32 Nebraskaland • June 2025
t was illegal to play baseball on Sunday
until 1913. It was one of Nebraska's so-
called "blue laws" restricting Sunday
activities.
Nebraska City ignored the law until a
local group called the Law & Order League
pressured the sheriff in 1902. But when
the sheriff tried to stop a game, "an angry
crowd surrounded him and hustled him
violently," in the words of the Nebraska
City Daily Tribune. "His revolver was taken
away from him."
Nevertheless, the sheriff arrested four
players and took them to the courthouse
to post bond. "A number of the city pastors
were at the justice's offi ce and when they
left, friends of the players threatened and
jostled them," and one man was hit with a
thrown rock.
Baseball was unquestionably America's
sport. It was also an intensely local sport.
The major leagues existed, but without TV
or even radio, the only way to enjoy a game
was to attend in person. Many Nebraska
towns had minor league or semi-pro teams,
and even relatively small towns recruited
out-of-state players.
But passion for baseball ran up against an older tradition
of keeping the Sabbath. A state statute prohibited not only
baseball, but any "sporting" on Sunday, including hunting
and fi shing.
Various Nebraska teams were arrested at one time or
another, but some cities did not enforce the law. In 1902, the
Lincoln Evening Journal noted that "Omaha is
the principle one, but there everything is wide
open on that day." ("Everything," meaning
bars, brothels and gambling halls — Omaha
had a reputation.) The Journal complained
that the "inability to play Sunday baseball has
kept Lincoln out of any league for some years,"
because teams struggled to remain solvent
without the big crowds a game could draw on
Sunday.
Back in Nebraska City, the sheriff eventually
ticketed the entire team, but a local judge
threw out the case. The Otoe County Attorney
appealed all the way to the Nebraska Supreme
Court, which upheld the law and cited the
Bible's fourth commandment in doing so.
After that, Sunday baseball became as much
of a hot-button issue as the death penalty
or votes for women. In 1913, the Nebraska
legislature changed the law to allow counties
and towns to make their own decisions.
Baseball bans and other Sunday laws began
to go away as Nebraskans let their neighbors
decide for themselves how to spend their day
of rest.
N
Visit NSHS's website at history.nebraska.gov.
I
"Look Who's Here Again," Omaha Daily Bee, March 12, 1913.
Omaha Evening World-Herald, July 15, 1902.
