The Evangeline League was a minor league baseball league that ran in southern and central Louisiana from 1934-1957.

The league, which had it’s name taken from Evangeline, the epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, began as a 6-team class D league in 1934, and then expanded to 8 teams the next season, before shutting down for two seasons following the 1943 season due to World War II.

After resuming play in 1946, the Evangeline League remained a class D league, before being promoted to the class C level in 1949.

The league remained in operation until 1957, when two of the six remaining teams dropped out, suspending play that season with no champion being named.

The Evangeline League, which featured a betting scandal back in 1946, featured teams in cities such as Lafayette, Abbeville, Crowley, Opelousas, Rayne, Jeanerette, and Lake Charles.

Despite the stability of the league, the only franchise they lasted all 21 seasons was the Alexandria Aces, while New Iberia had a franchise every season, with the exception of the final one.

Because of the close proximity of the franchises, a number of heated rivalries developed, with crowds that would certainly quality as raucous, getting into it with umpires, players, managers, and one another.

It was an immensely popular league for over two decades, with some franchises actually outdrawing some Major League Baseball franchises, in terms of attendance.

All summer long we’ll be going back in time and look back at the Evangeline League, which was commonly referred to as the “Pepper Sauce League”, “Hot Sauce League”, or “Tabasco Circuit”.

Yesterday, we remembered Ivy Griffin

Today, Elias Calvin "Liz" Funk

Funk, a left-handed hitting outfielder, who played four seasons in Major League Baseball, managed two years in the Evangeline League, guiding the Rayne Rice Birds from 1936-1937.

A native of La Cygne, Kansas, Funk was the head man in the dugout for Rayne in 1936, when the Rice Birds went 83-55, and again in 1937, when they went 73-51.

As a player in the minor leagues, Funk collected 1,426 hits between 1925 and 1941, batting a .303, to go along  with 263 doubles and 38 home runs.

As a player in Major League Baseball, Funk played four seasons, including one for the New York Yankees (1929), one for the Detroit Tigers (1930), and two for the Chicago White Sox (1932-1933), hitting a .267 with 6 homers and 39 runs batted in.

As a manager, Funk went 156-116 in two seasons in the Evangeline League.

Funk passed away in Oklahoma in 1963.

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