It was a great day for baseball, with blue skies and warm temperatures Thursday morning, when the grave site of George Tebeau officially was noted with a grave marker.
Tebeau was remembered by a small group of family members and baseball enthusiasts as the patriarch of professional baseball in Colorado. His time was long ago, but Tebeau’s baseball history in Denver included time as a player, team owner and league founder. Tebeau died at age 61 in 1923, and his grave at Olinger Crown Hill Cemetery in Wheat Ridge had gone unmarked until Thursday’s ceremony.
Local baseball historian Jay Sanford led a campaign to pay for the headstone. He said the major contributor wanted to remain anonymous.
The inscription on the headstone read, “Father of Colorado Baseball” and ended “Brought baseball to the West.”
Austin Tebeau, a 66-year-old Denver resident and George’s grandson, said his grandfather was a man ahead of his time.
“My dad told me that he tried to bring a major-league team to Denver in 1910,” Austin Tebeau said. “He worked hard at it, but things didn’t work out.”
Major-league baseball finally made it to Denver in 1993, the first season of the Rockies.
George Tebeau also is credited with joining Ban Johnson in forming the American League in 1901 to compete with the National League. Tebeau played major-league ball in the late 19th century, hitting .269 with 228 stolen bases in six seasons.
While in Denver, Tebeau was the driving force to building Broadway Park at Sixth and Broadway. Denver’s baseball was played there until 1922, when it moved farther south on Broadway to Merchants Park. Both early-day playing fields were a far cry from Coors Field.
“He’d be thrilled with what has happened with baseball,” Austin Tebeau said of his grandfather. “I don’t think he’d miss a game at Coors Field.”
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
