DECATUR — Three local historians are convinced that a man who was at the center of the Scottsboro Boys trial should be in the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

To make sure that the state and the world know about the late Dr. Frank “Doc” Sykes, they have prepared a more than 20-page document about his birth in the River City and his days as a pitcher with five teams in the Negro Baseball League.

“He’s just a remarkable human being in every aspect of his life,” said Phil Wirey, an environmental specialist with 3M.

Accomplishments

Wirey, King’s Memorial Pastor Wylheme Ragland and Peggy Towns submitted Sykes’ name and athletic accomplishments to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame committee.

Sykes is among 300 candidates the selection committee will consider when it selects its Class of 2010, said Scott Myers, executive director of the Sports Hall of Fame in Birmingham.

“He is certainly most worthy of consideration,” Myers wrote in a letter to Wirey.

Until his death in 1986, Sykes was known primarily for his testimony in the Depression-era trial known as the Scottsboro Boys case. Nine black boys were accused of raping two white women.

Sykes was one of 31 black witnesses New York attorney Samuel Leibowitz subpoenaed in the second trial of Haywood Patterson.

Leibowitz argued to the judge that Morgan County “systematically” excluded blacks from the jury rolls.

Sykes, a dentist and son of former slaves from Lawrence and Morgan counties, testified about black qualified jurors.

Described by a reporter as a “handsome man with a brush mustache,” Sykes brought to the courtroom a list of more than 200 blacks who were qualified to serve on juries.

“This is what people remembered about my father,” said Alice Sykes of Hyattsville, Md.

She knew her father played professional baseball, but didn’t realize the extent of his talents until Wirey, Ragland and Towns nominated him.

Wirey said Sykes developed his athletic skills while playing with his seven siblings in what is now Northwest Decatur.

He left the River City for LeMyone Institute in Memphis and Atlanta Baptist College (now Morehouse) in 1912.

Sykes enrolled in Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 1914, where he played baseball and earned a dental degree in 1918.

Professional career

While at Howard, he also played professionally part-time with the Brooklyn Royal Giants and New York Lincoln Giants.

He never lost a college game as a pitcher. Sykes said his college accomplishment is “a record that can be equaled, but never broken.”

After receiving his dental degree, he played full time with the Hilldale Daisies in Philadelphia and Brooklyn Royal Giants before moving to Baltimore in 1919.

He opened his dental office and played eight seasons with the Baltimore Black Sox.

Known for his split ball, Sykes posted a 22-4 record in 1922 with one no-hitter against the Bacharach Giants on Sept. 16, 1922.

Sykes retired after 13 seasons and returned to Decatur with his new bride, the former Alice West. She was a basketball and track star at Temple University.

Sykes built one of the most successful dentist practices in the area and had three of his four children in the River City.

Then came the Scottsboro Boys trial. The Ku Klux Klan ridiculed and threatened Sykes because he spoke against the exclusion of black jurors and housed northern journalists.

One incident involved a high-speed chase with the KKK. His daughter said Sykes decided to leave his birthplace after the Klan burned a cross in his yard.

“Dad had had enough,” Alice Sykes said.

He re-established his dental practice in Baltimore, and after his retirement, spent a considerable amount of time talking with reporters and book researchers about his days in the Negro League.

Sykes was 94 when he died in 1986. If not for those interviews, his baseball exploits might have been forgotten.

In his book about Negro league players, author John Holway called Sykes the “pitching dentist.”

“This guy deserves to be in the state’s hall of fame,” Wirey said. “We’re also going to nominate him for the Morgan County Hall of Fame.”