based in Shawnee
playing for a stretch as the Peoria Distillers before moving back to Marion and closing out the year as the Oilworkers once more
giving the city a baseball history that spans four names
winning back-to-back league championships in 1946 and 1947
1948) and captured its only playoff title in 1947
Austin Pioneers T-Shirt (Heavyweight) - Vintage Defunct Baseball Teams - Texas california league based in ShawneeThe Austin Pioneers, based in Austin, Texas, were one of eight founding franchises of the Big State League in 1947, and their name came from a fan. Owner Edmund P. Knebel, a Seven Up bottling magnate, held a naming contest drawing nearly five hundred submissions, with fans voting "Pioneers" the winner. Knebel spent $200,000 of his own money in nine weeks to build Disch Field on a city owned tract, and the Pioneers opened on April 27, 1947, defeating