The Sugar Land Heritage Foundation is excited to announce the recent donation by the Morales family, long-time residents of Sugar Land. The Morales family recently donated a historic baseball jersey owned by their father, George Morales, Sr. George Morales, Sr. was the longest tenured employee of the Imperial Sugar Company. After Morales, Sr. passed away the family found and donated two Imperials jerseys from the 1950s from their father’s home. The Imperials were a Hispanic Team Imperial Sugar sponsored for many years. George Morales, Sr. and his sons were players on the team. The photos below show the type of jersey the Morales donated.
Recently, the family discovered a jersey from the Pirates, a team Imperial sponsored in the 1970s. The members of the Morales family donated the Jersey. “We are so grateful that a long-time Sugar Land family donated memorable artifacts for our collection. Sports will be a key element in our museum’s exhibits, particularly Sunday afternoon baseball at old West End Park, which was a key source of entertainment and recreation for many residents,” said Sugar Land Heritage Foundation Board Member Betty Anhaiser.
There was a completely unexpected treat from the Morales visit. When we gathered in the front of the museum exhibit area, the family saw a baseball photo that appeared in the 2016 FotoFest Exhibit.
George Morales, Jr. said, “That’s me!”
Exhibition curators had no idea who these boys were since there was no annotation on the photo which was taken in the mid 1950’s. George said, “I heard there were pictures of me all over town, but I never saw it. I’m glad I finally did.”
George also identified the other young men in the baseball photo: Julian Astorga and Fred Mora standing with George and Mike Mora kneeling.
You never know what you will learn about Sugar Land history.
