Excelsior Club of Spring Hill

Pre-pro Baseball

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Nick Name	Excelsior
Earliest Known Date	1868
Last Known Game
Location	Spring Hill, AL, United States
Modern Address	Mobile
NABBP Status
Nine Class	Senior
Tags
Description	The Mobile Register, July 9, 1868, under the headline "Base Ball at Spring Hill" reports that the St. Elmo team is to play the Excelsior team, which is made up of students of Spring Hill College. Spring Hill was annexed by Mobile in the 1900s. Spring Hill College is an old Jesuit College. Cuhaj, "Baseball in Mobile" pp. 9, 15 says that the college students played baseball among themselves as early as 1860. The book cites the reminiscences of Nemesio Guillo, a Cuban who attended the college starting in May 1860 and later said he learned the game of baseball while at the school.  Spring Hill was a Catholic school where many of New Orleans' wealthy families sent their sons. Seeing as how baseball was played in New Orlaans in 1859, many of these students would, by 1860 at least, have been exposed to baseball prior to attending.
Sources	The Mobile Register, July 9, 1868
Source Image	[[Image:|left|thumb]]
Has Source On Hand	No
Comment	In Feb. of 2023 a marker was dedicated at Spring hill to the Cuban spring Hill students who introduce baseball to Cuba. See https://www.shc.edu/from-the-hill-to-havana-how-spring-hill-college-launched-cubas-national-pastime/  "Next month, Cuba celebrates Spring Hill College and three of its graduates, Nemesio Guillo, his older brother Ernesto, and Enrique Porto who brought baseball from The Hill to Havana. Representatives from the city of Mobile, Havana’s sister city, will take part in a ceremony dedicating a ballpark built to honor the country’s baseball history. A marker describing the relationship between Spring Hill College and baseball in Cuba will serve as the centerpiece of the park. Blake Stein, a 2005 graduate of Spring Hill will represent the College. He is a former pitcher and MLB player and currently serves as an Assistant Principal at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School. “As a new addition to the Spring Hill community, I have enjoyed learning about the almost 200-year history of the College and meeting our incredible students,” said Spring Hill’s President, Mary H. Van Brunt, PhD. “This is another example of how the College and its alumni have had such a profound and global impact through their experience on the Hill.” After graduating in 1864, The Guillo brothers headed back home and the sport they learned at Spring Hill spread quickly across Cuba. In 1868 they founded the country’s first baseball team, the Habana Base Ball Club. The sport had become a large part of the culture not just for the game but for what it represented to Cubans, both nationally and internationally. After forming the nation’s first baseball team, the duo, along with the first Latin American professional baseball player in the United States Esteban Bellán, played against a group of American sailors, which ended with the Cubans triumphant after delivering a “sovereign beating” to the hometown opponents. Word spread of the victory in the country, as did enthusiasm for the sport." Edit with form to add a comment
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Found by	Bruce Allardice
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Entered by	Bruce Allardice
First in Location	Spring Hill, AL
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