Jun 26, 2023
Sometimes sports heroes are heroes in other walks of life. One Black baseball player in the area was embarking on a promising career with the Atlanta Braves when he got a call to duty and was drafted and sent to Vietnam, where he met his fate. Just press play to hear the whole story. ———
Click on search links to see if there are episodes with related content: Cicely Hunter, Black History, Civil Rights, Military, Sports, Baseball, ———
Podcast Transcript: I’m
Cicely Hunter, Public Historian from the Missouri Historical
Society, and here’s history, on eighty-eight-one, KDHX.
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Stories that integrate the history of war, patriotism, and race can be told through the experiences of Black St. Louisans who served on the battlefield. 58,000 military personnel lost their lives during the Vietnam War and the story of a graduate from Kirkwood High School connects to the local and international story of the Vietnam War. It is the story of Private Udell Chambers that provides an entry point into Black life during the onset of the war. ———
Private Udell Chambers was born to Tommie and Bettie Chambers on February 22, 1948, and lived with his family in Meachum Park. Gaining notoriety as a strong baseball athlete in high school, Chambers was admired within the community for his welcoming personality and skillset. After graduating in 1966, Chambers began his promising baseball career. As a rookie shortstop player in 1967, crowds heard the ball crack against the bat and soared when he hit 12 home runs and stole 28 bases. While playing in the minor league, Chambers hit .325 in the Class A affiliate. ———
From the baseball field to the battlefield, Udell Chambers had a bright career with the Atlanta Braves that was quickly cut short after he was drafted into the Vietnam War. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment in the 1st Infantry Division. He was later killed in action at the age of 20 years old on June 21, 1968, in Vietnam, during a ground casualty that resulted from a hostile rocket. For his bravery and heroism, Private Chambers was awarded the Purple Heart, National Defense Medal, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal and inducted into Kirkwood High School’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013. ———
For more information about St. Louis Black history, please visit our website mohistory.org/aahi. Here’s history is a joint production of the Missouri Historical Society and KDHX. I’m Cicely Hunter and this is eighty-eight-one, KDHX, St. Louis. ———