Brennan King

Ubangi Blackhawks, West Seattle Yellowjackets, Italian Club Lions, Uptown Athletic Club

End / Coach

1935-1938 

When your athletic gifts are written about starting at Age 11, a special life may be your future.  Such was the case with Brennan King, who in 1928 was the pitching champion and honored guest of the Seattle Baseball Club.  By 1931 he was an accomplished youth boxer and in 1932, coupled with his lifelong friend Sammy Bruce, led the Garfield High football team to the City Championship.  A three-sport All-City athlete, Bruce again led the 1933 Garfield team to gridiron laurels.  He was starting on the basketball team and catching passes with the football team in 1934 at the College of Puget Sound, before leaving Tacoma and heading back to Seattle.

By 1935, the 19-year old, born in the mining town of Butte, Montana, was starring as an end with the Uptown Athletic Club, the Italian Athletic Club Lions, playing on the championship basketball team from Grace Presbyterian Church and coaching his own group of Japanese players in the Courier League, cadets from the Maryknoll Grizzlies, a Catholic Mission for Filipino and Nippon immigrants.  Selected as the 1936 Inspirational Player Award winner of the Seattle Community Football League, Brennan was already a leader well beyond his age.  Fans voted Uptown's King the winner of the Al Rosenburg trophy as the most valuable player in the league, edging out Dominick Constantino, veteran tackle of the Italian Club.

At 21-years old, King hosted a group of local men wanting to start a football team for the Negro community, pulling from his experience with the Yakima-based Washington Browns baseball team where he was a first baseman.  Originally slated to play football with the newly formed Renton Miners (later the Rams), Brennan eventually agreed to Coach and Captain the Ubangi Blackhawks, sponsored by the Ubangi Night Club, a jazz/swing club tucked inside the Golden West Hotel. Bruce Rowell would manage the team on the financial end along with Russell "Noodles" Smith owner of the club.  Playing with his friend Sam Bruce and recruiting his former teammates from Garfield High and the Italian Club Lions, the Blackhawks broke out in 1937 winning the Community League championship over high school mentor Leon Brigham (Italian Club) and the Washington National Guardsmen.  Brennan would coach an all-star team of Japanese players as they took on the Fife Nippon team in December.

His whirlwind was just beginning as he and Bruce embarked on another adventure with the American Colored Giants baseball team, a semi-pro venture with hopes of sending black players to the Negro Leagues.  With the "Homerun King", the Giants went on to win the Puget Sound League Championship in 1938 and 1939.  In March, Brennan and Sammy headed south to Los Angeles to try and catch on with a club at the Negro League training camps, but got there too late. 

Back in Seattle in August while forming the Black and Tan Blackhawks, formerly Ubangi Club which closed down in March of 1938, Coach Leon Brigham came calling.  He had been hired away from the Italian Club Lions to the "big club" West Seattle Yellowjackets, and he wanted his star pupils.  Bruce and King, still tied at the hip were exactly what the Yellowjackets needed, and with the 6'2" 200-pound King as captain and Bruce at QB, West Seattle dethroned Enumclaw to win back the 1938 Northwest Championship.

Garfield High again became his blessing as former teammate Homer Harris, the first black captain of a Big Ten team while at the University of Iowa was hired as an assistant coach at North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, NC.  Homer knew where to grab talent and he went after Brennan King, Sammy Bruce and George Height, all Ubangi Blackhawks on the 1937 championship team.  Following their championship baseball run in the spring/summer of 1939, they all headed to Greensboro.  Brennan was going back to college Aug 11, 1939, five years after his first experience with the College of Puget Sound right after high school.  Brennan was a stand-out performer for A&T and in 1943 he graduated with high honors and a Bachelors Degree in Physical Education.  King and Bruce parted ways in 1942 as Sammy volunteered for the Tuskegee Flight School and would be one of the first black pilots shot down while pursuing two German fighters over Italy.  Bruces' plane and body were recovered in January 1944 and later returned to Seattle where his mother had him buried.  Brennan would continue to pursue their dreams in honor of his childhood friend.

In 1944, following the resignation of Charles DeBarry, King was hired to coach his alma mater at North Carolina A&T.  He would remain in the southeast coaching and teaching in the Atlanta area at Dudley High, Booker T. Washington, and Morehouse College.  He finally got a couple of pitching chances with the Negro Leagues with the Cincinnatti Clowns in 1943 and the 1944 Atlanta Black Crackers.  King would be announced as the new Manager of the the "Black Crax" in Auguest of 1945.

Returning to the Northwest, in 1950 he became the first black to receive a University of Washington Teaching Fellowship.  He was instrumental in forming the Madison Associated Boys Club as a director and continued with baseball as a pitcher with the Carver Athletic Club, at the ripe old age of 34-years old.

In 1968, Brennan continued to break color barriers as he became the first black finish line judge in the U.S. Horse Racing circuit at Longacres Race Track.  King also became the Franklin High School football coach in 1968 where he remained the next seven years.  Brennan King, known throughout Seattle, died in 1978 at the age of 61.

In honor of their lifelong connection, the Greater Northwest Hall of Fame felt it was fitting to induct Brennan King and Sammy Bruce together; once again.

Semi Pro Football Honors

1936 Seattle Community League Inspirational Player of the Year

1936 Al Rosenburg Trophy - Seattle Community League MVP

Semi Pro Football Championships

1937 Seattle Community League Champion - Ubangi Blackhawks

1938 Northwest Football League Champion - West Seattle Yellowjackets

Semi Pro Baseball Championships

1938 Puget Sound Baseball Champions - American Colored Giants

1939 Puget Sound Baseball Champions - American Colored Giants