Walter Schlichter


Henry Walter "Slick" Schlichter was an American sports executive, sportswriter, and boxing referee. He wrote for the Philadelphia Item, a daily newspaper. Along with National Baseball Hall of Famer Sol White and Philadelphia Tribune baseball writer Harry A. Smith, Schlichter co-founded the Philadelphia Giants Negro league baseball team. He owned the Philadelphia Giants until he disbanded the team in 1911. He also co-founded an early all-black baseball league, the National Association of Colored Baseball Clubs of the United States and Cuba, and served as its president from 1906 to 1909.
He also worked as a boxing referee from 1893 to 1910. Schlichter appears as the referee in Thomas Eakins's 1898 painting Taking the Count.