Samuel Ransom

Professional Sports

Between his Junior and Senior year at Beloit, he was a second baseman for the St. Paul Colored Gophers. He moved to Minnesota again after graduation in 1908. During the years in Minnesota, when not playing professional sports, Ransom also worked for a businessmen's club in St. Paul called the "Minnesota Club." When he left St. Paul, the Minnesota Club where he worked threw a large party, and the patrons raised $550 and he was presented a soldier's silver wrist watch with an inscription, "From John Jackson and Sherman Finch to S.L. Ransom." The newspaper also noted that since Ransom "neither drinks, smokes, nor chews and in (reality) has no bad habits, the money will not be wasted in riotous living."

In 1973, one newspaper wrote that Ransom trained men in athletics during the War and also played with the 33rd Army Division baseball and track championships. and earned a Purple Heart. but his postal service has not yet been verified.

Fellow high school player Walter Eckersall compares Ransom to Bobby Marshall and Fritz Pollard.