“The Chinese Hawaiian baseball team proved conclusively that they had the University Wildcats outclassed in every department when they took the second of a series of two games by a score of ten to two here today.” (Bisbee Daily News, March 24, 1915)
The exact wording may not be the same, but the message was: from 1912-1916, newspapers all across the continent shared the similar news – the Chinese University of Hawai‘i squad was the team to beat – but most couldn’t.
Mainland media tell part of the story … “The faculty and also the board of directors of the Chinese university of Hawaii have given permission to the baseball team of the institution to tour the United States in 1913.”
“A cable message was immediately sent to Nat C Strong in New York and he will arrange the schedule. It is expected the Chinese team will play Yale, Harvard and Princeton next year.” (Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, Pennsylvania, November 5, 1912)
“Mr Strong is an exceptionally active man in his line of work. He is the man who booked all the games for the Chinese baseball team, now playing on the coast, since June.”
“Because of the fact that the Chinese baseball boys now on the mainland have been such a good drawing card everywhere. Mr Strong has already secured seventy games for the All-Chinese aggregation should they decide to tour the United States again next year.” (Star-bulletin, September 28, 1912)
“The baseball team of the Chinese University of Hawai‘i will sail tomorrow for San Francisco, to begin a tour of the United States. After a few coast matches the team will go east, ending its schedule with a series of games with New England colleges the latter part of June.”
“The tour will comprise approximately 50,000 miles. The party will include fifteen prayers and will be in charge of Captain Akana. Nearly all of the players were members of the team which made a similar tour of the United States last year.” (Bismarck Daily, March 18, 1913)
“Supported by Chinatown business interests in Honolulu, as well as the Hawaiian Merchants and Advertiser’s Club of Honolulu, a baseball team of Chinese Americans was dispatched in 1912 to the mainland.”
“The nine’s backers hoped the athletes would pump up mainland tourism and investments in the Islands, as well as erect a cultural bridge between European Americans and Chinese Americans.”
“The 1912 and 1913 squads largely consisted of players of Chinese ancestry, although several athletes such as Buck Lai Tin, Vernon Ayau, Ken Yen Chun, Apau Kau and Land Akana also possessed indigenous Hawaiian and haole backgrounds.” (Franks)
“In subsequent years, the team became more ethnically diverse, but essentially remained Asian Pacific Islander. Thus by 1914, the team fielded several players possessing Japanese and indigenous Hawaiian ancestry.” (Franks)
In 1915, “arrangements have been completed for the famous All-Chinese baseball team of Honolulu, which was so successful against the leading American College clubs on its tour of the United States last year, to come to Shanghai and take part in the series for the open baseball championship of the Far East.”
They needed to raise $5,000 for expenses. Chinese President Yuan Shih-kai sent a letter of support, “stating the president’s hearty approval of the effort to popularize baseball in China as a suitable outdoor sport for Chinese youth …”
“… and the president also sent his check for $500 as a personal contribution towards the expenses of bringing out the All-Chinese baseball team from Honolulu, which he believes will do much to stimulate interest in the game among Chinese.” (Star Bulletin, April 8, 1915)
Furthermore, “Under the patronage of the Chinese government and with the personal assistance of Wu Tang-fang, former Chinese minister to the United States, a baseball team of American-born Chinese is on its way to Shanghai on the steamer Mongolia, by way of the Philippines and Japan.”
“Their expenses in China will be met by the Chinese Government. The team will tour the (principal) cities of the interior to introduce American athletics for the physical improvement of the youth of China.” (Columbus Weekly Advocate, April 15, 1915)
“Sixteen games were played in all during the trip to the Philippines and China, and of these 12 were won, three lost and one tied.”
“In Peking the president of China gave us a reception, and talked to us for about five minutes. We received special permission
to visit the old royal residence, and altogether were treated as distinguished guests.” (Star-Bulletin, June 22, 1915)
Back in the Islands, “The local press initially called the nine the All-Chinese but eventually took to referring to the Hawaiian ballplayers as the Travelers, the Hawaiian Travelers, or the Chinese Travelers.” (Franks)
However, “The young ballplayers crisscrossing the Pacific to the mainland did not go to the ‘Chinese University of Hawai‘i.’ There was no such institution. It was the concoction by one or more of the Hawaiian promoters of the trip.” (Franks)
The team’s management encouraged the fiction that baseball fans at Stanford and Penn State were watching a college team in action.
The team management wanted to schedule college teams and believed do so would be impossible unless mainland colleges were persuaded that the Hawaiian visitors represented a college. (Franks)
There was no ‘University of Hawai‘i’ in the Islands until 1920. When it was authorized in 1907, it was known as the ‘College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts of the Territory of Hawai‘i.’ In 1911, the name of the school was changed to the “College of Hawaiʻi.”
And, it wasn’t until 1917, after the Chinese Hawaiians stopped playing their mainland games, that the College of Hawaiʻi had its first baseball team, when an interclass game was played between the Aggies and Engineers (the Aggies won.)
With the addition of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1920, the school became known as the University of Hawaiʻi. The Territorial Normal and Training School (now the College of Education) joined the University in 1931.
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