I started this blog years ago with the idea that I could comment on sports and life while riffing off the many baseball caps I owned, each one inspiring some memory or insight that I thought others might like to read.
Today, I’ll tell the tale of my latest acquisition, one I spent several frustrating years trying to find. It’s a replica of the “wishbone C” cap that the Indians wore from 1958-1961 and 1963-1964, when I was a young child in Cleveland. It’s the cap players on the Tribe wore when I became “baseball aware,” if you will.
When I was born in 1956, the Indians wore a blue cap with a red C with mascot Chief Wahoo inset. The team switched to the white-outlined red C on a blue cap in ’58, and all my early memories as a Cleveland fan are associated with teams that wore that cap. Vic Power. Al Luplow. Johnny Romano. Those early heroes of mine.
I remember when the team reversed colors in 1965, putting a blue C on a red cap. I thought those caps were cool, but in my heart, then and always, I remained partial to the red-on-blue version of my toddling years.
I can’t remember if I ever had a replica of that cap when I was a kid. Keep in mind that in the 1960s, Major League Baseball merchandising wasn’t the multi-million dollar business it is today. Fans didn’t go to Municipal Stadium decked out in replica jerseys and caps the way they commonly do today at Progressive Field. I expect the story is the same in most other markets.
No, back then, the best we could do was generic baseball duds, caps with logos saying “Little Slugger” or plain, generic uniforms such as the ones below that my brother Michael and I are wearing while riding in front of our home.
Occasionally, there would be rare opportunities to show your team spirit. I had a T-shirt, presumably in 1962, commemorating the famous home run chase of 1961, when Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth’s season record of 60 homers. The shirt showed Maris and Mickey Mantle back to back in batting poses, and I haven’t been able to find the photo of my dad, my brothers and me, in the shirt, posing on our back porch. Some day!
A few years later, we had jersey-like T-shirts showing Chief Wahoo, but that’s all that the family photographic record has preserved. There may have been other such shirts, but I don’t recall any.
Over the years, I’ve accumulated several Cleveland caps, a couple of them gifts. I have a blue one with a solo Chief Wahoo and no C, and I have one with a block blue C on a red front panel similar to what the team wore in the year or two before the rebranding as the Guardians.
I never sought out the Andre Thornton-era crooked C version of the 1970s. I remained committed to getting the classic wishbone C version of my early years. But finding that cap proved nigh impossible.
All the online sites carry many versions of Cleveland caps over the years, including some vintage models harkening back to the 1920 World Championship season. But did anyone carry the style I wanted? No! I even wrote to the team’s front office a couple of years ago and got only a blow-off “check online” response.
When I went to the Baseball Hall of Fame gift shop last June, I looked for one in vain.
Every so often, I have searched online, and while taking a break at work a couple of weeks ago I almost fell out of my chair when my search for “1960s Indians baseball cap” brought up the very model I sought.
It was a 1959 version by American Needle, offered by a merchant in Cooperstown, in size 7 3/4. I was so excited I bought the cap immediately, only to realize a couple of hours later that the size was half an inch too large.
I didn’t care. The cap arrived two days later, and it was too big, even after I stuffed some folded paper into the sweatband, a trick I learned from my wife. I called the seller, F.R. Woods, and a very helpful woman who answered checked and told me she had at least one hat in the proper size, 7 1/4″. American Needle, she said, no longer makes MLB caps, but the store has a stockpile of older inventory.
She posted the second hat on eBay, and I bought it the next day.
What happened to the too-large cap? As luck would have it, I was about to head to a high school reunion in Cleveland that weekend, and I offered it to classmates. One responded quickly that it was his size, and I brought it to him before a class dinner. So two of us lifelong Cleveland fans got caps that remind us of our earliest days of being baseball fans.
What’s next? I’d like get a Chicago White Sox cap with S-O-X in sans serif script, like the ones the Chisox wore in the 1950s and 1960s. So far, no luck in my searches. But I’ll keep trying! After all, youth is worth preserving. 🧢
The Ball Caps Blog 
I didn’t know you collect caps. Do you have the new Phillies City Connect cap?
That’s on the wish list! I also like the red and blue cap they wear on Sundays. So many choices!
Is getting the City Connect Jersey also on your wish list? I know it’s on mine.
Thanks for sharing this holy grail-esque story. It’s amazing how childhood passions last an entire lifetime and super kind of you to gift the hat to an old high school friend. Good luck finding the Sox hat.
we need to see a picture of it I always liked the Sox cap of the 60’s with the block letters. Got one a few years ago
I think the one you have now is the only one I don’t have. I have the ’50’s with wahoo on the C, I have the ’60’s red with blue C, I have the ’70’s Indian script C, and the ’80’s block C outlined in white. I truly understand your passion.
I have one of the caps from what I’d call the Bob Feller Era, the one the team wore in the late 40s with the red C on a blue crown and a red bill. It’s fun to have them. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Hello Dan, and thanks for the memories. I was born in 55, In Erie PA, and like my dad, Became an Indians fan. During this year‘s playoff run by the Tribe, I dug out my two old Indians’ caps. One I bought for my dad in about 1990 that he never got a chance to wear. All blue with chief wahoo inside the wishbone C. I believe it’s wool or wool blend. It’s got a leather band. It was made by a company named Roman, which I understand made MLB caps for certain clubs, in the 50s and 60s, before I think, American needle and then New Era took over. I also have my first cap, probably from the late 60s, all wool, red with the blue wishbone C. It has a leather inside band, and inside that band, in the front, I used to keep tucked a baseball card of Rocky Colavito. Don’t knock the Rock. Dem was da’ days ! Thanks again.
Joe, thanks for writing. I read your note as the Guardians were taking their last swings in their loss to the Yankees. The Chiefs Wahoo in wishbone look was great in the 50s, and I was glad when the team brought it back several years ago. The chief is gone, but not our love for the team. Rocky was my favorite. I was able to make it back to Cleveland when his statue was dedicated in Little Italy a couple of summers ago. Don’t knock the Rock! (And let’s take down the Yankees, shall we?!)