Note: Wilmington, N.C. (WECT), posted September 25, 2025 - Wilmington officials to rename Robert Strange Park’s Field in honor of Sam Bowens Wilmington Baseball Legend.
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Keeping A Legacy Alive For A Wilmington Great 60 Years After Sam Bowens' Major League Debut
by John Staton - Wilmington StarNews - Feb. 14, 2023
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Simply put, Sam Bowens is one of the best athletes Wilmington has ever produced.

A four-sport star (baseball, football, basketball, and track and field) at Williston High School, which was segregated when Bowens attended it in the 1950s, he went on to play Major League Baseball for seven seasons in the 1960s, winning a World Series title in 1966 as a member of the Baltimore Orioles.

This year marks 60 years since Bowens made his spring training debut with the Orioles in 1963; the outfielder would play his first Major League game following a call-up from the minors that September. It also marks 20 years since Bowens died on March 28, 2003, at the age of 65.

Despite a career cut short by knee injuries and alcohol abuse, Bowens' achievements have been acknowledged in Wilmington, if not always celebrated. He was inducted into the Greater Wilmington Sports Hall of Fame (GWSHOF) in 2018, an honor his younger brother, Fred Bowens of Wilmington, said was "long overdue."

But some would like to see Bowens' legacy in Wilmington burnished further, with perhaps a local ballfield or even a facility named in his honor.

Early days
According to a video on the GWSHOF website, Samuel Edward Bowens was born in Wilmington March 23, 1938, to Lula and Samuel E. Bowens Sr. (Incidentally, Bowens' mother is credited with helping perpetuate the recipe for the famous delicacy known as the "Williston Bun.")

Mentored by legendary Williston coach E.A. "Spike" Corbin, the strapping 6-foot-3, 195-pounder led the Tigers to 1956 state championships in baseball, basketball (he averaged over 20 points a game as the team's center) and football.

Bowens then went to college at Tennessee State University in Nashville, playing track, baseball and football and eventually finding his way to playing baseball for the Nashville Elite Giants in the waning days of the Negro Leagues.

In 2006, former StarNews sports writer Chuck Carree wrote that Bowens was discovered by the so-called Orioles "superscout" Jim Russo, who signed him as a free agent for a $5,000 bonus, about $50,000 in today's money.

Bowens' brother Fred said during Sam's four years in the minor leagues he regularly encountered racism from fans, especially when playing games in "small towns," where there was "a lot of harassment he had to deal with. All the Black players back then had to deal with it."

In the majors
It had been less than 20 years since Jackie Robinson became the first Black player in the major leagues in 1947, and in 1963 Bowens became the first Black player born in Wilmington to play in the majors.

His best season was in 1964, when he was in the rookie-of-the-year conversation and batted .263 with 22 home runs and 71 RBIs.


After his standout rookie season, Bowens became a part-time and back-up player for the rest of his career. After a hitting slump, he was even sent back down to the minors for a while in 1965.

Bowens told Carree in 2002 that getting hit in the head by a pitch in Boston contributed to his batting woes.

"I'd pull my head out," Bowens said. "I wouldn't stay with the inside pitches. I would bail out and drop my hands.''

Bowens played for the Washington Senators his final two years in the majors, finishing his career with a .223 batting average, 45 home runs and 143 RBIs.

The World Series
Other than his rookie season, the Orioles' 1966 championship year is probably the highlight of Bowens' career. Bowens didn't see action in the series but then again he wasn't really needed as the Orioles swept the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Bowens was a respectable backup in 1966, hitting only .210 but playing in 89 games and slugging 6 homers and 9 doubles while swiping 9 bases. One of his outfield catches in 1966 was deemed one of the best baseball plays of the year by Baseball Digest magazine.

In 2002, Carree wrote that Bowens told him his World Series ring was stolen from his hotel room in 1967 during an Orioles road trip to the West Coast.

The list of people with Wilmington ties to have a won a World Series ring is a short one, and the list of Wilmington natives to play on a World Series-winning team is shorter. Other than Bowens, the list includes only New Hanover High School's Trot Nixon, who played on the world champion 2004 Boston Red Sox.

Willie Stargell, who won World Series titles with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1971 and 1979, moved to Wilmington after retiring from baseball. So did George "Possum" Whitted, a Durham native who was a key member of the 1914 "Miracle" Boston Braves, who went from last place on July 4 to completing a World Series sweep.

The legacy of Sam Bowens
Bowens retired from baseball in 1969 and lived in Indianapolis before moving back to Wilmington in the 1980s, according to his brother Fred.

During his brother's playing days, Fred said, "He was always bringing bats and balls and giving it to The Boys' Club" during his visits to Wilmington.

Sam Bowens spent his final years in ill health at a Wilmington nursing home, watching baseball games on television, Carree wrote in 2002. His room was paid for in part by the Major League Baseball Players Assistance Program, a fund for former major leaguers in need of financial help.

Bowens' son died a few months after his father, Fred said, and Sam has two daughters.

Matthew Emmerich first became aware of Sam Bowens sometime last decade. A baseball nut and an aficionado of its history, Emmerich is a co-founder of the Port City Pickles, a ragtag Wilmington sandlot baseball team.

He also runs the Pickles' Instagram account, which has regularly posted about Bowens, like one featuring a photo of Bowens on the back of an old soda pop bottle top.

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, Emmerich said, he was inspired to start an effort to get the name of the baseball field at the city of Wilmington's Robert Strange Park, currently known as "Field No. 1," changed to Sam Bowens Field. (Groups have also tried to get the city to change the name of Robert Strange Park, which some say is named after a Confederate soldier, although it's unclear which of three Robert Stranges the park is actually named for.)

Emmerich said it rankles him to go to Wilmington International Airport, where a display of the Greater Wilmington Sports Hall of Fame's inductees are located, and see Bowens' picture obscured "at butt level" behind a bench.

Emmerich moved to Chapel Hill in 2021, after which he said the drive to get the field's name changed stalled. He said he hopes to find time to cut through the red tape of trying to change the name of a city-owned property.

Bowens' brother Fred, whose help Emmerich enlisted in trying to get the field name changed, said "we tried to get it done but it fell through."

Fred Bowens added that "the main thing I wanted was for (Sam) to get in the local Hall of Fame. That was long overdue."

He said he's mostly satisfied with how his big brother is remembered locally.

"I used to follow him around and watch him play ball," Fred Bowens said. When Sam played for the Rochester Red Wings in the minor leagues, Fred and his family members, including their brother Harold, would go to Richmond, Virgina, which had a team in the same league. Their aunt lived in Baltimore, so when Sam played for the Orioles "we would go there all the time."

These days, you can often find Fred Bowens walking around the track at Williston.

"I get my exercise there about five days a week," he said, right next to the school that produced one of the best Wilmington athletes of all time.