Personal information | |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | Black Dan, The Negro Wonder |
Born | 1856 |
Died | 1908 (aged 52) |
Sport | |
Country | USA |
Sport | Pedestrianism, Baseball |
Frank Hart (1856 – 1908) was an American athlete famous as the first African-American world record holder in the 19th century sport of pedestrianism.[1][2] His most noted win was in an 1879 6 Day Race at Madison Square Garden where he covered 565 miles and won $21,567 in prize money (equivalent to $705,241 in 2023).[3] Later in life Hart played briefly on segregated baseball teams. Though his legacy faded with the loss of interest in pedestrianism as a spectator sport, Hart remains one of the first nationally famous Black athletes in America.
Born in 1856 as Fred Hichborn, Hart immigrated to Boston from Haiti as a teenager and worked as a grocery store clerk before joining races to earn extra money.[1][4] Frank Hart was chosen as his stage name, and he was variously also known as "The Negro Wonder" and "Black Dan", after his mentor and promoter Dan O'Leary.[1] Hart competed in at least 63 six-day pedestrian races from 1879-1902, winning 16 of them. Hart was ultimately one of the first black sports celebrities in America.[5][6]
The first black athlete depicted on a sports card, trading card or tobacco card, Hart appears in Thomas H. Hall’s Between the Acts & Bravo Cigarettes set (1880, N344), along with nine other pedestrians and two oarsmen.[1][7][8]
Despite not having any practice in roller skating, Hart competed in a six-day roller skating race held at Madison Square Garden from March 2–8, 1885. Hart did not take well to skating, and withdrew from the race on its second day.[9]
Hart later played shortstop and second base on Black baseball teams. In 1883, he was a member of the Boston Vendome Hotel B.B.C. team, and in 1883-1884, Hart played for Saratoga Spring's Leonidas B.B.C.[10] According to The Negro Leagues Were Major Leagues: Historians Reappraise Black Baseball, "Henry Bridgewater recruited Hart for the St. Louis Black Stockings."[11] While no statistics are currently available for his tenure on the team, in May 1884, The Washington Bee reported that the “colored pedestrian plays shortstop for a colored baseball club known as the St. Louis Black Stockings.”[12] Hart eventually signed with Chicago's Illinois Gordon B.B.C.[10]
In Hart’s obituary in 1908, the Cleveland Gazette noted, “Like many other sporting men, he was a big liver and a good spender,’’ reportedly living off “the charity of friends” for his final years.[13][14]