06/19/2026
A decade before Jackie Robinson integrated Major League baseball in 1947, a young man named Hank Schanck was already a baseball star in Freehold. At a time when teams were segregated by color but able to compete against each other in unofficial barnstorming games, Schanck quickly gained notoriety and respect as an impressive athlete in the infield as well as on the mound.
Schanck played on the 40 A.C. team and the 1937 championship National Lead team, the company he worked for in Sayreville. He was one of the earliest black players to integrate into the top white ball clubs, including Freeholdโs Holy Name team and the Freehold Gulistans.
Decades later, young players, white and black, enjoyed the game together, blissfully unaware of the trails that were forged before them. Freehold baseball historian Glenn Cashion writes in his book, Baseball is in My DNA: A History of Baseball in Freehold, New Jersey, 1857-1973:
โMy memory of Schanck was his dominant presence as an umpire during my playing days. At that time I had no inkling that he and my brother had been teammates in the late 1930s and 1940s. I do remember that Schanck was definitely in control of the game while umpiring.โ
Schanckโs relatives continue to live in his hometown of Freehold, proud descendants of a man who did what he did best - and loved to do - in spite of the opposition, breaking through color lines like a bat to a ball. Hank was special to Freehold not only for his talent, but for his tenacity. We honor him today as a reminder of what was endured, surmounted, and how far we have come.
