Tulsa Oilers (1919-1976)

Western League (1919-1929 & 1932)
Texas League (1933-1965)
Pacific Coast League (1966-1968)
American Association (1969-1976)

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Tulsa Baseball History:
2022 Edition

A City’s Love Affair with America’s National Pastime

By Elven Lindblad

 

Tulsa’s longest relationship with any professional sport has been with baseball. And that love affair with its minor league teams has endured its share of peaks and valleys, of passionate embraces, periods of frustration and despair and joyous celebrations.

Elven Lindblad’s book tells the story of men who wore the uniforms of Tulsa’s professional baseball teams and their contributions to the city’s sports history. It also tells the story of opposing players and other men who came through town and left their mark on the sport, for better or for worse.

 

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Background

The Oilers were Tulsa, Oklahoma’s minor league baseball team for most of the 20th century. The team competed in various league at different levels of competition. But at their competitive zenith, the Oilers spent eleven seasons from 1966 until 1976 serving as the top farm club of the National League’s St. Louis Cardinals. During this era, the Oilers won three Class AAA playoff championships and supplied a steady stream of future Major League stars.

Note that most online sources represent the Tulsa Oilers as a more or less singular organization that competed from 1905 until 1976. But for the purposes of this Fun While It Lasted entry, we’ve considered this ball club’s timeline to begin in 1919 when the third incarnation of the Tulsa Oilers began play in the Western League. Teams played sporadically under the Oilers banner between 1905 and 1914, but Tulsa also hosted other minor league clubs in the years in-between, including the Railroaders, Terriers and Producers. So we consider those early Oilers clubs to be separate.

There are some gaps in our timeline as well, as the latter day Oilers sat out the 1930 and 1931 Western League seasons and then were idled for three summers during World War II along with the rest of the Texas League membership.

Between 1928 and 1951 and again from 1964 to 1984 a pair of Tulsa ice hockey teams also skated under the name ‘Oilers’ during the winter time.

Key Players

Notable players to suit up for the Tulsa Oilers over the decades included:

• Under contract to the Chicago Cubs, Dizzy Dean went 8-8 in 18 starts for the 1940 Tulsa Oilers. The 30-year old future Hall-of-Famer’s right arm was dead by this point and he relied on his self-proclaimed “nothing ball” to retire hitters through craftiness and force of will.
• Future Hall-of-Fame southpaw Steve Carlton pitched briefly for the Oilers in 1964 and then spent the entire 1966 season in Tulsa as a St. Louis Cardinals prospect.
• Pitcher Jerry Reuss won 20 games for Tulsa across two summers in 1969 and 1970. Reuss went on to win 220 games during a Major League career that spanned 22 seasons.
• Reuss’ batterymate on those 1969-1970 Oilers teams was catcher Ted Simmons, who developed into an 8-time Major League All-Star for the Cardinals and the Milwaukee Brewers. Simmons was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame with the Class of 2020.
• 1979 National League Most Valuable Player Keith Hernandez, a member of both the Cardinals and New York Mets’ Halls of Fame, spent parts of four seasons with Tulsa between 1972 and 1975.
• Shortstop Garry Templeton played on the final Tulsa Oilers team in 1976 and later developed into a three-time National League All-Star. He was also the last active Tulsa Oiler playing in Major League Baseball when he appeared in his final game in October 1991.

Oilers Out…

The condition of Tulsa’s Texas League Park (later renamed ‘Oiler Park’ in the 1960’s) and its remote location on the Tulsa Fairgrounds was a persistent source of headaches for Oiler management for decades. In February 1961, long-time Oiler boss Grayle Howlett announced the team would leave Tulsa due to an impasse with the Tulsa Fair Board over repairs to the 27-year ballpark, which an engineering firm had deemed unsafe.¹ASSOCIATED PRESS. “Oiler Franchise for Tulsa Saved By Action of Single Businessman”. The News-Record (Miami, OK). February 16, 1961. Albuquerque, New Mexico was speculated as the most likely landing spot for the homeless team. But at the 11th hour, local businessman A. Ray Smith of Standard Industries stepped forward to purchase 50% of the Oilers and fund the required ballpark repairs. Later that summer, Smith would buy out the remainder of Howlett’s shares and assume full control of the Oilers.

The Tulsa Oilers flourished under Smith’s management. Attendance surged during the 1960’s (while crowds declined in many other minor league cities). The Oilers jumped up to Class AAA status for the first time in 1966 with their shift from the Texas League to the Pacific Coast League. And the franchise won five league championships in three different leagues between 1962 and 1974.

But by 1976, Smith’s willingness to continue propping up Oiler Park reached its expiration. When efforts to negotiate the construction of a new ballpark failed, Smith announced the Oilers would leave Tulsa. The team ended up moving to New Orleans, where efforts to by city leaders to attract a Major League franchise to that city’s newly opened 70,000-seat Superdome had proven unsuccessful.

The Oilers became known as the New Orleans Pelicans for the 1977. The team would later move to Springfield, Illinois (1978-1981) before settling in Louisville, Kentucky in 1982. In 1983 the Louisville Redbirds, still under Ray Smith’s ownership, became the first Minor League Baseball team to draw over one million fans in a single season.

…Drillers In

Meanwhile, back in Tulsa, the Texas League swiftly moved to fill the void created by the Oilers’ departure. The league’s Louisiana-based Lafayette Drillers club moved to Tulsa in 1977 and kept their still-appropriate name. Oiler Park was re-named Driller Park. The Tulsa Drillers would serve as the Class AA farm team of the American League’s Texas Rangers.

On April 3rd, 1977 the Texas Rangers played the Houston Astros in a Major League exhibition game at Driller Park. It was the first ballgame at the Stadium since the Oilers’ final game the previous September. During a rainstorm, fans sought shelter on a narrow covered walkway at the top of the 40-year old wooden grandstand. The grandstand collapsed, throwing 17 fans, many of them children, off a 40-foot drop. Everyone survived, though several fans were hospitalized.

Four years later in 1981, Tulsa opened a new stadium for the Drillers to replace Driller Park. The Drillers continue to play in the Texas League to this day and began their 45th season in April 2022.

The former Tulsa Oilers Class AAA franchise remains in Louisville and is known today as the Louisville Bats.

Trivia

On June 23rd, 1935 Major League veteran Al Shealy spun a 7-inning perfect game for the Oilers in the nightcap of a doubleheader against the San Antonio Missions. It was the first perfect game in Texas League history.²ASSOCIATED PRESS. “Shealy’s Perfect Game First Pitched in Texas League”. The Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, TX). June 24, 1935

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The Texas League Baseball Almanac

By David King & Tom Kayser

Since forming in 1888, the Texas League has produced some of the most beloved American baseball players and seen more than its fair share of colorful events. In 1931, Houston pitcher Dizzy Dean pitched and won both ends of a double-header in Fort Worth, throwing a three-hit shutout in the second game. In 1906, center fielder Tris Speaker pitched for Cleburne to beat Temple 10-3. In 1998, Arkansas’ Tyrone Horne hit for the “homer cycle” in San Antonio, finishing to a standing ovation. “The Texas League Baseball Almanac” delivers day by day the record-breaking events, personal triumphs and memorable games that helped to shape baseball in the region. Join authors David King and Tom Kayser on a nine-inning trip down one of minor-league baseball’s most historic institutions, both in season and off.

 

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Links

Pacific Coast League Media Guides

Pacific Coast League Programs

American Association Media Guides

American Association Programs

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