82 years later, Negro Leagues star 'Bubbles' honored by native Colorado

DENVER -- When the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame inducts its 2025 class at its 60th annual banquet on April 9 at the Hilton Denver City Center, most fans and even sports experts will celebrate many household names. But one new inductee -- Theodore “Bubbles” Anderson -- is a name many simply haven’t heard.

And that’s fine with Justin Adams, a CBS news and sports broadcaster, play-by-play broadcaster for college and pro sports for multiple television networks, and a member of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame selection committee.

First, let’s look at the other five members of this year’s class. Former Rockies star Troy Tulowitzki is going in. So is Mikaela Shiffrin, who holds the World Cup skiing record for championships by a woman or a man; Simon Fletcher, a fierce pass-rusher for Denver Broncos Orange Crush defenses; Lisa Van Goor, a University of Colorado women’s basketball star who is the only CU man or woman to exceed 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career; and Larry Brown, a two-time American Basketball Association coach of the year with the Denver Nuggets.

And …

“You cannot tell the story of Colorado sports without talking about Theodore ‘Bubbles’ Anderson, who was the only Colorado native-born player to play the Negro Leagues, because his story leads to so many other different stories,” said Adams, who often fights tears of pride and happiness when discussing Anderson’s induction.

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In most cases, like five of the six members of this class, career numbers exist, and most of their accomplishments reasonably occurred in many folks’ lifetimes. Anderson is an unusual entry, and what is known about him makes you want to know more.

His induction is a case of someone of high accomplishment that folks want to know more about. It took tireless work from Adams -- whose curiosity for the Negro Leagues was piqued after he graduated from CU, where he played football. Adams also turned to world-renowned sports historian Jay Sanford, who was part of the effort by scholars and historians that led to a special committee in 2006. It elected 17 individuals from the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Here’s what’s known about Anderson:

? Born on Nov. 4, 1904, Anderson was a second baseman who broke in at age 15 for the Denver White Elephants -- a leading Black baseball team in Colorado and officially a semi-pro outfit that competed against teams that featured Negro Leaguers and even Major Leaguers.

? Anderson was such a prodigy that the Kansas City Monarchs spotted him while barnstorming and signed him in 1920 -- at age 17. He played for the Monarchs, the Washington Potomacs, the Birmingham Black Barons and the Indianapolis ABCs. According to Baseball Reference, he batted .251 in 125 total games through 1925.

? Anderson left the ABCs because of an illness and returned to Denver. He served during World War II, worked as a janitor and continued to play baseball in Denver. The photo on his Baseball Reference page was taken from a picture of the Home Owned Groveries (a group of organized mom-and-pop stores) team photo. But Anderson passed away at age 38 on March 14, 1938, the result of a gastric ulcer.

Bigger than the facts is the story of how Adams and Sanford are making sure Anderson isn’t forgotten.

It started in 2009. Adams, who had begun his first job at a local station, was off from work playing video games with a friend.

“He was telling me about Black baseball,” Adams said. “To my knowledge, Denver didn’t have a Negro Leagues team. He said, ‘We did have Black baseball, the White Elephants.’ It piqued my interest.

“What really got me going was I did some work at Montbello High School, my alma mater, helping a kid with affectionate needs. The book he had was the history of baseball. It didn’t get to anyone who was African American until Jackie Robinson. A history that started in the 1800s goes all the way through and you finally see Jackie Robinson. I’m like, ‘Man, we’re missing out on so much history.’”

Adams knew of Sanford’s work, and learned about the White Elephants -- a respected Black team active from 1915-34 and owned by local businessman/publisher/lawyer Albert Henderson Wade (A.H.W.) Ross -- and “Bubbles” Anderson.

“It’s hard to track anybody, if you think about it,” Sanford said. “If you never married, you don’t have kids, you don’t have a lineage going on. I talked to a lady in the 1980s. She was, I think, his cousin. She filled me in on his personality. She said he was quiet. The girls liked him, but he wasn’t flamboyant, wasn’t out carousing all the time. He led a quiet life. Other than baseball, there wasn’t much to talk about for him.”

But Sanford kept researching, and in 2005 he spearheaded an effort to find Anderson’s unmarked grave at Fairmount Cemetery. Through the Fairmont Heritage Foundation, a headstone was placed in 2005.

Sanford showed what Adams described was a “treasure chest.” It was pages of news articles mentioning Anderson’s exploits with various clubs, and team pictures Anderson was a part of. Sanford’s longtime curiosity led him to meet many of the Negro Leaguers before they passed. Through it all, Anderson’s name kept coming up as a great and significant player, even though his accomplishments outside the Negro Leagues were hard to find.

In 2012, Adams published an article on Anderson on The Denver Channel website, with quotes from Sanford and Negro Leagues History Museum president Bob Kendrick. It sparked an idea of honoring Anderson for being the Colorado native to play in the Negro Leagues. It was a years-long effort.

“When I was at his gravesite, that was like, ‘Wow,’” Adams said. “Here we are in 2025. He died in 1943, so we’re talking nearly 82 years. To bring someone I never met, someone who didn’t have any kids, to the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame meant the world.”

Adams and Sanford hope the induction sparks more research. Anderson’s education, and even the origin of the nickname, “Bubbles” are, let’s say, not lost to history, but not yet found.

They also note that a star player in Denver Black baseball circles, Thomas ‘Pistol Pete’ Albright (born in Crockett, Texas, before spending his life and working career in Colorado) compiled MLB-recognized statistics with the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants in 1929 and the New York Cubans in 1936. But he had a long career playing various positions for Denver Black clubs and industrial clubs.

As was the case with Anderson, records are hard to find. However, a jumping off point is the Denver Post Tournament, known as “The Little World Series of the West.” It attracted top-level talent, including recently retired Major Leaguers, at a time when MLB teams weren’t located west of St. Louis.

By 1934, the Kansas City Monarchs and the local White Elephants were invited to make the tournament, a rare event in segregated America, and the Monarchs won. Negro League teams, teams that hired or were composed of Negro League stars, competed for prize money.

Albright was a star during those days. He also had children, and historians such as Sanford have scrapbooks full of details.

Like Anderson, stars like Albright may benefit from tireless research and heartfelt caring, and find themselves coming to life in Colorado’s baseball and sports history.