Henry Lucas

Who was Henry Lucas?

Henry Victor Lucas was a baseball executive in the late 19th century.

He was one of seven children of James H. Lucas who each of whom inherited a million dollars at his death in 1873. In 1884, the 26-year-old Henry Lucas became president of the Union Association, though he clearly stacked the league in favor of his St. Louis Maroons. When the league folded at the end of 1884, Lucas arranged for his team to enter the National League at a cost of $2,500.

The team struggled in the NL and Lucas's brief baseball involvement ended when the Maroons folded after the 1886 season. Writer David Nemec said that "during the next few years he turned up at a ballpark or otherwise hinted that he might like to return to the game" but he had to settle instead for employment as a railway clerk with the Vandalia Railroad.

He died in 1910 of heart disease at the age of 52.