Uvoyd Reynolds, born September 16th, 1935 in Princeton, AR,1 was a minor league baseball player with the Hot Springs Bathers in 1954. Reynolds was the first black player in the Cotton States League and the first to play with an Arkansas minor league baseball team.
Biography
Reynolds was the son of William Reynolds and Lucy (nee Watkins) Reynolds.2 3 He grew up in Hot Springs, AR and attended Langston High School in Hot Springs.
In 1954, Reynolds was signed by the Charles Williamson, owner of the Hot Springs Bathers of the Cotton States Leagues, to become the team and league's first black player. The league previously fought to remain segregated during the Tugerson Brothers Conflict. Reynolds made his professional debut on July 20th, 1954, playing right field for the Bathers. Reynolds appeared in 4 more Bathers games.4
Reynolds died on October 20th, 2024.5
Stats
Statistics at Baseball-Reference.com
3
"United States, Census, 1940", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQVG-N6F : Tue Jul 16 13:03:25 UTC 2024), Entry for Willie Reynolds and Lucy Reynolds, 1940.
4
Bathers Baseball, By Don Duren
Sources
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