Paving the Way: The First Negro League Player In the IBL



London’s dominance in the Intercounty Baseball League during the 1940’s was unparalleled.  Winners of 5 championships in the decade and a 83% win percentage.   "The Majors" City's success fuelled Cambridge Terriers owner Gus Murray's ambitions to assemble a ball club able to overtake the London squad and more importantly fill the seats at Cambridge’s Dickson Park.

As Jackie Robinson and Larry Dolby spearheaded the black integration into the major leagues, marking the beginning of the end of the Negro Leagues in the United States, players began searching for contracts in other leagues such as the ManDak League and the Quebec League

Murray seized this opportunity to get in on the action signing Jeff Shelton to his Terriers for the 1949 season.

Shelton was born in South Carolina in 1919 where he was known as a good hitting pitcher throughout his younger days pitching for the Charleston Black Spinners, and the semi-professional the Cleveland Buckeyes.

He moved to Buffalo to play for the barnstorming team the Buffalo Harlem Giants who toured into southern Ontario during the early 1940's before Shelton was drafted into the US Navy in 1943.

After his service ended, Shelton returned to the Giants in 1946 who continued to play into southern Ontario, and it  likely is how Murray became interested in signing the pitcher to play in 1949 for $200 a month.

Newspapers mention Shelton closing out a 5-2 Galt victory over St. Thomas on May 25th and him going 3 for 4 in late June as his Terriers downed Brantford in a 12-8 home win in front of over 4,000 people at Dickson Park.   In August he was batting at a .350 clip which was 6th in the league at the time.

Shelton finished the 1949 season with a 10-4 record  and batting .333 on the season.

After his playing days were over Shelton took up trap shooting at the Buffalo Shooting Club winning numerous competitions including becoming the first African Amercian to win the Amateur Trapshooting Association's  Grand American Championship in Vandalia, Ohio.    He was also an avid league bowler with an 198 average.


With files from author Paul E. Allen's book “Bright Lights Black Stars: Negro League Players and Canada’s Oldest Baseball League” which follows the journey of Negro League baseball players in the Intercounty Baseball League (The IBL) during the 1948-59 era.