Back in the day many American businesses operated corporate sports teams to help generate corporate goodwill and adverting. Corporate teams could be found in virtually every major sport: Baseball, Football and Basketball. Some of these teams actually transformed into today’s modern major league teams. The Pittsburgh Steelers are linked to US Steel, the Deroit Pistons also started out as a corporate team to name a few.
Participating in an corporate sports league offered employees the opportunity to get some exercise, socialize, and feed a healthy sense of competitiveness! Did Checker have a team? Yes, and based on the photographs, it appears quite a good ones.
It’s not clear how long Checker ran its team, but we can guess well over ten years. The header photo is from 1929, the players are standing around a new Checker Model K and the picture of Checker Cab Pitcher Bill O’Malley is from 1939.
June 18th 1939 Bill O’Malley Checker Cab Pitcher won 8-2 against the Harry Suffrin Team
Ultimately the team would be shut down, but its pretty clear that Checker’s involvement with sports would continue right up to the end in 2009.
CMC participated in various softball leagues fielding championship teams. CMC CEO David Markin was an active golfer and corporate golf tournaments were run for many years. Additionally, David Markin was at one time the president of the US Tennis League!
Clip from the CMC Corporate Summer 1996 Newsletter, and our own Internet Checker Taxicab Archive member John Logan was a winner!!
So as we all sit behind our computers this cold winter day, just remember that in the spirit of the Checker employees we honor, its almost Spring, so get out there and pitch a ball! Copyright 2017 Joseph A. Fay
1987 Checker Corporate Women’s Softball Team Pacific Division Champs with 14-1 record
