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Gladewater’s Bears put the town on the minor-league map in the late ’30s and ’40s
Back when oil-boom towns dotted East Texas, Gladewater cheered a professional nine. The Gladewater Bears competed in the East Texas League in 1936 and again in 1949–50, with a Lone Star League campaign in 1948. [1][2]Those seasons mark the only documented years a professional baseball team called Gladewater home, a short but memorable window on the regional minor-league circuit. [1]Local keepers of Gladewater history continue to spotlight the Bears with archival highlights and throwbacks, keeping the club’s story alive for new generations. [3]Set against the city’s 1930s oil-boom growth, the Bears’ brief run fit the era’s rapid rise of small-town ball across East Texas. [4]