MVSKOKE RESERVATION – For several years, the annual Legends Softball Reunion has brought former players and coaches together during the Muscogee Festival to reconnect, share memories, and celebrate their time on the diamond. This year’s reunion, held June 27 at the MCN Safe Space Building in Okmulgee, brought former players together for a meal and stories before they returned to the softball fields for a game.
Former MCN Chief George Tiger (Mvskoke), who has more than 25 years of experience in Indian softball, reflected on the reunion, softball tournaments, and his years playing the game.
Fellowship on the field, across time
Tiger has helped Anita Beaver Daney (Mvskoke) coordinate the reunion, a role he has held for the past four years. Beaver Daney, a former softball player herself, helped initiate the game to provide something for former players to do after mingling.
During the reunion, everyone got a free t-shirt to remember the day, and they ate and reminisced about the good old days.
Beaver Daney enjoys figuring out who’s who during the reunion and sees interest in it growing. She’s noticed that players bring up memories of past reunions, too.
“I did a reunion four years ago for the team I played for, and then the Chief said that it was a good idea. So he asked me if I would help Anita. Anita and I started working together. It’s grown from the first one that she did,” Tiger said.
“It was a record number of former players coming together and sharing stories with a lot of emotion and laughter, so I have a long history of softball here at Creek Nation, and in particular, festivals. I was honored that they asked me to help coordinate it.”
Tiger mentioned that during the reunion, players speak about when they played ball, and he noticed that most of the younger generation refers to it as ‘back in the day’.
For Tiger and the other players, it was simply a snapshot of where they were in that moment.
“It’s kind of emotional, some of the stories are about some of the players that are no longer here, and we carry on our tradition with the stories that we share, and each year since I’ve been helping with the reunion, there’s less and less because they pass away. Even though some of those people that we don’t see next year, the stories that they shared with us are etched in our minds, and we carry those stories on,” Tiger said.
Tiger sees the reunion as an opportunity for players to share stories, laugh, and eat together. Tiger believes this brings back many memories for them, and he hopes it continues to do so.
Beaver Daney agrees with Tiger that socializing brings back memories for them, and she said they try to collect pictures from everybody, which can be hard because people didn’t take pictures as they do now, or even had a camera.
“The pictures we get, we try to post those so everybody can look at those pictures that they had way back then. They all seem to enjoy the time together,” Beaver said.
For Tiger, the players become family. He shared, “One of the players got up, and he said, ‘Hey, I just want you guys to know, whether I played with you, played against you, or we had some real titanic battles on the field, I love all you guys.’ Because when we played, yeah, we were always competitive, but in the end we became family,” Tiger said.
“We all played, whether it was men or women. During that time, it was really popular. We were all family regardless of whether we were blood or not,” Tiger said.
The reunion culminated in a return to the diamond, with players back on the field.
“I knew every one of those people that played because I watched them play when I played. I knew about them, and I remember some of the teams that they played with. The ones that played it’s kind of like, ‘I wanna do it one more time,’” Tiger said.
Tiger said participation has declined over the past four years due to the passing of many former players, but seeing those who are still able to come out and play is truly special.
“Even the young ones today, they love watching them play. There’ll be games on the other fields, they’ll stop to come over and watch the seniors or legends play, which is neat. If a mistake is made, or if one of the seniors or legends ball player misses a ball or strikes out, there’s no laughter. They don’t laugh at them, they just acknowledge and clap their hands,” Tiger said.
“Because they’re just happy to see these guys that really set the foundation for your generation, so that they will be able to have an opportunity such as this.”
Tiger is currently writing a book about fast-pitch softball, in part to document those stories.
Tiger was also encouraged by former MCN Chief Bill Fife to write about the Oklahoma City World Series of Indian Fast Pitch Softball.
According to the Oklahoma History Society, the annual Indian Fast Pitch Tournament, held the first weekend after July 4 in Oklahoma City, was a high point of the summer softball season. “Started in 1952, this gathering has attracted more than one hundred men’s teams and is one of the oldest American Indian tournaments in the United States.
Teams have come from all over the nation to compete at Wheeler Park’s Eggeling Stadium, named after former Oklahoma City Parks and Recreation Superintendent Alvin Eggeling, who, along with the late W. B. Auxier, former ASA state and metro commissioner, played major roles in the development of softball in Oklahoma City and throughout Oklahoma,” states OHS.
“In the men’s alone in 1973, the year that I played and the team I was with, we won. There were 106 teams, just men’s teams, in Oklahoma City at Wheeler Park. I write a lot about that tournament because you hear so much about that tournament, people don’t realize that our Indian people had a big impact in Oklahoma City with the tournament that we had,” Tiger said.
Tiger said they were blessed to have many talented athletes. He recalled that when he played, several softball players also competed at the NCAA Division I level in football and basketball.
“One of the guys I played with, he was a descendant of Jim Thorpe’s family, who was a great athlete, I mean, he could play,” Tiger expressed.
Tiger said he was fortunate to play on teams filled with outstanding athletes. Tiger played with Haskell, the Junior College faculty, staff, and student team. He mostly pitched in his career.
“We were blessed to have a really good team, we won the Oklahoma City tournament twice, we came in the top 5 almost every year that we played,” Tiger said.
One of Tiger’s greatest memories was when his team wasn’t able to play in that tournament because their coach forgot to get the entry fee, so they ended up playing as the “Florida Seminoles” because their catcher was Seminole from Florida. The catcher found out that the “Florida Seminoles” only had three players, so the Haskell teammates hopped onto that team. Tiger said the “Florida Seminoles” were a fan favorite because they traveled so far.
He said during their first game on Friday night, they played against a team that MCN Secretary of Veteran Affairs Grover Wind coached, and Wind’s team beat Tiger’s team 2-1. This left Tiger’s team in the losers’ bracket.
They were pushing through on Saturday when Tiger’s team had only two pitchers: himself and another pitcher. He said that his pitcher was a good football coach at Haskell and a good athlete, and had also been drafted by the New York Jets as a defensive back.
During the afternoon, the pitcher broke his finger. Tiger said that there was a line drive, and instead of using the glove, the pitcher used his finger. Then that led to Tiger pitching for the remainder of the time.
He said that they played 13 games after getting in the loser’s bracket, he pitched eight games on Sunday, and then another three more games because it went to 21 innings, and they were beaten. Tiger said that he didn’t think he could pitch anymore if they had won. It was a five-hour game- they started at 7:15 and didn’t end til 12:15.
“We came all the way back through the loser’s bracket and got back in the finals, and we played 21 innings in the finals, and we got beat by 2-1 by Sapulpa Bucks. That game is still talked about. Those guys that were on the Sapulpa Bucks team and us, we all became really close friends,” Tiger said.
He said that the stadium at Wheeler Park was full and that there were some outstanding plays during that time. That was a highlight for Tiger.
“I remember some of the outstanding teams of the past that include: Sapulpa Bucks, Turkey Springs, Concho 49ers, Caddo All Stars, Red Race, Hatchville, Aces All Stars, Sequoyah Mills of Anadarko, Little Axe, Cherokee Hose & Supply, Haskell, Ken’s Plumbing of Dallas, Nadako, Jamco, OK-KS All Stars, Kansas Indians, Shawnee Braves, Oklahoma Scramblers, and Dukes of Anadarko, to name a few,” Tiger shared on his Facebook page.
Beaver Daney played in the 1970s and had five sisters on their team. She was coached by her dad, Oscar Beaver, and their team was called Red Feathers.
She mainly played second base, but her dad taught them all how to play each position just in case somebody got hurt. Four of them played infield mostly, and another sister played outfield.
One of her favorite memories was seeing everyone plan the Creek Festival Softball Tournament and the Indian Fastpitch Softball Tournament, which were the highlights of her summers.
Beaver Daney said softball plays a big role at the festival and that it started when she was in high school. She knows it was the former chief himself who created this movement.
Reflections on a life in softball
“I started Creek Nation’s festival softball tournament back in 1974. I started with eight teams. We had it at what is called Hawthorn Park now. It went really good, I was working for Chief Cox at the time, we had a really good crowd Friday, Saturday night, and Sunday,” Tiger said.
This tournament moved from Hawthorn Park to Henryetta Nichols Park due to growth. Later on, they bought and built fields where the MCN Claude Cox Omniplex is currently located.
According to Tiger, former MCN Principal Chief Claude Cox told him that he was the reason why they had to build those fields.
Tiger built momentum by getting teams from the west side because he was acquainted with several teams there. At one time, there were over 100 teams, and the tournament ended on Monday morning.
“In the 1950s until I’m gonna say late 80s, fast pitch softball was one of the most popular sports in Indian Country. It’s actually part of our culture as Indian people,” Tiger said.
One of Tiger’s biggest life lessons is that throwing a softball opened up doors for him. He met many people who ended up in the business and tribal government arenas. Playing softball laid a foundation that helped with Tiger’s future career.
He worked alongside great tribal leaders as Chief. He also worked in Indian Country, away from Tribal government, within sports-oriented national organizations.
He helped put on national softball and basketball tournaments as well.
Tiger’s background was in journalism across print and electronic media. According to Tiger, he was able to push former Chief Cox to provide print media and electronic media, including radio, television, and video productions.
Tiger worked in a number of productions and was an executive producer, a member of the Haskell Indian Nations University Board of Regents, and in sports broadcasting.
Tiger says this all happened because he played softball and got to meet other people.
I got to see firsthand our Indian student athletes excel on the basketball court, on the football fields, and softball fields,” Tiger said. “To see them start out and now today, they’re contributing to society, is a great feeling just to watch that,” Tiger said.
Throughout his sports broadcasting career, Tiger thinks he has influenced some of the people that he sees today. For example, when he went to Oklahoma City for the state basketball tournaments, he was approached by parents asking for insight that might help their child’s career.
“Because of softball and sports and being involved in our Tribal governments, there’s a young person out there that we know is a part of our tribal governments, that maybe I helped in some small manner influence in some way,” Tiger said.
For information about the reunion, suggestions for Beaver Daney, or to contribute photos to their collection, contact Beaver Daney at adaney@muscogeenation.com or Mark Abbott at mabbott@muscogeenation.com
