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Reading Room Exhibit

Pastimes Preserved: Sports & Recreation in the Archives

Location: CSH Reading Room Exhibition
Dates: October 2024 – October 2025
Cost: Free
Hours: Open during normal business hours

Athletes in the Archives: Exploring Sacramento's Sporty Past.

This exhibition is presented by the Center for Sacramento History; curated by Staci Cox and Kim Hayden.

National champion long jumper Henry Hines is shown competing for Sacramento City College (SCC) in 1970. For 16 years, Hines held the U.S. junior college long jump record at 26 feet, 2 ¾ inches. Hines went on to the University of Southern California, where he remains the school’s third all-time best long jumper. He competed in the 1972 Olympic Trials, but due to a back injury, didn’t make the team. Afterward, he participated in the International Track Association, then worked as a coach for professional athletes. Hines was inducted into the SCC’s Hall of Fame in 2000.

(Sacramento Bee Collection, 1983/001/SBPMP3440)

Capital City Wheelman group photo

Five members of the Capital City Wheelmen pose at the California State Fairgrounds racetrack in 1918. Formed in 1886, the Wheelmen was a group of bicycling, and later motorcycling, enthusiasts in Sacramento that conducted rides and races, and participated in other sports and activities. The group advocated for improved roads in the region and also helped spearhead the American River Parkway.

Eugene Hepting Collection, MS0053

1985/024/5282

Flyer advertising "Motor Cycle Races"

While the Capital City Wheelmen started as a bicycle group, they later became interested in a faster type of cycling—motorcycling. They held motorcycle races throughout the Sacramento area. This flyer for an undated race in the early 1900s was at Agricultural Park, another name for the California State Fairgrounds. The fairgrounds moved from H and 20th streets to Stockton Boulevard in 1909.

Flyer, ca.1912

Scrapbook, 1982/x-01/029

Eugene with his bike

Prolific Sacramento photographer Eugene Hepting was a member of the Capital City Wheelmen and held several records for long distance rides around the region. Hepting is considered a hero of the history community for his decades-long project to capture photographs of Sacramento buildings and streets as he cycled around town, from the 1910s until his death in 1971. He also documented the Wheelmen’s activities. His photographs, housed here at the Center for Sacramento History, are an invaluable historical resource and the only known photographs of some of his subjects.

Eugene Hepting Collection, MS0053

1985/024/5345

Bee Frietas with her "Best Dressed" trophy

The Sacramento Cyclettes was one of the first women’s motorcycle clubs in the United States. Clarksburg native Bernadette "Bee" Freitas was the club’s vice president in 1939. That year, she also won Best Dressed Female Motorcycle Rider at one of the club’s events. She is seen here showing off her prize-winning outfit along with her trophy.

Sacramento Cyclettes Club Records, MS0052

1989/006/018/002

Sacramento Cyclettes group photo

Formed in 1937, the Sacramento Cyclettes was organized to "promote, foster, and encourage” motorcycling among women, and to provide women bikers with a social and recreational outlet. In addition to riding, the ladies of the Cyclettes attended motorcycle competitions across California and held social events at their clubhouse, until the group disbanded in 1987.

Sacramento Cyclettes Club Records, MS0052

1989/006/019

Football Program: Luther Burbank vs. Woodland
Luther Burbank vs. Woodland

This is one of many high school football programs from the 1940s to 1960s in our collection that have similarly illustrated covers. These generic covers were produced by professional artists and distributed to schools around the country by companies like Coca-Cola in exchange for ad space within the programs. The illustrators left blank spaces for local game-specific information to be added later. In this game, the Luther Burbank Titans narrowly beat the Woodland High School Wolves 13-12.

Football Program, 1963

Ephemera Collection, MS0098, 1980/163/109

Football Program: Sac High vs. McClatchy
Sacramento High vs. McClatchy

Hughes Stadium saw its largest crowd to date at this highly anticipated San Joaquin Conference Championship game between Sacramento and C. K. McClatchy high schools on Thanksgiving Day 1947. More than 24,000 fans crammed into the stadium to watch what the Bee described as “the greatest… duel ever arranged. Even PT Barnum himself could not have stacked the cards better." McClatchy bested Sacramento 34-14.

Football Program, 1947

1986/138/007

Camellia bowl
Sacramento High vs. Grant (cover)

Sacramento High School won their eighth straight game at this November 1947 match against Grant Union, sending Sac High on to the big game on Thanksgiving Day that would determine who would become the San Joaquin Conference Champions. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t Sac High. C. K. McClatchy High School won the conference title that year.

Football Program, 1947

1986/138/005

Football Program (cover): Sac High vs. Grant
Grant Pacers (interior)

Players from Grant Union High School’s football team show off their most intimidating poses in the program for their November 1947 game against Sacramento High School, where both teams vied for placement in the San Joaquin Conference Championship game to be held on Thanksgiving Day. Grant lost to Sacramento, and Sacramento ultimately lost the title to C. K. McClatchy High School.

Football Program, 1947

1986/138/005

Sacramento Senators, 1937

1987/091/108

Sacramento Senators

The Sacramento Senators was a team of many names. They got their start in the California League in the 1880s as the Altas. As one of the original Pacific Coast League (PCL) teams in 1903, they became the Sacramento Senators, then moved between Sacramento and other West Coast cities for several years, taking on a different name in each city, before returning to Sacramento for a decades-long stint in 1918. During their time in Sacramento, they were known as the Senators, the Sacts, the Wolves, back to the Senators, and finally the Solons.

 

Sacramento Solons, 1956

Ephemera Collection, MS0098

2002/023/010

Sacramento Solons

The Sacramento Senators officially became the Solons, their longtime nickname (and a term for a skillful lawmaker), after they were purchased by the St. Louis Cardinals as a farm team in 1936. Determined to keep the team in Sacramento, a group of local businessmen bought the Solons from the Cardinals in 1944, with Sacramento Union sports editor Dick Edmonds key in that effort. After he died the following year, the Solons’ ballfield was renamed Edmonds Field in his honor. The Solons played in Sacramento for nearly 30 years.

Tony Freitas

For nearly 15 years, the Solons had one of Minor League Baseball’s all-time best pitchers on their team. Tony Freitas played with the team from 1929 to 1950, with a few breaks to play in the major leagues and to serve during World War II. He helped the Solons capture the pennant in 1942 and remains the minor leagues’ winningest left-handed pitcher. After retiring from playing, he managed the Solons during their 1954-1955 season. He died in Orangevale in 1994 at age 85. 

Tony Freitas, 1935

1994/099/0025

Listen to his oral history held here at the Center.

 

 

This short film, originally created for the Center for Sacramento History's yearly Sacramento Archives Crawl event in 2024, features just a few peeks at baseball in Sacramento, California from 1920 to 1974. Featuring the Sacramento Solons and the Oakland Oaks, Hank Aaron, and many other notable players throughout the years. All of these and more can be seen in their original form at our Internet Archive page! 

From the films:

casacsh_000023 Sacramento Baseball 1920

casacsh_000091 Baseball Telenews 1950s

casacsh_000615 Solons Baseball 1960

The Cue-Balls

The Cue-Balls were part of the basketball league of the Lincoln Christian Center. Originally called the Japanese Christian Center, the Baptist Church-sponsored social center was founded in 1932 and located in Japantown. When Sacramento’s Japanese community was moved out and incarcerated during World War II, the organization’s name was changed and its focus expanded to

encompass other ethnicities and cultures.

The Cue-Balls, ca. 1948

Rev. Sensho Sasaki Collection, MS0196

Barbara Romack

Sacramento’s own Barbara Romack was the first female golfer to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated and remains the only amateur female golfer to grace the magazine’s cover. Considered one of the best golfers of her generation, the Sacramento native won many amateur tournaments in the U.S. and abroad in the 1950s.

Cover, Sports Illustrated, 1956

Barbara Romack Collection, 2018/028

Bocce Guys

A group of men closely examine the distance between the target pallino ball and their bocce balls to determine a winner at East Portal Park in East Sacramento sometime in the 1980s. Bocce came to Sacramento along with a wave of Italian immigrants in the late 1800s. The courts at East Portal Park, at M Street and Rodeo Way, are in the heart of Sacramento’s Little Italy and have been maintained by the East Portal Bocce Club since the 1940s.

Bocce Players, ca. 1985

Suttertown News Collection, 1995/026/0159

David South

David South skates through Capitol Park on September 20, 1979, while on an 8,000-mile roller skating trek through Canada and the United States. With sponsorships from U.S. and Canadian skate companies, South skated across Canada from his native Winnipeg to Vancouver, then down to Santa Barbara, east to Louisiana, and finally northeast back home. While in Sacramento, he stopped at High Roller Street Skates to give advice to local skaters.

Photo by Michael Williamson, Sacramento Bee Collection

1983/001/SBPMP09019

Runners at Hughes Track Meet

The USA/USSR Junior Invitational Track Meet was held at Sacramento’s Hughes Stadium on July 28, 1972. The US and USSR teams were each made up of 42 athletes aged 16 to 19, who competed in 21 events. Seen here are Marshall Dill (right, of Michigan State University), the winner of the 100-meter dash, congratulating teammate Steve Williams (San Diego State), who finished second. The Soviets won the overall event, 124-108.

Photo by Erhardt Krause, Sacramento Bee Collection

1983/001

The Sacramento Spirits

Colombia native Victor Arbelaez played forward with the Sacramento Spirits during the American Soccer League’s (ASL) 1976 season. The following year, he played with the Las Vegas Quicksilvers, where he scored the lone goal in a game against Pele and the New York Cosmos. The Sacramento Spirits were Sacramento's first professional soccer club, lasting from 1975 to 1978. After they were booted from the ASL in 1978, many Spirits players joined a new team, the Sacramento Gold, which folded in 1980 (an unrelated amateur team called the Sacramento Gold plays in Sacramento today).

Soccer Program, 1976

Small Collections, MS0078

Jeff Float

Jeff Float, the first deaf person to win an Olympic gold medal, got his start swimming at the Arden Hills Country Club and swam for Jesuit High School before graduating in 1978. While still a teenager, he won an unprecedented 10 gold medals and set 10 world records at the 1977 World Games for the Deaf. He then went on to win gold at the 1984 Olympics. He received a Congressional Medal of Honor in 2008 and has been a longtime swim coach in and around Sacramento.

Poster, 1984

Jeff Float collection, MS0078

Boxing Tournament at Memorial Auditorium

Memorial Auditorium was the place for boxing in Sacramento from the time it was built in 1927 until it was temporarily closed for remodeling in 1986. Sacramentans could see big-name fights, collegiate competitions, and local boys box it out at weekly matches and special events. The venue helped encourage the growth of Sacramento’s boxing industry, increasing the number of training gyms, boxers, managers, and promotors in Sacramento.

Boxing Program, 1940

Dusty Miller Collection, MS0156

1994/099

Joe Guevara

Rafael Lopez of Mexico reels from a punch thrown by Joe Guevara of Sacramento during a bout at Memorial Auditorium in 1974. Guevara knocked out Lopez during the fight’s sixth round, handing him an 11th straight win. At the time, Guevara was 19 years old and the fifth ranked bantamweight in the United States. His father, Ernie Guevara, owned Capital boxing Gym on Stockton Boulevard, where Guevara trained every day and later coached local fighters.

Why has this photo been drawn on? It ran in the Sacramento Bee, and it was common to draw on photos using white ink or a wax crayon to emphasize a particular feature or provide clarity during the newspaper printing process.

Dick Schmidt, Sacramento Bee, 1983/001/SBPMP2647

The Monarchs

The Sacramento Monarchs made their WNBA home game debut on June 23, 1997, at Arco Arena against the New York Liberty. Though they lost that first game, they went on to make it into the playoffs nine out of their thirteen seasons and won the WNBA Finals in 2005. For the first half of their run, the team had a powerhouse trio of players: Ticha Penicheiro, Yolanda Griffith, and two-time Olympic Gold medal winner Ruthie Bolton.

Bolton, born May 27, 1967, in Mississippi, played for the Monarchs from their first game through 2004. During that time, she scored over 2,000 career points and was named WNBA All-Star twice. She is fourth on the WNBA’s all-time 3-pointer list and is in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Bolton retired from the WNBA in 2004, after which her number was retired by the Monarchs. Years later, she revealed that during her time on the team, she was in an abusive marriage. Today, she lives in Sacramento, coaches and mentors young women basketball players, and gives talks on empowerment and the possibility of personal transformation.

Autographed Program, Sacramento Monarchs, June 26, 1997

2010/004

Girl with Pig Bowl Pennant

The Pig Bowl started in 1974 as a charity match between the Sacramento Police Department and Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department football teams. In 1978, Tana Clark, 10, was one of nearly 30,000 who attended Pig Bowl IV at Hughes Stadium – the largest crowd ever to watch a sporting event in Sacramento up to that time, according to the Bee. The SPD Bacon Bombers beat the Sherriff’s Razorbacks 50-20. Today, the bowl game is called Guns and Hoses, and it pits teams of law enforcement against firefighters.

Sacramento Bee Collection, 1983/001/SBPM6634

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