By the time this snapshot was taken in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 1940, Herschel Bobo had been kicking around the low minors for 20 years. He hit .300 or better eight years in a row in the Class D Cotton States League. I can think of a lot worse ways to spend the 1920s and ‘30s .
"Kicking around" is the wrong way to characterize Bobo's career. He was a regional star; "One of the best athletes in the South," in the opinion of the Jackson Daily News. He was also the head football coach at State Teachers College, which would become Southern Mississippi University. A chapter in Rock Solid , a book by John W. Cox and Gregg Bennett about the school's football history is, in fact, called "State Teachers College and the Bobo Era."