KC All Nations Knit Cuff w/ Pom

This club was organized by J.E. Gail and J.L. Wilkinson in 1912 in Des Moines, Iowa and moved to Kansas City in 1915. Wilkinson would later own and operate the Kansas City Monarchs for over twenty-five years. The All Nations were comprised of players who were Black, White, Cuban, Native American, Mexican, Japanese, Hawaiian, Filipino and Chinese. This club crisscrossed the Midwest, playing in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin. They traveled in a specially built Pullman coach in which the players both ate and slept. They also traveled with other entertainers which included a wrestling team and orchestra. When they pulled into town, they would stage a ball game, a dance and a wrestling match using their own bleachers and canvas fences. Before the team fell apart as a result of the WWI draft, it would count among its players John Donaldson, Jose Mendez, Cristobel Torrienti, Virgil Barnes and Art Dunbar.