What Buck O'Neil Did After Missing the Hall of Fame by One Vote

About this episode

On this episode of Our American Stories, in February 2006, Buck O'Neil and Bob Kendrick were packed and ready to fly to Florida for what they believed would be a Hall of Fame celebration. Instead, O'Neil fell one vote short. Kendrick was devastated. Hundreds of supporters gathered at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum were angry. Buck responded differently. Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, remembers how O'Neil celebrated the 17 Negro Leaguers who had been elected, comforted everyone grieving on his behalf, and then went to Cooperstown to honor them. Fifteen years later, Buck O'Neil was finally elected to the National Baseball Hall of…