Karen Newcombe, the widow of former Nashua and Los Angeles Dodger great Don Newcombe, and Greater Nashua NAACP president LInda Gathright unveil the p;laque that signifies Holman Stadium as a stop on the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire at a special ceremony Tuesday prior to the Nashua Silver Knights game. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Karen Newcombe, the widow of former Nashua and Los Angeles Dodger great Don Newcombe, saw her late husband’s number on the Holman Stadium left field brick wall, as well as the mural depicting him at the facility’s entrance.

They said one thing about his memory and legacy.

“It’s so alive,” she said. “Exactly right. Even driving through the town, I saw the big mural on the side of the building (a downtown auto business). I was like he’s everywhere here. …

“He’s here, right now. He’s here in me. And that will be something that will last forever.”

And now the memory of Newcombe and his fellow Dodger Roy Campanella, who broke the professional baseball color barrier at Holman Stadium in 1946 with the Nashua Dodgers, is alive even further with Tuesday’s ceremony that celebrated Nashua as a stop on the New Hampshire Black Heritage Trail. Newcombe and Greater Nashua NAACP President Linda Gathright unveiled the plaque whose essay began with “The Nashua Dodgers, a farm club of the Brooklyn Dodgers, is believed to be the first racially integrated professional baseball team in the United States…”

Gathright was one of several local and state dignitaries present at the event that took place on the field prior to last night’s Nashua Silver Knights game, including Nashua Mayor James Donchess and former Boston Red Sox pitcher Manny Delcarmen. Gathright was overjoyed to see Nashua be recognized enough to become a stop on the Black Heritage Trail.

“It’s one of those things you wait a lifetime for something like this to happen,”Gathright said. “Particularly in Nashua, given the dynamics of the city. I’m just overfilled (with joy) to be honest with you. I’m just happy we’ve gotten to this point that we’re doing something this swell in Nashua.”

“Being able to be here is amazing,” Delcarmen said. “What they’re trying to do, how baseball was back in the day and how it’s changed so much. Whenever they want me back here in Nashua, I’ll be back.”

Newcombe, who flew from Los Angeles to be part of the festivities, was presented with a key to the city.

“We’re very proud of the fact that the Nashua Dodgers back in 1946 were the first fully professional baseball team in the United States,” Donchess said. “That’s a great part of Holman’s legacy…Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella talked about how well they were treated in Nashua.”

Donchess said the seeds for Holman to be added to the Black Heritage Trail were planted last July when the NAACP had a night in their honor at Holman for a Silver Knights game. There are eight stops so far in the state, with the hopes for another 30.

“That’s when we got the idea to put Holman on the Black Heritage Trail,” Donchess said, as former NBA player Dwight Davis of Stratham, the president of the Black Heritage Trail NH, was at the game and the concept was discussed. “So we’ve been working on it ever since. … This is an important location for the history of American baseball.”

The Silver Knights players watched the ceremony from the dugout.

“They don’t call it Historic Holman for nothing,” Silver Knights manager Kyle Jackson said. “There’s so much history from so far back. To be able to view the black history with baseball here – I think it’s a great honor just for the city of Nashua to be able to host (the Black Heritage Trail) and to have the Silver Knights (involved) for the city of Nashua, I think that’s great.

“And I don’t know if half the players understand what’s gone on here. I think this will be a nice lesson for them, just to understand the value of playing for this team and in this city.”

Karen Newcombe agreed.

“My thoughts were every time Don did an interview, that he was talking about the beginning of his career, Nashua was always part of that story,” Newcombe said. “It was a place that he loved. He felt safe. He had great stats here.

“All in all, it was something that started his Major League career, otherwise he and Campy wouldn’t have gone on the way they did. So that makes me very proud. Made him proud. Made him very proud to be here. He always said nothing but good things about being in Nashua.”

Every mile of her trip, in this sense, was worth it.

“I thank Nashua, all of the citizens, everybody that’s here,” Newcombe said to the crowd. “I came this far because he loved it.”

And, as she added in an interview later, “I wouldn’t have come 3,000 miles if it wasn’t for Nashua.”