Kansas City’s nicknames are: “KC”, “KCMO”, the “City of Fountains”, “Paris of the Plains”, and the “Heart of America”. “KC” is known for the Chiefs and Royals sports franchises, and famous cuisine based on Kansas City-style barbecue, Kansas City strip steak, craft breweries and the legacy of the Kansas City Monarchs.

The Kansas City Chiefs

The Chiefs have won 5 of their last 6 NFL playoff games, including Super Bowl LIV in 2020 over the San Francisco 49ers, which earned the franchise their first championship in 50 years.

The Kansas City Royals

The name “Royals” pays homage to the American Royal, a livestock show, horse show, rodeo, and championship barbecue competition held annually in Kansas City since 1899, as well as the identical names of two former Negro league baseball teams that played in the first half of the 20th century.

The name “Royals” also fits into something of a theme for other professional sports franchises in the city, including the Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL, the former Kansas City Kings of the NBA, and the former Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro National League.

Kansas City-style barbecue

Kansas City-style barbecue refers to the specific regional barbecue style of slowly smoked meat that originated from the pit of Henry Perry in the early 20th century in Kansas City.

Kansas City barbecue is characterized by its use of a wide variety of meats: pork, beef, chicken, turkey, lamb, sausage, and sometimes even fish.

The Kansas City metropolitan area has more than 100 barbecue restaurants, a number of which are nationally renowned. The area is also home to several large barbecue cooking contests, notably the Great Lenexa BBQ Battle and the American Royal World Series of Barbecue, the largest barbecue competition in the world.

The Kansas City Monarchs

The Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball’s Negro leagues. Operating in Kansas City, Missouri and owned by J. L. Wilkinson, they were charter members of the Negro National League from 1920 to 1930. J. L. Wilkinson was the first Caucasian owner at the time of the establishment of the team.

In 1930, the Monarchs made history as it became the first professional baseball team to use a portable lighting system which was transported from game to game in trucks to play games at night, five years before any major league team did.

The Monarchs won ten league championships before integration, and triumphed in the first Negro League World Series in 1924. The Monarchs had only one season in which they did not have a winning record.

The Monarch’s owner, James Leslie Wilkinson (May 14, 1878 – August 21, 1964) was an American sports executive who founded the All Nations baseball club in 1912 and the Kansas City Monarchs in 1920. His team, The Monarchs produced more major league players than any other Negro league franchise.

Baseball Hall of Famers

Mr. Wilkinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame along with Andy Cooper, Bullet Rogan, Cristobal Torriente, Ernie Banks, Cool Papa Bell (fastest man to play the game), Jackie Robinson (Number “42” was permanently retired), Hilton Smith, Jose Mendez, Satchel Paige (His career spanned five decades) at age 42 in 1948, Paige made his major league debut for the Cleveland Indians, Turkey Stearnes, Willard Brown and William “Bill” Foster.

The Monarchs was disbanded in 1965. The Monarchs left a legacy as a winning team and winning players in Kansas City who are now in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Decision

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum was founded in 1990 in Kansas City, Missouri, in the historic 18th & Vine District, the hub of African-American cultural activity in Kansas City during the first half of the 20th century. The NLBM shares its building with the American Jazz Museum.

In June 2019, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum was awarded the Gold American Award for Nonprofit Organization of the Year from the American Business Awards.

On January 21, 2021, the Kansas City T-Bones baseball team announced a partnership with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and a rebranding to the Kansas City Monarchs, one of the founding teams of Negro League. Like the original Monarchs, the T-Bones have a history of winning. In 2018, the T-Bones won their first-ever American Association championship by defeating the St. Paul Saints.

In February 2021, the team’s name was revived by the Kansas City, Kansas, minor league team, the Kansas City T-Bones. The Kansas City Monarchs are now a professional minor league baseball team based in Kansas City, Kansas, formerly known as the Kansas City T-Bones.

In December 2020, the Negro League was fully recognized by Major League Baseball when it was announced that MLB was classifying the seven “Negro Major Leagues” as major leagues. MLB would be recognizing statistics and approximately 3,400 players who played from 1920 to 1948.

In 2021, baseball reference website Baseball-Reference.com began to include statistics from those seven leagues into their major-league statistics.

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