Not black, but white, the Iowa-born Wilkinson was arguably the single most important person for keeping black baseball alive during the Great Depression. The only white owner upon the founding of the Negro League in 1920, he held the Kansas City Monarchs franchise, his clubs winning an unprecedented 17 pennants and a pair of Negro League World Series. He developed the first successful lighting system for night games—five years ahead of the majors implementing night baseball in 1935.