This uniform was given to the Center for Negro League Baseball Research by the late Willie C. Young. He wore this uniform during the 1945 and 1946 season when he played for Stockham Valve and Fitting Company of the Birmingham Industrial League (BIL). The uniform that is on display consists of the jersey, pants, hat and spikes.
Willie C. Young - Stockham (1935-1952)
Birmingham Industrial League
The Birmingham Industrial League (BIL) was an important part of black baseball history from the 1920’s through the 1960’s. The Birmingham Industrial League is considered to be the top industrial league in the United States. Future Negro League greats like Piper Davis, Lyman Bostock, Willie Mays, Harry “Suitcase” Simpson and Artie Wilson all got their start in the Birmingham Industrial League. Over the years the Birmingham Industrial League served as the informal minor league organization for the Birmingham Black Barons. Some of the other outstanding teams of the Birmingham Industrial League were Acipico Pipe, 24th Street Red Sox, Fairfield Stars, Stockham, U.S. Steel and Tennessee Coal and Iron.
Willie C. Young was born in Alabama and played professional baseball for the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League in 1945. He also pitched for several seasons with the Nashville Black Volunteers of the Negro Southern League. But most of his career was spent in Birmingham, Alabama where he worked, played and coached for Stockham Valve and Fitting Company from 1935 to 1952. The most remarkable aspect of Young’s baseball career was that he was born with only one hand. As a left handed pitcher he wore his glove loosely on the stump of his right arm. Not letting that handicap stand in his way, he became an integral part of black baseball in the Birmingham area for almost twenty years.