West End Park

West End Park was the second baseball park for the Buffaloes, Houston's professional Texas League ball club. Opened in April 1905 with the home plate entrance at Andrews and Heiner on the San Felipe street car line, it was the city's most significant sports venue for more than two decades. Hall of Fame players including Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, and Christy Mathewson played exhibition games there, and Tris Speaker played a full minor league season there in 1907 as a member of the Houston Buffs. Houston's African-American professional baseball team, the Black Buffaloes, also played their home games there and continued for several years after the white team moved. Two events billed as the Colored World Series were held there when the Black Buffs faced the Kansas City Monarchs in 1929 and the Chicago American Giants in 1930. The park also welcomed Negro League stars including Satchel Paige, Smokey Joe Williams, and Rube Foster. From its earliest days it was a multi-sport venue, hosting a statewide YMCA track and field meet in 1909, as well as the circus, wrestling matches, religious revivals, and many high school and college football games. Among the football highlights were the annual University of Texas and Texas A&M game as part of the No-Tsu-Oh festival from 1908 through 1911, and Rice vs. Notre Dame in 1915. After the Texas League Buffaloes moved to a new stadium across town in 1928, the Houston School Board bought the property, and it served as the city's primary high school football venue until World War Two.

Houston, Texas · United States