Many Mainers are proud to know that the Cleveland Indians’ moniker was created in honor of one of its first star players, Louis Sockalexis (1871-1913), a Penobscot Indian athlete who grew up on Maine’s Indian Island near Old Town. But do the Cleveland Indians themselves recognize the inspiration for their name?

“We sure do!” says Bob DiBiasio, Vice President of Public Relations for the Cleveland team. “We are extremely proud to foster the legacy of Louis Francis Sockalexis, a wonderful athlete and human being.”

So spectacular were his feats on the diamond that Sockalexis was the very first athlete inducted into the Holy Cross Athletic Hall of Fame in 1956. He was inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame in 1985 and into the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.