Oliver Marcelle

Sport: Baseball

Induction Year: 1996

Induction Year: 1996

Nicknamed “The Ghost of New Orleans,” Oliver Marcelle was one of the great players in Negro League baseball in the 1920s. A 1952 Pittsburgh Courier poll named the Thibodaux native as the Negro League’s greatest third baseman, ahead of future Baseball Hall of Famers Ray Dandridge and Judy Johnson. When he and Johnson teamed for five years in winter ball, Johnson played second base. Marcelle had a Negro League lifetime average of .310 from 1919-30, posted a .305 average in eight seasons in Cuba including a league-high .393 in 1923-24, and hit .333 in exhibitions against all-white major league teams.