Alpine Cowboys - History

History

In 1946, Herbert L. Kokernot, Jr., son of Texas cattle rancher and entrepreneur Herbert L. Kokernot, retooled the semi-professional baseball team the Alpine Cats into the Alpine Cowboys. While semi-professional teams were not uncommon in Texas at the time, the Alpine Cowboys had the unusual benefit of a brand new stadium, Kokernot Field, opened for them in 1947. Constructed at a cost of $1,500,000.00, the elaborately decorated stadium included imported infield clay shipped by train from Georgia. The Alpine Cowboys used the stadium as home base from 1947 through 1958, during which time they took a dozen titles in the regional and were runners up for a national championship. In addition to supporting the team and the region with a state of the art stadium, Kokernot also actively supported athletes in Alpine and elsewhere, bringing promising high school graduates onto the roster of the team and offering college scholarships to players throughout the southwest.

In a 2007 article, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram described the team as "one of the state's finest semiprofessional teams". The team launched a number of baseball professionals, including two Hall of Fame inductees. Among them was coach Tom Chandler. Team members included Gaylord Perry and Norm Cash.

In the days of segregation in Texas, Kokernot arranged for many exhibition games between traveling Negro League teams—led by such stars as Satchel Paige -- and visiting Mexican League teams. Those exhibitions drew fans from hundreds of miles away.