The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame, Museum and Dreams Fulfilled just launched a Kickstarter campaign to create a limited-edition series of vintage Negro Leagues bobbleheads. The generic line includes every MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA team. They are popular collectibles, and make great gifts. It’s the first time these particular vintage bobbleheads of the Negro Leagues teams have ever been produced.
To celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the founding of baseball’s Negro National League, this bobblehead series features 10 Negro Leagues teams including the Baltimore Elite Giants, Birmingham Black Barons, Detroit Stars, Hilldale Club, Homestead Grays, Indianapolis Clowns, Kansas City Monarchs, Newark Eagles, Pittsburgh Crawfords and The St. Louis Stars. The campaign is part of the Make 100 initiative for projects launched in January, where Kickstarter “asks the creator community to bring 100 of any work into the world and invites backers to support the one-of-a-kind—or at least one of 100—ideas.” The campaign was designed to coincide with Black History Month and the start of baseball season and will conclude at 9 p.m. Central Time on Friday, Feb. 29.
There are only 100 sets of bobbleheads available through this Kickstarter campaign. Each bobblehead will be individually numbered to 100, and packaged in a collector’s box. For prices, contact Phil.sklar@bobbleheadhall.com. Prototypes of the 10 bobbleheads have been produced and the bobbleheads will go into production if the campaign’s $7,500 goal is achieved. If the project is successful, plans are to produce a second series that will be accessible to even more people.
“Our goal is to produce bobbleheads that celebrate and commemorate the Negro Leagues while educating current and future generations about the League and its players, and we think bobbleheads are the perfect way to do that,” said Phil Sklar, co-founder and CEO of the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum. “Museum visitors love seeing the vintage bobbleheads and we thought it was time for the Negro Leagues teams to be honored with a series of its own.”
Officially licensed by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the bubbleheads are being produced by the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum in conjunction with Dreams Fulfilled and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each Negro Leagues bobblehead will go to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum located in Kansas City, Missouri.
This campaign follows the Negro Leagues Centennial Bobblehead Series Kickstarter Campaign that concluded in January 2019 with nearly 750 backers pledging over $75,000 to make that project a reality. All 38 bobbleheads that were part of the initial Kickstarter campaign were produced, with the final bobbleheads shipped to Kickstarter Backers ahead of the projected February 2020 timeline. The Centennial Series bobbleheads can be purchased at a discounted rate of $25 through the new Kickstarter Campaign.
The first successful Negro League was founded by Rube Foster on Feb. 13, 1920 at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City. Foster believed an organized league structured like Major League Baseball would lead to eventual integration of the sport and racial reconciliation. Although Foster did not live to see his dream come true, others picked up his cause and in 1947 Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier.
Dreams Fulfilled was organized to promote the Negro National League Centennial in 2020. Its founder, Jay Caldwell, has been selected by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum as the primary exhibitor for an art and artifact exhibition which will be at the museum between Feb.13 and May 31, 2020. Dreams Fulfilled will be exhibiting 300 original pieces of artifacts of African American baseball, honoring Negro League players dating back to 1871.
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) is the world’s first museum dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of African-American baseball and its profound impact on the social advancement of America. The NLBM operates one block from the Paseo YMCA where Andrew “Rube” Foster founded the Negro National League in 1920. In 2006, the NLBM was designated as “America’s National Negro Leagues Baseball Museum” by the United States Congress. Visit us at www.NegroLeaguesHistory.com or www.facebook.com/NegroLeaguesHistory.