Archie Wade took the new-school way into baseball. He completed college first. He was a 1962 graduate of Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Al, playing both basketball and baseball. He joined the Stillman faculty after graduation and assisted his old coach in football and basketball as well.
You may remember from history (or at least from Forrest Gump) then Governor George Wallace standing in the doorway of Foster Auditorium to prevent negro students Vivian Malone and James Hood from enrolling at the University of Alabama in 1963. Wade’s legacy will surround that event. On Sept. 19, 1964, Wade his head coach and mentor Joffre Whisenton, and a third negro became the first to integrate a far bigger bastion of Southern integration. They were the first negro spectators at what is now Nick Saban Field at Bryant-Denney Stadium.
In Wade’s recollection, while expecting difficulties, he really wanted to see a game and he especially wanted to see Joe Namath. The Alabama president had given them tickets near the 50-yard line. During the first half they were fairly well obscured from the fan base as they were seated near the band. When the band moved out to get ready for the half-time show they were exposed. All of the items that spectators may have been holding to throw at the officials, or the Georgia Bulldog players, came raining down upon the three. Of course, neither the ushers nor the security staff were moved to lend assistance. To avoid the situation from becoming really bad, they left early in the second half.
Wade while a student at Stillman, worked evenings at the YMCA. It was there he formed basketball and baseball leagues for the negro children of Tuscaloosa. In 2010, Wade was inducted into the YMCA Hall of Fame for his contributions.
A St. Louis Cardinal scout would come to Tuscaloosa to scout football players looking for good athletes that also had baseball talent. On one of those trips he discovered and signed Wade as a shortstop in 1965. Stillman would grant him leave to play, so he went. In ‘65 he plays in the rookie league out of Sarasota for legendary Cardinal coach and long-time Pinellas County resident George Kissell. In ‘66 with the new Busch Complex on 62nd Ave. NE, he likely comes to St. Pete for Spring Training and doesn’t go far when assignments go out for the season. He is assigned as a member of the ‘66 St. Pete Cardinals of the Florida State League. His manager that season will become a legend – Sparky Anderson. He also participates in a legendary game.
Prior to the 1981 Pawtucket-Rochester game, the June 14, 1966, Miami – St. Petersburg game at Al Lang Field ranked as the longest professional game ever played. 29 innings. Archie Wade was the Cards centerfielder and leadoff hitter that evening. He played all 29 innings in a 3 – 2 loss that evening/morning. Despite going 1 for 12 at the plate he still led the FSL in batting average for the season at .338.
In ‘67, he moved with Sparky Anderson out to Modesto. He only appeared in 48 games and may have retired during the season. He finished his three years in the Cardinal chain with a respectable .295 career average. As a student of his i(‘79/’80) at the University of Alabama, where Wade was then a professor, I had looked up his minor league record and asked him why he stopped playing. His reply was to the effect that he felt blocked in his path to the majors. While there doesn’t appear to have been much blocking him with who was ahead of him in the minor league chain, the MLB roster may tell the story. Curt Flood was still in his prime at 29. Lou Brock was able to slide over if needed. The back-up outfielder in St. Louis was three years younger than Wade at 21 and looked to be a player. That young man would have some history in St, Pete as a player and as a manager in addition to having a fine major league career – Bobby Tolan.
In an interview on his playing experiences, Wade remarked that sometimes he was the only negro on the squad and other times there were as many as three. He remembered being refused service at a restaurant in Florida one time. The manager pulled the entire team, and they went somewhere else to eat. He encountered hardships because of his race as he had anticipated, but nothing that derailed him.
In ‘67 Wade finishes his master’s degree at West Virginia University. Also, while a member of the Stillman faculty, Alabama football coach Bear Bryant recruits him to help recruit negro players. He would start by watching the players’ Friday night game and then take the family to dinner afterward. On Saturday, they would attend the Bama game and then Wade would take them out to dinner after the game. Afterward he would give the coaches a report dealing with topics like fit with the team and in a potentially volatile environment in school. This was somewhat similar to the type of vetting Branch Rickey did before deciding that Jackie Robinson would be the one.
In 1970, Wade accepts a faculty position at the University of Alabama and is the first black faculty member in the school’s history. He says he encountered a lot of loneliness. He received his PhD. from Bama in 1974 and this one-time he would not be the first black person to do so. His mentor, Joffre Whisenton received his in 1968. He was also one of the founders of the Black Faculty and Staff Association. He became the first black full professor at Bama. He served from 1970 – 2000.
As far as the George Wallace connection, there’s a lot of irony involved. I took some physical education classes as free electives. On successive spring semester’s, I took classes in baseball and coaching baseball. Even though he was a kinesiology professor, he taught the baseball classes, because why not? The classes began indoors in January. If you look at the videos or pictures of Wallace in the auditorium doors, the classroom he taught us in was immediately behind the camera persons’ back. In 2021, the kinesiology building across the street and immediately to Wallace’s left was renamed Wade Hall, the first building on campus named for a minority person.
I’m sure Dr. Wade was in the stadium as was I the day (’80 or ’81) George Wallace rolled his wheelchair out to midfield during homecoming. The man who in his 1963 inaugural address declared, “… segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” crowned and kissed on the cheek Bama’s first black homecoming queen.
Dr. Archie Wade passed away January 13, 2025, at the age of 85. He leaves behind a wife of 60 years, five children, nine grandchildren and a quiet legacy of civil rights accomplishments. He’s earned his rest.
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