This famous team began as a group of black Pittsburgh Steelworkers.  They became the Homestead Grays in 1910.  Cumberland Posey joined the Grays in 1911 and became captain in 1916.  Posey owned the team by the ‘20s.  They became the strongest non-League team playing during that decade, with stars like Oscar Owens, Charles “Lefty” Williams, “Smokey Joe” Williams, Willis Moody, Ralph Mellix, and Vic Harris.

The Grays’ first league appearance was in the 1929 American Negro League.  They were so-so at 34-29.  In 1930, they again played independently, but had a 28-8 record against NNL outfits.  Homestead joined the 1932 East-West League and has a 29-19 record when the EWL broke up.  Consistently raided by Gus Greenlee’s Crawfords, Posey briefly joined, then dropped out of the 1933 NNL.  The team rejoined the NNL in 1935, going 23-23, and following with a 22-27 record in 1936.  In 1937, Posey began to split his home games between Pittsburgh and Washington D.C.  With the rival Crawfords raided by dictator Rafael Truillo and suffering because of Greenlee’s financial woes, Posey was able to put together a strong team that would win the first of nine straight NNL pennants.  (Some of these championships were disputed.  For example, in 1939 Baltimore had beaten Homestead two games to none in the playoffs after the Grays had fashioned the best seasonal record.)

In 1942, the Colored World Series was started up again and the Grays lost out to the Kansas City Monarchs.  In 1943, the Gray s defeated Birmingham in seven games.  In 1944 they again beat the Black Barons, this time in five games.  They lost the world title to the Cleveland Buckeyes in 1945.  These Homestead teams featured the “Black Ruth and Gehrig,” Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard.  The Grays slumped to 27-28 in 1946, the result of the rise of the Newark Eagles and the death of Cum Posey in March of 1946.  Josh Gibson died in January, 1947, and the Grays’ season was played out without enthusiasm.

In 1948, they bounced back, winning the second half title and sweeping the Baltimore Elite Giants in three straight.  They then defeated Birmingham in five games for Homestead’s last World Championship.  The NNL merged with the NAL in 1949, but the Grays joined the BAA, winning the flag there.  However, continued fan interest in the major leagues’ integration caused the Homestead Grays to go back to barnstorming for 1950, and out of existence after the season.

Some additional greats that spent many years with the Grays were Sam Bankhead, Jerry Benjamin, Ray Brown, Lick Carlisle, Wilmer Fields, Rab Roy Gaston, Edsall Walker, and Jud Wilson.  Throughout the years, the Grays drew great crowds for their home games in Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field and Washington’s Griffith Stadium.