NBC Hall of Famer Hilton Smith
Hilton Smith
February 27, 1907 – November 18, 1983
Bismarck Churchills 1935-1936
Inducted 2026
“A quiet and confident righthander” is the first statement describing Hilton Smith on his Hall of Fame plaque in Cooperstown, New York. For a man that is one of the forgotten stars of the Negro Leagues because he spent much of his career in the shadows of Satchel Paige, those words couldn’t be truer for someone that diligently went about his business and perfected his craft while helping others along the way, never jealous of not being in the spotlight.
The oldest of six, Smith was born in 1907 in Giddings, Texas, and learned to play baseball with his uncles while helping raise his siblings. Growing up, he always played against older competition which likely helped accelerate his maturity both on and off the diamond. He attended Prairie View A&M in the late twenties spending time in both the outfield and on the mound, while also earning academic honors and being on the dean’s list as an Agricultural Science major.
His love for baseball, though, led him to pursue a career in the sport and he played with various semipro teams out of college eventually joining the Monroe (LA) Monarchs in 1932, where he would go undefeated in his first season winning 31 games leading them to the Negro Dixie League Series title. As he continued to develop his arsenal of six pitches including a stellar fastball and devastating curveball, he also spent time tutoring illiterate teammates on road trips. He would be a mainstay in Monroe’s rotation until the team was on a barnstorming trip in North Dakota in early July 1935.
The Monarchs stopped to play a game in Bismarck on July 8th, against a team named for their owner and manager Neil Churchill. Churchill was years ahead of his time working tirelessly at putting together the best group of ballplayers, regardless of race, for the upcoming first ever National Semipro Tournament in Wichita. While Smith did not play that day, Churchill was well aware of his abilities and offered him $150 a month to join Bismarck right away. Smith accepted, and the very next day made his debut on the back end of a tripleheader in Langenberg, Canada. Years later, teammates nicknamed him “Satchels Relief”, as he commonly finished games that Paige started, but in his first game ever with Paige as a teammate, Smith started for the Churchills and pitched 5 scoreless innings before Paige relieved him! Paige also threw 3 shutout innings before the game was called due to darkness. Later that week, Smith made his home debut and showed he was just as valuable at the plate going 2-4 against the Mexican All-Stars who at the time were referred to as the “best baseball team on the road.”
Smith won at least 5 games in the short time he was with the Churchills prior to the inaugural NBC, with his curveball sometimes referred to as “the old silencer”. Bismarck arrived in Wichita on a 13-game winning streak, and the city was abuzz with the prospect of seeing Paige pitch as many times as possible. Paige would wind up pitching in 5 of the teams 7 games, with Churchill’s newest acquisition Chet Brewer throwing the rest of the time, and Smith would not see any action until the semifinals.
In the first inning of the semifinal against the Omaha Ford V-8s, Churchills centerfielder Quincy Troupe injured his knee trying to stretch a triple into a home run. Entering the game as his replacement, Smith seized the opportunity and went 3-5 with 2 doubles and drove in 3 helping Bismarck punch their ticket to the finals in a 15-6 victory. The following night, he was thrust into the cleanup spot in the lineup with the usual occupant unable to play due to a hangover, and Smith proceeded to go 2-4 driving in Bismarck’s first run, and scoring their last as the integrated Churchills captured the first NBC title defeating the Duncan (OK) Cementers 5-2 and finished the tournament a perfect 7-0.
Paige left the Churchills after 1935, and Smith continued his dominance for them as a two way player. One of the games in which this was not only apparent, but also had a lasting impact on his entire career, was in his final start before the 1936 NBC. Facing the Kansas City Monarchs, he pitched a complete game allowing only two runs while scattering 5 hits, and also hit a 2-run home run to tie it in the eighth before darkness ended game still tied, after 9 innings. Monarchs owner, J.L. Wilkinson, in attendance at that game, and much like Churchill, always on the lookout for talent, offered Smith $175 a month to join his team following the conclusion of Bismarck’s season, to which Smith agreed.
With just the NBC tournament left, a chance to repeat, and now the ace the of the staff, Smith, in uncharacteristic fashion, promised Churchill that he would match Paige’s 4 victories from the year before. True to his word, Smith dominated in his 4 outings in Wichita pitching 3 complete games while striking out 25 and finishing with a 4-0 record. When he wasn’t pitching, he hit .333 while playing in right field, but his presence on the mound was missed as they went 1-2 in those games with the second loss being to the eventual champion Cementers in the semifinals. Had they beaten the Cementers, Smith would’ve been the starting pitcher for Bismarck in the final.
For his efforts in the ‘36 tournament, Smith was honored by the NBC, being named to the All-American team. NBC founder Hap Dumont even pulled him aside as he was leaving his hotel after the tournament and told him that a couple of scouts were interested in signing him “if he was white.” Being reminded of the seemingly unbreakable color barrier at the major league level, and perhaps using it as motivation, he headed to Kansas City to embark on a 13-year career with the Monarchs.
Smith pitched a no-hitter in the Monarchs home opener in 1937, and excelled in everything he did over much of the next decade. Fellow NBC and National Baseball Hall of Famer Buck O’Neil joined the Monarchs in 1938 and said that not only did Smith have the greatest curve ball he had ever seen, but that he also “might have been the best pitcher in the world.” Smith’s stats certainly back up that claim as he was 93-11 from 1939-1942, and during his tenure with the Monarchs he was a 7-time All-Star, helping lead them to 6 Pennants, and one Negro League World Series title.
His greatest contribution to the sport, however, may have come in 1942. Shortly after Jackie Robinson was drafted into the Army, Smith met him during an exhibition game between Black All-Stars and White major leaguers. Smith was so impressed with Robinson from their meeting and his play that he wrote to Wilkinson and told him he needed to sign him right away. Although that didn’t happen at the time, Robinson, after being honorably discharged from the military in 1944, reached out to Wilkinson himself. Perhaps because of Smith’s urging years before, Wilkinson signed Robinson to a contract for the 1945 season. Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey then saw him play with the Monarchs later that year and acquired him with the intent of making him the first Black player in MLB history. While Smith was briefly in consideration to be the player to break the color barrier, he was almost 40 at the time and said he was too old at that point. Without Smith and Robinson’s encounter in a random game years before MLB was integrated, however, who knows if Robinson would’ve been the first.
Upon retirement, Smith remained in baseball circles coaching various amateur and semipro teams, and was even scouting for the Chicago Cubs with O’Neil when he died in 1983. His son DeMorris said that his father desired his legacy to be one of giving back to the game and to those who came after him. Those positive contributions to the sport and the players that came in contact with him were finally fully recognized when Smith was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 2001.
Hilton Smith’s career NBC stats
Pitching – 4G, 4-0, 3CG, 30.1IP, 18H, 3R, 25K
Batting – 9G, .313 (10-32), 5R, 4RBI, 4 2B
