The "Save Our African American Treasures" display at the downtown Houston Public Library is today. Don't mss it, if possible. - Courtesy of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library.
An Open Letter to Dr. Sue Hepler-Liuzza
Dear Sue:
Thank you again for making those three priceless photos from black baseball history in Houston available to everyone following the death of your dear husband Frank Liuzza in January 2010. Who would thought that our contact in 2007 to catch up on each other’s lives since graduate school days at Tulane years ago would have led to this unexpected dividend payment to local history.
For those who don’t know the story, here’s the gist of it: Sue and I were graduate students together years ago at Tulane in New Orleans. Our relationship had nothing to do with baseball or Houston, but we soon discovered that link in 2007 when I told Sue that I had been searching for material on black baseball in Houston as part of my research. That’s when I learned that Sue was then married to a man named Frank Liuzza and that his dad and uncle, James and John Liuzza, had once founded an owned a black baseball club that was first known as the Houston Monarchs and later the Houston Black Buffs. Frank also owned three photo from that era, including the one featured yesterday in the Houston Chronicle ad for the Smithsonian-sponsored show at the downtown library today, 10/29/11, from 10 AM to 4 PM. It is called, appropriately so, “Save Our African American Treasures.”
The 1926 Houston Monarchs photo - Courtesy of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library.
After arranging for Frank Liuzza’s family to be honored at the 2007 Texas Baseball Hall of Fame Banquet in 2007, Frank and I also teamed up to do two separate interviews with Mike Vance at Channel 55 for his Postcards from Texas series in 2009. Then, sadly, Frank Liuzza died of a heart attack just after the first of the year in 2010. By the following summer, Sue had made the decision to donate Frank’s photographic legacy to the Houston Public Library. And that transfer of the materials was arranged in the summer of 2010 with the help of Joel Draut of the HPL and in the company of Mike Vance, then of Channel 55.
In the Smithsonian show we see today, as we did with the recent featuring of these materials in “Houston’s Sporting Life: 1900-1950,” a 2011 book by Mike Vance and a 2011 work of poster art on the “History of Baseball in Houston” (from the late 19th century through the early 1930s) by Randy Foltin, these historical photos bring to life the faces of black baseball during the shameful era of segregation that existed back in the early twentieth century. These same icons will be featured again in the SABR book in progress, “Houston Baseball, The Early Years: 1861-1961.”
Thanks again, Sue, for making a very good thing possible. I like to think that Frank would have been very proud to know the role his family has continued to play in both the making and preservation of Houston history. As for today’s program, if you have items, such as old photos that my be important to African American History, please bring them in for evaluation by the group that’s there today. Discovery and collection is the main goal behind today’s program. And be sure to check out the list of things the experts will not be reviewing before you bring anything down.
People like the Liuzza family have done their parts. As for everyone else, I hope you will find a way to get down to the library before 4 PM today, even if you have no artifacts for review. The Liuzza legacy, among other things, awaits you.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
November 1, 2011 at 3:51 am |
Thanks, Bill, for reminding me of this family’s part in local baseball history and for recognizing their generosity. Unfortunately, I was out of town this weekend, but look forward to seeing these historic materials.