An all-around athlete, Ernie Banks starred in football, basketball, and track in high school and at age seventeen signed to play semipro baseball with a barnstorming black team for $15 a game. The great "Cool Papa" Bell saw him and signed him for the Kansas City Monarchs. 
 
Late in the 1953 Monarchs season he was discovered by the Chicago Cubs, signed to a contract, and sent directly to the major leagues, the first black player in the franchise's long history. He hit .314 with the Cubs in only ten games, but the following season, as the regular shortstop, he hit .275 while stroking 19 homers. His power kicked into high gear in 1955 when he nailed 44 homers while batting .295. His best major league seasons came in 1957 60, when he hit more than 40 homers each season (winning two home run titles and two RBI titles) and hitting for averages of .285, .313, .304, and .271. The middle two years (1958-1959) he was voted back to back National League MVP awards.