Sherman Maxwell

When Sherman “Jocko” Maxwell was behind the microphone, Negro League baseball fans heard a loud, entertaining, and, most importantly, accurate description of every play in every inning on the baseball diamond.

Recognized as the first African American sports broadcaster, Maxwell brought each stolen base, home run, double play, throwing error and diving catch to life for the thousands of radio listeners who religiously followed their black baseball heroes through his broadcasts.

“Sherman Maxwell was the Jackie Robinson of broadcasting,” said Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Museum. “His pioneering career was substantial and covered the entire sports spectrum. Mr. Maxwell gave the Negro Leagues a voice. He played an instrumental role in documenting and substantiating the game beyond the box score.”

The voice of the Negro League

Not only was Maxwell the voice of Negro League baseball, he took it upon himself to keep meticulous statistics and game box scores so there would be no doubt how today’s historians would view the accomplishments of the gifted players who weren’t allowed to play in the white professional league.

“The first thing about Jocko to know is that there would be very few records of the Negro Leagues that are accurate and there would be almost none without him,” said Jerry Izenberg, columnist emeritus for the New Jersey The Star-Ledger. “He could sense the meaning of what he was doing. He knew that one day this stuff would be important.”

One “minor” issue that Maxwell seldom talked about was that despite his broadcasting career of more than four decades and service to numerous radio stations, he was rarely paid for his work.

“There was no money involved,” Maxwell said. “No salary ever in any sports. Never asked. They never gave me any.”

Born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1907, Maxwell’s father was a journalist, one of the few black men of his era to rise to an editorial position at a predominantly white newspaper, the Newark Star-Ledger.

Although Maxwell knew all sports well, he had a deep affinity for baseball. In fact, he loved baseball so much that he intentionally flunked his senior exams in high school in order to stay behind and play baseball another year.

Maxwell began his broadcasting career in 1929 at the age of 22, when he began doing a five-minute weekly sports report on a Newark radio station. Many radio historians note that Maxwell became the first African American sports reporter of any media.

Maxwell later became the public address announcer at Ruppert Stadium for the Newark Eagles of the Negro league, initially announcing only Sunday games. He retired from broadcasting in 1967.

Maxwell also founded and managed the Newark Starlings, a mixed race, semi-professional baseball team. He also became a contributing writer to Baseball Digest, where he wrote about subjects ranging from the integration of baseball to Jackie Robinson. In 1940, Maxwell authored a book of interviews with players entitled, Thrills and Spills in Sports.

His broadcasting career was interrupted from 1943 to 1945 when he served in the Army in Europe during World War II.

Maxwell died in 2008 in West Chester, Pa., from pneumonia at age 100. Several years before he died, he fulfilled a longtime wish of visiting the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Many baseball buffs think that “Jocko” Maxwell will someday be enshrined in the Hall’s Broadcasters wing among the other legends.