This photo shows Claude Norris (left), Royal Brougham (center), and Bruce Rowell standing together, with Brougham holding a trophy. The nature of the event is unknown, though it was presumably sports-related, as Brougham was the long-time sports editor for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and at the time, Norris and Rowell headed the Seattle franchise of the minor-league West Coast Negro Baseball Association, the Seattle Steelheads. The Steelheads played for one season, in the summer of 1946, with home games at Sick's Stadium and fields in Tacoma, Bellingham, and Spokane.
Claude Norris (1899-1989) attended Broadway High School, where he was a star on the football team, winning All-City halfback twice, and also played on the basketball and baseball teams. He went on to be a star football player at Whitman College. Afterwards, he played for the West Seattle Athletic Club team and coached the Jefferson Park, Broadway Athletic Club, and other club football teams. Claude Norris joined the Seattle Police Department (where he played for the Seattle Police football team) and later worked as a Sheriff's Captain at the King County Sheriff's Office. He was also the longtime trainer for the Seattle University Chieftains basketball team. In 1958, Norris won the Seattle P.I.'s Sullivan Award for his long service to athletes in the community. He was a longtime member of the Young Men's Democratic Club and served as its President in 1958.
Bruce Rowell (1904-1992) attended Franklin High School, where he was a star on the school track team. He also played basketball for the "Fighting Chevrolets" club team. Prior to his involvement with the Steelheads, Rowell was manager of the Ubangi Club-sponsored football team, the Blackhawks, and later of the Black and Tan football team in the Community Football League. Rowell later worked as manager of the Mount Rainier Social Club and was also deeply involved in his community, including as a member of the Y Men's Club East Madison Branch, and on the Seafair International Parade committee in the Chinatown - International District (CID). In 1950, Rowell received an Inspirational Award from the Community Chest for his work in the CID.
Caption information source: City Negro Nine is Set, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 5, 146, p. 23. Caption information source: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/seattle-steelheads-1946/
Biographical details retrieved from numerous articles from the Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer databases at the Seattle Public Library.
Handwritten on original negative sleeve: Claude Royal Brougham & Bruce Rowell.
