Cairo Egyptians
The city of Cairo, Illinois (pronounced “Care-o” or “Kayrow”) is all but a ghost town now due to a number of factors, but at one time it boasted a Kitty League baseball team known most of it’s 18 seasons as the “Egyptians” but also sported “Giants” and “Champions” for a couple of season.
Cairo is so named because it sits at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers reminding early settlers of the Nile delta in Egypt. The town seemed well situated to be a major shipping and railroad hub, however over the years the railroad was routed across a bridge at nearby Thebes and other towns became more important to water borne shipping. It’s location also made it very susceptible to flooding. No one that Cairo left very impressed. Charles Dickens even visited in 1842 and promptly modeled his evil city of Eden in his novel Martin Chuzzlewit after Cairo. During the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant occupied the city and had a fort built at the confluence to protect this crucial strategic point.
Professional baseball came to Cairo in 1897 in the form of the Class C Central League team named the “Egyptians.” This first try at minor league baseball only lasted the one season., having to disband in July with a 30-39 record.
The Egyptians came back as Kitty League team in 1903 and lasted until 1906. Other Kitty League runs for the Egyptians were 1911 to 1914, 1922-1924 and finally 1946-1950, playing the last two years as the Cairo Dodgers.
Today Cairo has a population of 1700, down from it’s peak of nearly 20,000 in the early part of the 20th century.
