Allie P. Reynolds
Allie P. Reynolds
“It is one fine privilege to play in the major leagues, and in my days we were all proud that we could. We came out of the Depression, and playing professional baseball was very special.”
Biography
Legendary sport figure, outstanding business and civic leader, and Muscogee (Creek) Indian, Allie P. Reynolds graduated from Oklahoma City’s Capitol Hill High School and was a track and football star at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University) in Stillwater before becoming one of the most dominant baseball pitchers of his era. In 12 full seasons with the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees, he won 182 regular season games and seven World Series championships. He was the first American leaguer to pitch two no-hitters in the same season and, in 1951, won the Hickok Belt as the outstanding professional athlete in America. After his sports career, Allie returned to Oklahoma to the oil business. He was president of the minor league Class AAA American Association and the primary organizer of Red Earth, Oklahoma’s unique annual festival of Native American culture. OSU’s baseball stadium was named in his honor and he received the Creek Nation Medallion Award in 1986 before being elected to the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame.
Fun fact
Internationally known as “Super Chief,” Allie Reynolds’ minister father would not let him play baseball on Sundays, so his baseball career began only after he was drafted for pro football. It did not pay well, so Allie took a $1,000 bonus to play baseball in the minor leagues in 1939.
Oklahoma connections
Reynolds was born in Bethany, Oklahoma.