Interesting caps. That's the post. Interesting caps.

A charity I'm involved with got a wonderful donation of thousands of ball caps - major league teams (all sports), minor league teams, colleges, organizations, clubs, etc. While sorting through, we came across two that everyone is especially enamored of.

This one is quite cute, but had everyone wondering whether there was a team called the Pickle Jars.
 

Turns out, it's the Fireflies, a minor league team in Columbia, SC, and they've apparently gone back to the drawing boards for their logo.

The new logo doesn't quite do it for me. Because, let's face it, unless it's lighting up a bottle, no one really knows what a firefly looks like. Back to the drawing board...

I actually prefer the Pickle Jar logo to the Firefly, and kinda sorta wish there were a team out there called the Pickle Jars.

Then there was this one:

Well, you can imagine the ribald comments fireflying around when we came across these. 

Turns out it's a very old society - founded in 1908 - to provide athletic and social opportunities for African American men. Their basketball teams were quite prominent in an era of segregation. 

Like many other black fives of that era, the Independents—whose literature advocated, “uplifting the colored athletic standard”—staged social events to raise funds and strengthen camaraderie among athletes as well as to build community awareness. (Source: Black Fives Foundation)

Today, their memory is preserved by the Black Fives Foundation, which has as its mission

To research, preserve, showcase, teach, and honor the pre-NBA history of African Americans in basketball.

I know a bit about the Negro Leagues in baseball - probably because I'm a baseball fan. But knew little of the early history of basketball. Dr. Naismith and the peach basket...NBA starts becoming more of a thing in the 1950's...And that's about it.

One of the way the Black Fives raise funds is selling caps of the historic basketball teams. 

This little history, of course, makes the name less make-fun-of-able. Instead, it's a good time to think about segregation, and the parallel institutions formed in the Black community that strengthened those communities and helped them thrive.

Still, given the name, I'm really surprised there were any Independent Pleasure Club caps that weren't snapped up.