A First? J. C. Higgins Chico Carrasquel

[softball66]

Every glove has a story and I would like to know more about his J. C. Higgins Chico Carrasquel glove I found this weekend. All Carrasquel gloves that I'd heard of previously have been Nokonas. I sent the picture of this up to Nokona to see if this jogged anyone's memory. Could it have been a glove made for Higgins/Sears by Nocona. The signature stamping appears to be the same. This is a cheaply made glove, shoestring and vinyl.
But definitely a curio.

Anyone heard of Higgins Chico before?

[ebbets55]

Definitely unique Joe. I have never seen Chico appear on another manufacturer. However, I have seen lots of other company names on Nokona made gloves. Nokona apparently made gloves for a handful of other companies or at least put the other company name on their gloves (Reach Wright & Ditson, Maison Blanche, etc.). I have also seen a Rawlings trapper with Nokona stamps on it but I have never seen a Chico appear on any other brand. To have JC Higgins appear in the mix makes it a very cool find. Thanks for sharing.

JD

[BretMan]

I've never actually seen one of these, but this glove would jibe with the story presented in Noah Liberman's "Glove Affairs" book (pg. 126) about Carrasquel unwittingly signing "exclusive" contracts with more than one company.

Chico's first signed glove deal was with Nokona. Apparently not realizing that he couldn't just sign another contract before the other had expired, he subsequently signed a second deal with Wilson.

Wilson produced gloves bearing Chico's endorsement, which explains the J.C. Higgins connection, since Wilson made most of their gloves. Despite Nokona's protests, Wilson ignored the smaller, less-known company.

Nokona's act of revenge resulted in a glove we have all probably seen before- the Nokona Billy Martin endorsed glove. The "Billy Martin" signed by Nokona was a local fellow- Billy G. Martin- not the up-and-coming Yankees second baseman.

With that, Nokona had gotten their point across. Wilson dropped the Carrasquel model from their line-up.

[softball66]

Bret's got it right.Thanks! I'd helped Noah with that information. It sort of popped upwhen we were trying to research the contracts on the Nokona Joe Jackson glove. No contract was found by Nocona. But there may have been a local in Nocona named Joe Jackson.
I've included that in the Nocona History Book which we've submitted to the TCU press.
As far as Bret and I know, though it seems no Wilson glove with Chico's name has surfaced anywhere.
When I was buying this glove, the lady told me that Chico was going into the hall of fame. I told her not the big hall of fame but maybe something in Chicago (where he was Spanish Language broadcaster I beleive) or maybe the Fort Worth Cats Hall of fame.
Bob Storey at Nocona would get in his car and sign players in Fort Worth and Dallas minor league teams and got lucky with all the future Dodgers with The Fort Worth Cats, a Dodger farm club.
This glove does sort of have a Franklin look.