Pacoima intersection dedicated in honor of youth baseball team

An intersection was dedicated Thursday in honor of an all-Black youth baseball team from Pacoima that reached the 1965 Bronco World Series.

Team members, including 1972-74 star USC tailback Anthony Davis, attended the 11 a.m. ceremony dedicating the intersection of Dronfield Avenue and Osborne Street as North Valley Bronco Little League Team Square. The intersection is across from Hansen Dam Park where the team practiced.

The team was created when four Pacoima fathers banded together and leased a piece of vacant land for $1 per month after their children were denied from practicing at baseball fields in the area due to the color of their skin, according to Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, who introduced the motion naming the square after the team.

North Valley defeated the team representing Glendora in a regional competition to advance to the Bronco World Series, which was played in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and won by the team representing Wahouma, Alabama, a neighborhood in Birmingham.

The Bronco World Series is for players 12-and-under and is among the championships conducted by Washington, Pennsylvania-based PONY Baseball and Softball, an organization named by children at the city’s YMCA for “Protect Our Neighborhood Youth.” This later became “Protect Our Nation’s Youth.”

Davis was the runner-up in voting for the 1974 Heisman Trophy and scored 11 touchdowns in three games against Notre Dame, the most by a player against the Fighting Irish.

More from San Fernando Valley