When Mahlon L. Ducket died on July 12, 2015, he was thought to be the last surviving member of the Philadelphia Stars Negro League baseball team. There was, in fact, one left standing.
Clifford Brown, affectionately known as Quack, was a shortstop and second baseman for the Stars from 1949 to 1951. He died on Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024. He was 93.
He was born on Dec. 9, 1930, in Tampa, Florida, and attended Hillsborough County public schools.
His talents were noticed when he was 16 years old, and he was drafted into the Negro League in 1949. Brown, who needed permission from his mother to play for the Stars, earned $200 a month. Some of his notable opponents included Willie Mays, who played for the Birmingham Black Barons, and Ernie Banks.
Like many players in the Negro Leagues, Brown acquired a nickname. He got the Quack moniker while playing pick-up baseball with a group of friends in Tampa.
“When I jumped the fence and when I flipped, about 11 ducks jumped right around me,” Brown told a local Tampa news station in 2016. “I have been Quack ever since.”
Racial discrimination was a common occurrence for Brown and his teammates when traveling. Once a gas station owner didn’t let the team bus fill up at the pumps, and his team pushed the bus 10 miles down the road to another station. The Philadelphia Stars and several other Negro League teams were unable to stay in hotels and had to rely on the housing of willing individuals.
“During that time, we had to stay in people’s homes,” Brown told the Tribune in a 2018 interview. “We stayed on the road. … We didn’t play too many home games.”
In the early 1950s, he turned down an opportunity to play for the St. Louis Cardinals in the Major Leagues because of racial tension.
Following his playing career with the Stars, Brown served in the Army, then returned to Florida and worked for the Florida Portland Cement Plant for 31 years as a track mobile operator.
In addition, Brown spent 11 years coaching the Belmont Heights Little League club, which three times advanced to the Little League World Series in the 1970s and 1980s. The league had players including Dwight “Doc” Gooden, Gary Sheffield, Vance Lovelace, Floyd Youman and Tyrone Griffin Jr., all of whom played in the Major Leagues.
During his latter years, he loved watching the Tampa Bay Rays play baseball and listen to them on the radio when his sight wavered. He also loved listening to Sam Cooke.
He also made songs that were passed down to his great-grandchildren. The best-known ones were “The Bucket Got a Hole in It” and “Go To Sleep, Little Baby.”
When he visited hospitals, he insisted that his kids and grandkids bring baseballs and playing cards along in order to sign autographs.
“He was so dedicated to the sport of baseball and proud of his legacy,” his granddaughter, Sukandra Cooper, said. “He was our heart, and we are going to miss him greatly.”
The Negro National League was founded on Dec. 13, 1920, in Kansas City, Missouri. As part of the “Tip Your Cap” campaign launched by Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Brown participated in the 2020 celebrations marking the league’s 100th anniversary.
“I’m glad that I’m living to see this. One hundred years,” he told the Tribune in a 2020 interview.
In addition to numerous other honors during his life, Brown was recognized in the book “The Negro Leagues Revisited” and received the Florida House of Representatives Award and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays Baseball Team Award.
He was preceded in death by his mother, Hattie Mae Davis; wife, Bettye Brown; daughter, Linda Batchelor Aldrich; and great-grandchild, Romauni Borders.
In addition to his granddaughter, he is survived by his children, Gail Green, Veronica Borders (Charles) and Clifford Brown Jr. (Dionne); niece, Katrina Washington; nephew, Keith Batchelor; son-in-law, Samuel Aldrich Sr.; grandchildren, Darron Aldrich (Tamela), Samuel Aldrich Jr., Damian Green (Angel), Charles Borders Jr. (Tiffani), Jerrell Borders (Almeka), Shamera Jennot (Kevin), Sydney and Addison Brown; and other family members.
Services will be held on Friday, Feb. 9, at Aikens Funeral Home in Tampa.
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