If you have never heard of The Newburgh Gorhams, the week is arriving to learn something amazing. Friday evening, August 2nd, is a night of tribute to The Gorhams. They were Newburgh’s Negro League baseball team and they were powerful. In 1891, they played over 100 games and lost only 4 with a 39-game winning streak.

Across the river at Heritage Financial Park (the name of the updated Dutchess Stadium on Route 9) the popular local minor league team, Hudson Valley Renegades, will take the field Friday, August 2 at 7 p.m. wearing uniforms styled on the outfits of the long-ago Newburgh Gorhams.

The old Gorhams were a nineteenth century team organized in New York City in 1886. They were named for their sponsor, saloon owner Alexander Gorham a friend of their organizer, Ambrose Davis. Mr. Davis is the first known African-American team owner in all of professional sports. The Gorhams barnstormed around the northeast and played exhibition games that first year and then joined the new League of Colored Baseball Players in 1887 with teams from many big cities like Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia. The league’s first game saw the Gorhams beat the Pittsburgh Keystones 11-8. The next season, the team’s manager, John “Bud” Fowler leased a home field for The Gorhams – in Newburgh. That old ballyard had been a local playing field that Newburghers called the Benkard Ball Grounds. New York newspapers described the site as “Benkard Heights.” Indeed, the big neighborhood being developed into Washington Heights included many acres that were still owned by early landowner Henry Robinson’s grandchildren, whose surname name was Benkard. An old newspaper account of early Negro League play from The Brooklyn Eagle describes that the entry gate was on South Lander Street and many fans watched the play-by-play from the nearby hillside – probably the north side of South William Street around St. George’s Cemetery.

Newburgh was already a competitive baseball town that fielded champion teams like The Newburghs as early as 1859. The city’s strongest early team was The Hudson Rivers who played well into the 1870s. Yet, attracting a Negro League Team was a great coup for Newburgh, especially such a skilled team. The Gorhams were very successful in their south Newburgh home. They picked up several wins against the dominant New York Cuban Giants, still a legendary baseball team. On the road in 1891, playing another league team in Cape May, New Jersey, the Gorhams met U.S. President Benjamin Harrison, who came to see the game. It is the only time a sitting President came to a Negro League game during the entire era of segregated baseball.

Next Friday’s game will be played against a Renegades league competitor, the Jersey Shore Blue Claws – echoing the game President Harrison witnessed.

To see an intriguing summary of the history of Newburgh’s Negro league team, look at the short movie about The Gorhams that the Newburgh Historical Society has posted on its Instagram page.