Henry Allen Kimbro
Henry Allen Kimbro was born on February 10, 1912, in Nashville, Tennessee, where he grew up playing baseball in the city parks. He began his professional career with Tom Wilson’s Washington Elite Giants, a team that originated from the Nashville Elite Giants and later became the Baltimore Elite Giants in the Negro Baseball League.
Known as one of the best lead-off men in the league, Henry Kimbro consistently hit line drives and used his speed to stretch a single into an extra base hit. With the combination of speed and a rifle arm, he was considered one of the best centerfielders to ever play the game. During his career, he achieved a lifetime batting average of .315 and appeared in six All-Star Games. In 1945, Henry Kimbro led the league in stolen bases and finished only one home run behind league leaders Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard. In 1946, he tied with Cool Papa Bell for league lead in at-bats, hit .371, and led the league in runs scored. In 1947, he hit .353 and tied for the lead in doubles. Today, he is recognized as the Major League Baseball batting champion for 1947, when he hit .385 for the Baltimore Elite Giants.
After his retirement from baseball, Henry Kimbro returned home to Nashville where he and his Cuban-born wife, Erbia Mendoza Kimbro, raised their children and successfully operated Bill’s Cab Company for 22 years. He was selected for the Baltimore Orioles Baseball Wall of Fame and the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Wall of Fame. He was honored during the 1993 Major League Baseball All-Stars Game and was inducted posthumously into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.
For a man who was limited to a 6th grade education, Henry Kimbro was most proud of sending his four children to colleges to obtain their degrees: Larry – B.S., Tennessee State University; Harriet – B.S., Fisk University, M.S., Florida State University, Ed.D, Temple University; Phillip – B.S., Fisk University; Maria – B.S. & M.S., Florida A&M University.
Family Member
Dr. Harriet Kimbro-Hamilton is from Nashville, Tennessee. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Health and Physical Education from Fisk University in 1975. As an undergraduate, she was on the first women’s basketball team and a member of the women’s tennis team. She earned a master’s degree in Sports Administration from Florida State University in 1976. In 2003, she received her doctorate in Sport and Recreation Management from Temple University.
In the fall of 1976, she started her career as a teacher/coach at Bethune-Cookman College. She started the women’s basketball program at the college. During the 1977-78 season, her team made history by winning the FAIAW Conference Championship in women’s basketball. After being recruited back to her alma mater, her women’s basketball team made history at Fisk by winning the 1979-1980 TCWSF Women’s Basketball Conference Championship. Also, in her role as Fisk University women’s volleyball team coach, Dr. Hamilton and her team made history by winning the 1988 WIAC Conference Volleyball Championship.
Prior to her retirement as a college professor at Tennessee State University in 2020, Dr. Hamilton taught at Alabama A&M University, Stillman College, Bethune-Cookman College, and was a Metro-Davidson County school teacher. She has received numerous awards from the Women’s Sport Foundation and the National Association of Girls and Women in Sport. In 2012, she was inducted into the Temple University Women’s Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame. In 2017, she was inducted into Fisk University Sports Hall of Fame.
Dr. Kimbro-Hamilton spent most of her career as a college professor/teacher, a head coach, athletic director, and a lifelong promoter of the history of the Negro Leagues where her father, Henry Kimbro, played for 17 years. She has received recognition as an author for her body of work about Negro League Baseball in two books. For the past two years, she worked on another project that made her a film director. She completed a documentary called The Tour of One City: The History of the Negro Leagues in Nashville, TN, and Beyond. As of today, her documentary was selected to show at the Charlotte Film Festival and the Marina Del Rey Film Festival. At the Marina Del Rey Film Festival, her documentary was awarded the Grand Prize Best Documentary (Television).