would be given complete control of the club, “with the right to hire and fire.” It was also reported that Hill would be “expected to bring some nine players with him from the West.” Hill reportedly raided the Negro National League, including his former Bears team. From that team, he brought with him first baseman Percy Wilson. Though Wilson would not play much, spending most of the 1924 sea- son on the bench, he was introduced in the pages of the Afro-Ameri- can ’s March 21 issue. And although Wilson was not a regular on the team, the great thing he did was save his contract . That contract, dated November 4, 1923, in addition to being signed by Wilson and club president George Rossiter, was also signed by Pete Hill, making it the only known, publicly available Pete Hill autograph. What’s more, Hill actually signed the contract twice , as he provided a note at the top reading “Keep this contract and send the other one back to me.” Hill wrote all the notes on the contract. The contract was discovered with a group of documents and pho- tos belonging to Percy Wilson. Measuring approximately 8 1/2” x 15
3/4”, the contract is printed on extremely delicate paper that has been stored folded for many years, yielding heavy creases at the folds along with some small holes in the weakened areas. Creasing is visible at the edges, along with some tiny edge tears, and a couple of small holes can be seen at the upper right. Uneven toning is evident throughout. The entire piece is very fragile. The signatures are extremely legible, as is all of Hill’s writing throughout, though Hill’s signature appears to be in pencil. In the 1999 book The Negro Leagues Autograph Guide , author Kevin Keating places Hill in the “Ones that Got Away” section, writing “De- spite our access to some of the largest private and public collections of Negro Leagues documents and autographs, we were unable to locate irrefutable signature samples from a number of major Negro Leagues stars, including some potential Hall of Famers.” Hill, who passed away in 1951, was inducted in 2006, is one of very few Hall of Famers for whom no confirmed examples of their autograph exist. Until now. An incredible find for Negro League and Hall of Fame collectors alike, we are thrilled to present the only known examplar of an autograph of Pete Hill.
MINIMUM BID: $10,000
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