CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — This Solomon Coles Baseball Field on the north side of Corpus Christi, can no longer be seen. It's been torn down as part of the new location for the Harbor Bridge. The former home to the1965 baseball state champion Green Hornets.
"We couldn't play at Cabaniss for a lot of games," Gates Hardeman, 1965 Solomon Coles Sophomore pitcher said. "We had to play here, and boy the field was rough."
Solomon Coles, an all black school, only got to compete at Cabaniss Field sometimes when they played other Corpus Christi teams or in the playoffs. Including Friday, June 4, 1965 when they played game two of the Prairie View Interscholastic League 3A State Championship.
The PVIL began in 1920, and served as the governing body for extra-curricular activities for Texas' Black high schools. The PVIL began to merge with the UIL at the start of the 1967-68 school year and disbanded at the end of the 1969-70 school year.
As Solomon Coles kids enrolled at Miller and Ray, the Northside campus dwindled to 500 students — eventually closing it's doors in 1967, just two years after winning the state baseball title.
"The school district from here all the way to the Port, so that's where our football field was," Hardeman said. "Looking at it now, oh boy it was nothing like this. Nothing like this."
The Green Hornets baseball team, a roster of 13 led by third-year Head Coach John Clay, was the first of five Corpus Christi ISD teams to win a state baseball title.
"After we won, two years later King (1967) won it, you know. Then after that Carroll (2010) and Moody (2004 and 2007)," Hardeman said. "It just seemed like we set the standard. Like 'we're not going to let them beat us', you know."
A standard that was also set in the classroom.
"A kid (Thomas Walker) from this building at 924 Winnebago St. wind up going to an Ivy League school (Dartmouth)," Billy Sayles, 1965 Solomon Coles senior outfielder said. "I was reading he was Valedictorian. Then we had Johnny Elias that was Salutatorian. It's just amazing looking at all of them."
The team roster with player photos and state ring are on a poster at Solomon Coles High School. One of the first things you see once you walk through the door.
"To be recognized by your Alma Mater is just awesome,"Sayles said. "I want all kids, minority kids, to see that you can become somebody if you don't let nobody define who you are."
When you walk down the halls at Solomon Coles High School, this is where you find the memories from the 1965 baseball team, football and more.
The Green Hornets swept Gilmer Valley View in a best-of-3 series, winning game two 4-1 in the PVIL 3A state championship. A game they almost did not even get to play in after losing the semifinal on a 4-3 walk-off to Waco Carver.
"When Coach Clay caught up with us in Louisiana and told us that we won an appeal. They had used ineligible players and we were going to play for the state championship."
Solomon Coles brought home their state trophy three weeks after winning the game where ace pitcher Gates Hardeman struckout about a dozen batters.
"We didn't even get new hats," Hardeman said. "Balls, bats we didn't get nothing. Zero."
At least not until 2005 when they were honored by CCISD, and then later received state rings at Whataburger Field. Hardeman shared his memorable picture from the ceremony.
"That's me throwing out the first pitch at Whataburger Field," Hardeman said. "June 4, 2015."
Even nearly 60 years later fans can come out to the baseball field at Cabaniss and look out into the outfield and remember the first team that won a Corpus Christi ISD state championship in baseball, the Solomon Coles Green Hornets.
