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Former Indians great Kenny Lofton joins forces with filmmaker to honor 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes
"I Forgot To Tell You About The ... Cleveland Buckeyes Story" explores the team's journey from a tragic car accident to winning the 1945 Negro League World Series.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio â Filmmaker Evelyn Pollard-Gregory and former Indians center fielder Kenny Lofton have taken a trip into Clevelandâs baseball past to produce a documentary on the 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes, who won the Negro League World Series that year.
For Cleveland native Pollard-Gregory it has been a labor of love with the emphasis on labor.
Pollard-Gregory lives in Louisville and teaches Art Appreciation and Advanced Black Film and Media Studies at Simmons College of Kentucky. However, sheâs never lost touch with her hometown, which led to her discovery of the Buckeyes.
After 2020, when the COVID travel restrictions were loosened, she took her children to Cleveland for a visit.
âI wanted them to learn about their momâs hometown,â she said.
During that visit, she read a story about the 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes. Pollard-Gregory is an avid sports fan, but this was new to her.
âIâd never heard this story before,â she said. âWhen I found out, my partner (Tracey Jackson) and I had just finished grad school in a screen writing program. I told her about it and we were so excited.
âWe started reading more and finding people to talk to. We signed up for SABR (Society for American Baseball Research). We talked to baseball historians and from there is just snowballed.â
Pollard-Gregory knew she wanted to make a documentary on the Buckeyes, but she approached the subject on two fronts. First, she teamed with Jackson on writing a childrenâs book on the team that has yet to be published. Then she turned to the documentary named, âI Forgot To Tell You About The ... Cleveland Buckeyes Storyâ which was submitted earlier this month to the Cleveland Film Festival.
The 1945 Buckeyes went 53-16 during their barnstorming regular season to win the Negro Leagueâs American League pennant. The Buckeyes swept the powerful Homestead Grays in four games to win the World series with the first two games being played at Municipal Stadium and League Park.
Hall of Fame catcher Josh Gibson and his Homestead Gray teammates were swept by the Cleveland Buckeyes in the 1945 Negro League World Series.AP
The Grays featured future Hall of Famers Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Buck Leonard, Ray Brown and Jud Wilson. Theyâd won the World Series in 1943 and 1944 and were favored to make it three straight.
âThey were the New York Yankees of the Negro Leagues,â said Lofton. âAnd the Buckeyes swept them.â
The World Series is the meat and potatoes of the 27-minute documentary, but Pollard-Gregory was drawn to another part of the Buckeyesâ story.
On Sept. 7, 1942 the Buckeyes, who were splitting their home games between Cleveland and Cincinnati at the time, were returning from an exhibition doubleheader against the New York Black Yankees in Buffalo when one of the cars got a flat tire on Route 20 in Geneva. After the tire was changed, the car pulled back out into traffic and was hit by a tractor trailer, with devastating results.
Catcher Ulysses Brown and pitcher Raymond Owens were killed. Players Alonzo Boone, Eugene Bremer and Herman Watts along with GM Wilbur Hayes were injured.
When the team was formed in 1941, it traveled by bus. The bus, however, broke down and was not repaired. The team traveled in a carvan of cars after that which factored into the tragedy that followed.
âThe story about the accident was so touching,â said Pollard-Gregory. âI related to it. They were the underdogs and they kept fighting and they came back (to win a championship). It seems like they played for those players that they lost.
âAfter the accident, they played through the last two weeks of the season. It had to be so tough. To know they battled through that had to be so inspirational.â
The Buckeyes, in those final two weeks of the season, played every game on the road and lost them all.
This year will represent the 80th anniversary of the Buckeyesâ World Series title. Pollard-Gregory says sheâs too close to the documentary to grade it, but she showed a short version of it to her local SABR chapter and it was well received. The Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory in Louisville wants to show it as well.
Kenny Lofton, the Indians former Gold Glove center fielder, played a key role in the making of a documentary film on the 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes.David I. Andersen
It may never have reached this point without Loftonâs help. Lofton, who owns Filmpool, a film production company in Burbank, California, was instrumental in completing the documentary.
Pollard-Gregory had been scrambling to put the finishing touches on the documentary late last year when she finally was able to get hold of Lofton.
âEvelyn sent me a cameo video on the Buckeyes,â said Lofton. âI didnât know a whole lot about them. I just knew that a lot of Black players were involved because they couldnât play in the major leagues at that time because of segregation.
âI said, âHey, Iâve got a film production company and I can help you with this because I was very intrigued about it.â I ended up producing it with her and doing a re-edit to the cameo video she sent me.
âIt was one of those stories that for me was part of Cleveland. That made me excited because Cleveland is my second home. I just wanted to be a part of it.â
One of the best players on the Buckeyes was Sam âThe Jetâ Jethro. He could hit for average, steal bases and cover ground in center field. It sounded exactly like the player Lofton was for the great Indians teams of the 1990s.
Lofton laughed at the comparison. âI guess he was a lot like me or I was a lot like him,â he said.
Jethro finally made it to the big leagues in 1950 at age 33. He won the National League Rookie of the Year for the Boston Braves after hitting .338.
âThat was the problem with a lot of the Negro League players,â said Lofton. âBy the time they reached the big leagues they were passed their peak.â
While there are no living players from the 1945 Buckeyes, Pollard-Gregory was able to interview family members including Quincy Troppe Jr., the son of player-manager Quincy Troppe. She talked Eugene Bremerâs grand son. Bremer, who was injured in the 1942 car accident, pitched the Buckeyes to victory in Game 2 of the World Series at League Park.
She traveled to Kansas City and interviewed Bob Kendrick, head of the Negro League Museum, while Lofton flew to Cleveland to do some research on his own.
âWe talked to different historians and playersâ relatives,â said Lofton. âIt was tough to get information on it. That was 80 years ago.â
Pollard-Gregoryâs original editor on the project told her she only had six minutes of content for the documentary. She knew she had more than that after two to three years of work. So she took over the editing herself.
âIt was a blessing to me that Kenny called and his team was able to take it off my hands and put it together,â she said. âThey made it more aesthetic because I was like a one-woman show.â
The Buckeyes reached the World Series again in 1947, but lost in six games to the Cuban Giants. It was the same year that Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby became the first Black players to play in the big leagues. Ultimately, that spelled the end of the Negro Leagues with the Buckeyes folding in 1950 after starting the season with a 3-33 record.
âIt would have been great if when integration occurred they would have taken all the players and all the teams,â said Pollard-Gregory. âBut the big leagues just took the best players. It just dismantled the Negro Leagues.â
The Baseball Heritage Museum at League Park will honor the 1945 Buckeyes on a monthly basis starting in February. The celebration started on Sept. 20 with a fundraiser at the Music Box Supper Club in Cleveland with over 200 people in attendance.
The celebration of the Buckeyes will conclude on Sept. 19 and Sept. 20. The museum will host a Negro League family reunion at the Music Box on Sept 19 and a Buckeyes Fest at League Park on Sept. 20.
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