WILLIAM AUGUSTUS ‘GUS’ GREENLEE

The owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords from 1931 to 1939. In 1933, Greenlee helped organize the new National Negro League.

He served as its president with absolute power, awarding the first pennant to his own Crawfords. This claim was disputed by the Chicago American Giants, since the schedule had not been completed. Greenlee also helped initiate the East-West all-star game in 1933, the Negro Leagues' showcase event, it annually drew crowds approaching 50,000 to Comiskey Field.

In addition to the Crawfords, he also owned his own ballpark, a famous nightclub (the Crawford Bar & Grill), and a stable of boxers including light-heavyweight champion John Henry Lewis. Greenlee and William "Woogie" Harris, are credited with introducing the numbers racket to Pittsburgh in 1926 (Pittsburgh Press, February 10, 1936) and ran one of the largest and most complex gambling networks of the period. They controlled almost a hundred numbers banks, each with its own specified territory (Pittsburgh Post Gazette, July 8, 1982). In total the Harris-Greenlee operation employed about 5,000 people.

Greenlee sold the Crawfords in 1939 and the club subsequently relocated to Toledo (then to Indianapolis in 1940). Greenlee tried to return to black baseball in 1945 when he formed the United States League, but unfortunately for Greenlee, the league lasted only two years.

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