A player, manager, owner, commissioner and unsurpassed visionary, Rube Foster was one of baseball's greatest Renaissance men. In his youth, Foster was a star pitcher of the dead ball era, and later as owner-manager of the Chicago American Giants, the burly Texan instilled in his players the daring, aggressive, yet disciplined style of play for which the Negro leagues became famous. In 1920, he founded the first successful Negro league, the Negro National League, which flourished throughout the decade.