at the ballpark were James “Cool Papa” Bell, Norman “Turkey” Stearnes, Satchel Paige, Willie Foster, Willie Wells and Willard Brown as reported in the June 14, 2015 issue of the Daily Nonpareil.
The Omaha Cardinals, a minor league of the St. Louis Cardinals, used the American Legion Baseball Park as their home field for the 1947 and 1948 seasons. The Omaha Cardinals were part of the Western League, which included the Denver Bears, Des Moines Bruins, Lincoln A’s, Pueblo Dodgers and Sioux City Soos. Once Rosenblatt Stadium was constructed in 1949, the Omaha Cardinals moved to Omaha. Attendance at baseball games in Council Bluffs dropped off once the team left and fans instead traveled across the river to Omaha to attend baseball games. Legion Activities, Inc., the entity that managed the sporting events at American Legion Baseball Park, attempted to get a minor league team in Council Bluffs that would join the Western League but the efforts failed. An opinion piece in the June 2, 1949 issue of the Daily Nonpareil commented that baseball fans were satisfied attending minor league games in the Western league in Omaha rather than attending semi pro and amateur baseball games offered in Council Bluffs. The 1949 amateur baseball season was played “to virtually empty stands at Legion park.”
By the 1950s, the American Legion considered disposing of the baseball field due to a substantial operating deficit in 1950 attributed to “lack of public support of baseball and other activities sponsored by the park” according to the October 18, 1951 issue of the Daily Nonpareil. The American Legion continued operations of the baseball field in 1951 because various civic organizations wanted to keep it open and donated money towards the cause. However, at the end of the 1951 season, an inspection revealed the need for extensive repairs in order for the baseball park to reopen. Ultimately, members of the American Legion executive committee believed “the organization would not be justified in making such repairs because of lack of public support.” The repairs would have totaled $10,000 and Gordon O’Neill, a member of the executive committee, commented “the Legion does not have that kind of money. We had no alternative” in an interview with the Omaha World Herald. The Legion sold the bleachers for salvage and the ballpark was torn down in the early 1950s.
Sources
Cohen, Alan. “The Jackie Robinson Barnstorming Tour of 1946.” The Society for American Baseball Research, https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-jackie-robinson-barnstorming-tour-of-1946/.
Daily Nonpareil articles
Omaha World Herald articles