Jesse James the Basketball Player

   In KU's first ever varsity basketball game played in 1899 one of the players on the opposing team was in trouble with the law.  He had been accused of train robbery, and his name was Jesse James.

   Sifting through newspaper accounts of the game, it is not initially clear who this fellow was.  In the Kansas University Weekly’s report of the game was this mention, 

"Jesse James, the young man who has lately come into prominence by his alleged connection with the recent train robberies in Missouri, at this time played a rough, and at times, a very ungentlemanly game.  He was cautioned and punished by the referee several times during the game.”1

   Attempting to decipher the Weekly's report, Bernice Larson Webb in her Naismith biography, The Basketball Man, apparently thought the train robbing claim was fiction and wrote,

“A high point of the event was the discovery by the Kansas players and fans that one of the Y. M. C. A. participants was a Jesse James, who, it was reported tongue-in-cheek, had a connection with the recent train robberies in Missouri.  Train robber or not, Jesse James played “a very ungentlemanly game” and, despite several penalties and numerous warnings by the referee, helped his team steal the match from K.U.”

   In the 1937 Jayhawker yearbook can be found a review of early KU basketball which includes this paragraph,

"Most disgruntled fans who shout disapprovingly at referees, "Hey, Jesse, where's your horse," never had the opportunity that Kansas fans of 1899 did. The famous old desperado himself played against Kansas that year in the first game ever played by the University.  Jesse James played right back on the Kansas City Y. M. C. A. team and according to the account of the game, "played a rough, and at times, a very ungentlemanly game."  He was cautioned and punished by the referee several times.  His roughness apparently persuaded the University team to stay out of his territory and Jesse's team won the game 16-5.  Several weeks later when K. U. again played the Y team Jesse was dodging the law so the Lawrence boys dodged their opponents, sans young James, often enough to win 17-14. Apparently this daring young gunman was to his basketball team what his horse was to him.”2

   So who was this Jesse James, and was he really involved in, of all things, train robbery?  He obviously wasn't the "famous old desperado" the Jayhawker claimed him to be.  That Jesse James was killed in 1882.  But he did have a son, also named Jesse.

Jesse James, Jr.

   Jesse Edward James was the son of Jesse Woodson James, the notorious outlaw.  Until he was six years old, young Jesse did not know his father's true identity nor even his own real name, having been raised under the name Tim Howard.  His discovery of the truth began in grisly fashion.

   When Jesse James was assassinated in his home in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1882, his son was nearby.  Many years later, Jesse, Jr. recounted the death of his father,

 "The morning my father was murdered we had just finished breakfast.  I heard from the front room the loud roar of a shot.  My mother rushed in and screamed.  I ran in after her and saw my father dead upon the floor, and my mother was down upon her knees by his side and was crying bitterly. My father was killed instantly by the bullet that Ford shot into the back of his head.  He never spoke or breathed after he fell.

Soon after the murder of my father a great crowd gathered outside the house.  My childish mind imagined that these were responsible for the murder, and in great anger I lugged from its closet my father's shot gun and tried to aim it at the people outside, but my mother took it from me"3

   Shortly after the death of his father, Jesse, Jr. moved to Kansas City with his mother and sister.  In 1896 he returned to St. Joseph for the first time since his father's death.  He would visit the house where the assassination occurred, however this was not the reason he came to St. Joseph.  He was in town to play basketball.4

The Basketball Player

   Basketball was first played in Kansas City in 1894.  Beginning at the YMCA it was later taken up by club teams and national guardsmen.  In 1896 Jesse, Jr. was playing for the Third Regiment of Missouri National Guard.5

  The position Jesse played was guard or back, which in those early days of basketball was defined as a defensive position.  In Kansas City the brand of basketball played was a seven-man game, eventually evolving into a six-man game by 1898.  Each team had two forwards who played near their own goal and where looked upon to do the scoring, two or three centers who were positioned in the center of the court and either passed to the forwards or took outside shots, and two guards who stayed back and guarded the opposition's forwards.6

   In the winter of 1898-99, Jesse was a member of the Kansas City YMCA basketball team.  But he found only enough time to appear in five games that season, he was much too busy playing defense in the court of law.


The Leeds Train Robbery
   

Kansas City Times, September 24, 1898

   In early 1898, when he was 21, Jesse opened a cigar stand in the Jackson County courthouse and it was here that he began befriending suspected train robbers, one of whom would betray him.

   On September 23, 1898, a gang of train robbers dynamited the safe in the express car of the Missouri Pacific Train No. 5 in Leeds, Missouri, a few miles southeast of Kansas City.  The explosion was so loud it was heard for miles, and so destructive that only about $30 was retrieved by the bandits from the resultant rubble.  The robbery was front page news in the Kansas City newspapers the next day.

“Dynamite Used In Plenty”, “The Safe Shattered, and the Express Car Blown Up by an Explosion Heard in the City”.  “That they did not blow off their own feathers was a wonder, for the car was razed, the great iron safe was shattered, and, for a distance of two miles, waybills and papers and fragments of baggage were scattered along the track.” - Kansas City Star

 “The track for 100 yards on either side was littered with broken parcels, pieces of timber, etc.  Flying fragments of the car broke down the telegraph wires along the Missouri Pacific and the 'Frisco, which parallels the former road.  There were several crates of chickens in the car and nothing but feathers was left to tell the story.” - Kansas City World

   

"Think ya used enough dynamite there, Butch?"

   

   William Lowe, an acquaintance of Jesse, Jr.,  was arrested and confessed to the crime.  Not only did he have a letter from Jesse in his possession, he claimed Jesse was the leader of the gang.  Jesse was arrested on October 11, 1898 and newspapers nationwide picked up the story of the younger Jesse stepping into his father’s footsteps.

   

Chicago Tribune, October 12, 1898

Los Angeles Herald, October 12, 1898

Atlanta Constitution, October 12, 1898

New York NY Herald, October 16, 1898

Chicago Inter-Ocean, October 16, 1898

Buffalo NY Evening News, November 3, 1898

   While out on bond and awaiting trial, James began playing basketball with the Kansas City YMCA Tigers, including the game against KU on February 3, 1899.  Not only did James Naismith bring his Jayhawks to Kansas City that night, he brought along the "modern" game of five-on-five basketball.

"A change will be made in the game of basket ball which is to be played at the Young Men’s Christian association gymnasium at 810 Wyandotte street this evening between the Tigers and the University of Kansas team.  But five men will be allowed on each team and instead of having the floor divided into thirds as has been the recent rule no division will be made and all will be allowed to play anywhere in the field.  This will have a good effect in that it should make the game even faster than it has been before."7

The accounts of the game in the Kansas City dailies singled out Jesse's play.

"Jesse James' defensive work was one of the features of the game." - Kansas City World

"Jesse James, Jr. is an expert basket ball player.  Jesse plays right back for the Tigers and puts up a fast and determined game, playing with a dash, spirit and gameness that is generally a feature of the games in which he takes part." - Kansas City Star

"Jesse James, who played one of the backs for the Tigers, was censured five times by Referee Naismith and Umpire Clark for fouling, but he played a hard game and got much applause from the crowd."  - Kansas City Times

"Martin and James were off in their playing, both forgot that they were not playing football and would start to run, hence the number of fouls charged to their account."8  - Kansas City Journal

   The rematch between the two teams was scheduled to be played in Lawrence on February 25, but whether Jesse would be able to play in that game was in doubt since his trial was to begin on February 23.  The Lawrence Daily World quipped,

"In the game of basketball to be played at the rink next Saturday night Jesse James will be on of the players for Kansas City, if nothing prevents."

   The trial continued all that weekend and the Tigers, playing without Jesse, lost to KU.  The following Monday the Kansas City Star in its coverage of the trial wrote,

“This morning when the trial was in progress and a witness was giving important testimony a young man whom Jesse knew very well entered and sat down close to him. 

Jesse leaned over and whispered:  “How did the Tigers come out at Lawrence?”

 A whispered reply was made and Jesse laughed and asked again: "Who played guards?  Who played in my place?”

Jesse is a member of the Tigers’ basket ball team that played the Lawrence team Saturday."9

   On February 28, 1899, Jesse was found not guilty, despite William Lowe's accusation and being identified by a witness to the robbery.  Those who have since studied the case also believe Jesse was innocent.10  In 1910 Lowe admitted his accusation was a "pack of lies", claiming he was coerced into implicating Jesse.11

   His trial over, Jesse found time to author a book entitled Jesse James, My Father.  Only the first half of the book is about his father.  The later half is autobiographical and is a summary of the Leeds train robbery and his own ensuing trial.  On page 169 of the book is quoted the Kansas City Star article from February 27, 1899 that mentions Jesse played basketball for the YMCA and his interest in the rematch played in Lawrence.

    A few days after the trial ended, Jesse rejoined his YMCA teammates for a game against Wentworth Academy in a game billed as the "Championship of Western Missouri".  Jesse played poorly, being charged with a staggering 13 fouls, but his team was able to win.12  There is no record of Jesse ever playing basketball again after this game.

Notes:

1. Kansas University Weekly, February 4, 1899.
2. 1937 Jayhawker, The Hawk Flies High, by William Fitzgerald, p186.

3. Jesse James My Father, by Jesse James, Jr.

4. St. Joseph Daily News, February 29, 1896 and March 2, 1896.
5. Kansas City Star, September 27, 1896, No Acting For Jesse, Jr.
6. Kansas City Journal, January 10, 1898, Is An Exciting Game.
7. Kansas City Star, February 3, 1899.
8. Basketball rules in 1899 defined fouls as any violation of the rules, thus they included such things as traveling or kicking the ball, as well fouling one's opponent.  There was no limit on the number of fouls a player could commit.  Disqualification after five fouls did not enter the rules book until 1908.
9. Kansas City Star, February 27, 1899.
10. The Train Robbery Era, by Richard Patterson, 1991.
11. Kansas City Star, February 20, 1910.
12. Kansas City World, March 5, 1899.