The Occidentals of Salt Lake were an all-Black baseball team that called Salt Lake City home from 1906-1913. What started as a team that would play company teams for small side bets on the diamonds in Salt Lake City turned into one of the best baseball teams in the Western United States.
The Occidentals' reputation and team strength grew in their first two years. They would barnstorm up and down the Wasatch front playing teams from Utah County up into Idaho, consistently drawing great crowds and playing great baseball.
In 1908 when local businessmen were looking to put together an organized league of teams in Utah, the Occidentals fought to be considered. Ultimately, the league formed with four teams: Ogden, Salt Lake, Fort Douglas, and Murray. But shortly into the season, the Fort Douglas team folded, and the Occidentals finished the 1908 season as the replacement club for Fort Douglas.
The Deseret News said at the time, “The (team) has paid no attention to handicaps under which they had to enter the league; they have played good, earnest ball and provide the fans with their money’s worth every time they play.”
In 1909 the Occidentals were in from the start and left no doubt that they were the class of not just the Utah State League but of the surrounding area, winning the Utah State League and then thumping the Yampa Smelter team out of Bingham to win the right to call themselves the Utah champs.
Following the season, the team barnstormed California amassing a 14-4-2 record against some of the best teams in Golden State, including wins against Pacific Coast League All-Star teams and the Los Angeles Black Giants. One of their losses was against a team called the Yellow Sox which was a group of Major Leaguers and Pacific Coast League players keeping fresh in the offseason. The Yellow Sox shutout the Occidentals 2-0 behind the pitching of future Hall of Famer Walter Johnson.
The Occidentals were not without their trials. They played every team in Northern Utah regularly, but when it came time to add them to the Utah State League in 1908, the Murray team threatened to quit the league if forced to play in a league with an all-Black team. They had the respect of baseball fans and newspaper writers but were also subjected to a barrage of slurs and disparaging names in print that were unfortunately common for the time.
But ultimately, the team let their play do the talking, winning almost every time they went out on the field. They drew huge crowds wherever they went, with reports of 3,000 plus fans watching them play in Salt Lake City and they were consistently shipped in as a draw for big events like town days in Preston, Park City or Ogden. They made fans of people like heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson who umpired a game for the club while traveling through Salt Lake City.
As part of Minor League Baseball’s “The Nine” program the Salt Lake Bees are proud to honor the team with Salt Lake Occidentals throwback night. The team will wear white jerseys with black lettering and numbering trimmed in orange that one contemporary newspaper reported they wore.