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Woven into Mothell’s recollections was a genuine appreciation of the game, which fascinated Dixon. Mothell was versatile too, playing all positions, including first base for the Monarchs’ 1924 championship team. Mothell, a native Topekan, related stories from his 15 seasons, where he caught some of the game’s all-time greats, such as Bullet Rogan. The two spoke a few times - detailed discussions that provided Dixon insight into the Negro Leagues. “He wasn’t the first Negro Leagues player I ever met,’’ said Dixon, “but he really gave me the inspiration to begin my research.’’ When he showed the picture to the owner of a Topeka nightclub where Dixon occasionally played the trumpet, he was told of a former Negro Leagues player from Topeka he might be interested in meeting. It impressed Dixon enough to shell out $75. A picture of an old baseball team caught his eye.

One day Dixon was looking at items at Packrat Antiques on S.W. Thursday at the Bettis Family Sports Complex and is co-sponsored by the Shawnee County Historical Society and the Shawnee County Baseball Hall of Fame.įor Dixon, a native of Kansas City, Kan., the visit will serve as a reminder of the six months he lived in Topeka while working for Duckwall-Alco Stores in 1980.

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His Topeka appearance, which is free to the public, is scheduled at 7 p.m. And guess what? Topeka will be the 90th stop on Dixon’s tour, though he has extended his discussions to include 10 more communities. The number 90 was derived a year ago to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Monarchs’ triumph in the first Negro League World Series. The impulse to research Negro Leagues baseball is rooted in Topeka for one of the game’s foremost historians.Ĭonsequently, when Phil Dixon set out to tour 90 cities with his presentation, “The Kansas City Monarchs in Our Hometown,’’ he made sure Topeka was prominent on the list.

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