Katy Park
Waco, McLennan County, Texas
Marker Inscription
At the turn of the 20th century, baseball fever captivated the City of Waco, and leaders set their sights on providing a ballpark for a potential hometown team. They chose farming lot #13 a non-descript piece of land owned by local businessman Alfred Abeel (1836-1922) on the corner of Eighth Street and Webster Avenue, near the MKT rail line. Abeel also owned the architecturally notable home known as Cottonland Castle. Katy Park was designed by Henry Fabian (1865-1940), a former baseball player and entrepreneur. Fabian had arrived in Waco in 1904 to manage and co-own his first baseball team, the Waco Tigers. In the early years, the Tigers and Fabian were instrumental in overturning legislation outlawing Sunday baseball. The Tigers struggled with profitability, and Katy Park sometimes went without a home team. In 1925, the Galveston Cubs were acquired and became the Waco Cubs. The Cubs hosted the New York Yankees in a 1929 exhibition game. When Babe Ruth hit a line drive over the right field fence, the ball struck a boy. Ruth waded into the crowd to check on the boy and gave him an autographed baseball. The Cubs left town in 1930, and three years later, Waco received another team, the Pirates. Katy Park hosted both white and black teams, as baseball was still a segregated sport. The first night game was played in May 1930 between the Negro League's Kansas City Monarchs and the Waco Black Cardinals. In 1946 and 1950 respectively, Jesse Owens and Joe Lewis held events at Katy Park. The ballpark was completely destroyed in a powerful 1953 tornado but was later rebuilt. The Pirates remained until 1955. The last baseball games, part of a statewide tournament of African American teams, were held at Katy Park in June 1965. Katy Park Was eventually torn down, but the site remains an important part of the city's sports and cultural legacy. (2022)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
At the turn of the 20th century, baseball fever gripped Waco, and city leaders built a ballpark near the MKT ("Katy") rail line. Under baseball man Henry Fabian, teams came and went — the Tigers, Cubs, and Pirates — and the park hosted a 1929 exhibition where Babe Ruth waded into the crowd to check on a boy his line drive had struck. Segregation shaped the diamond too: Negro League clubs like the Kansas City Monarchs played here, and the final games in 1965 were part of a statewide tournament of African American teams.
Why it matters
Katy Park captures both the small-town glory of early Texas baseball and the era's racial divide, where Black and white teams shared the same field only on separate days.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Around 1900, baseball was America's game in a way it's hard to picture now. Every ambitious town wanted a team, and minor-league clubs rose and folded across Texas. Waco was a growing cotton and rail town in the heart of the state, and it caught the fever along with everyone else.
Railroads shaped where things went in towns like Waco. The ballpark rose near the MKT line, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad that everyone called the "Katy," and that is where the park got its name. Fans, teams and traveling exhibitions all moved by rail.
The park's whole life was lived under segregation. In the South, Black and white Americans were kept apart by law and custom in schools, theaters and ballparks, and professional baseball itself stayed segregated until the late 1940s. Katy Park hosted both white and Black teams, so it holds both sides of that divided sporting world.
People & events
The park's founding figure was Henry Fabian, a former ballplayer turned entrepreneur. He came to Waco in 1904 to manage and co-own the Waco Tigers, and he designed Katy Park on a plain farming lot at Eighth Street and Webster Avenue. The land belonged to local businessman Alfred Abeel, who also owned the Waco home known as Cottonland Castle. Fabian and his Tigers also helped overturn laws that banned baseball on Sundays, which was a real fight in an era when many people saw Sunday games as a moral question.
Pro baseball in Waco often struggled, and some seasons the park had no home team. In 1925 the Galveston Cubs were bought and became the Waco Cubs. In 1929 the Cubs hosted the New York Yankees in an exhibition game, and Babe Ruth drove a line drive over the right-field fence that struck a boy in the crowd. Ruth went into the stands himself to check on the boy and gave him an autographed ball. The moment says a lot about why Ruth was so loved.
The park's Black baseball history is just as vivid. In May 1930 Katy Park held its first night game, between the Negro Leagues' Kansas City Monarchs and the Waco Black Cardinals. The Monarchs were one of the great clubs of Black baseball, and that year they were famous for traveling with their own portable lights. Later came Olympic hero Jesse Owens in 1946 and, in 1950, the boxing champion the marker names as Joe Lewis, the great heavyweight Joe Louis.
The park was destroyed by the deadly 1953 tornado that tore through Waco, one of the worst in Texas history, and then rebuilt. The Waco Pirates, who arrived in 1933, played there until 1955. The last games came in June 1965, in a statewide tournament of African American teams.
Its place in the American story
Katy Park's history tracks American baseball in the first half of the 20th century. There were minor-league dreams that often failed financially, fights over Sunday play, and barnstorming stars like Babe Ruth who brought the big leagues to towns that would never have a major-league team of their own.
It also shows segregation in American sports. Negro League clubs like the Kansas City Monarchs played some of the best baseball in the country, yet they were shut out of the white major leagues. That the park's first night game was played by Black teams points to how innovative Black baseball could be. Night baseball later became standard across the sport.
The park's last chapter came in 1965, nearly two decades after Jackie Robinson broke the major-league color line. It was a tournament of African American teams, which shows that separate Black baseball in Texas lasted long after the national headlines moved on.
If you visit
The ballpark is gone, so you're visiting a memory rather than a grandstand. Stand near the corner of Eighth Street and Webster Avenue and try to picture the diamond, the wooden stands and the sound of a line drive clearing the right-field fence.
Notice how close the site is to the old rail corridor that gave Katy Park its name. For decades, ballplayers and fans probably arrived by train, and the railroad shaped this part of Waco.
Katy Park works well on a Waco sports-and-culture day. The city has plenty of history to explore, and this marker adds a story many visitors miss: Babe Ruth, the Kansas City Monarchs and generations of local players, Black and white, all took the field here.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Henry Fabian
- · Babe Ruth
Themes & tags
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