HOUSTON — Here's the tale of a Cardinal, once considered the GOAT, who came to Houston to be a Buffalo.
It's May 19, 1950, and the Houston Buffaloes minor league baseball team is one of the worst clubs in the Texas League.
It's early in the season, but it's time to fix things. The St. Louis Cardinals, the Buffs' parent club, brings in a new field manager, a scout named Bennie Borgmann.
He'll spend decades with the Cardinals organization, as a player, manager and talent evaluator.
Looks like any other baseball guy, right?
Roundball runs through his veins.
During the offseason, Bennie is the basketball coach at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania.
And his days as a player?
Let's just call him the James Harden of the 1920s.
Bennie is considered the greatest offensive player of his generation; leading his leagues in scoring fifteen times during a 12-year period, though, he was criticized for putting scoring before team play, according to the Pro Basketball Encyclopedia.
Eleven years after managing the Buffaloes, Bennie Borgmann is inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1961.
How do these Buffs fare with Bennie?
Last place. The next year, he goes back to scouting.
Still, his legendary basketball career makes this a strange but true Houston sports story.