Baseball in Fort Wayne

Howie Schultz was one of the first national two sport athletes, one of the few individuals to have played enough in both basketball and baseball to earn pensions from both has passed away after a long cancer battle.

Schultz’s contract was purchased by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943, and became the Dodgers’ starting first baseman. He was a regular with them until the start of the 1947 season, when his contract was sold to the Philadelphia Phillies to make room for Jackie Robinson.

“His first year, Jackie played first base,” Schultz said in a 2004 interview with the Star Tribune. “I’m a footnote in history — the guy who was benched to allow baseball to be integrated.”

His baseball career, which lasted until 1948, also saw him spend time on the Cincinnati Reds roster. But his Fort Wayne connections are due to his second professional sports career in basketball. He played with the Anderson (Indiana) Packers of the National Basketball League from 1946 to 1949. When the NBL was absorbed by the National Basketball Association he became a member of the Fort Wayne Pistons.