The Houston Buffaloes, Houston Buffalos, or Buffs were an American minor league baseball team, and were the first minor league team to be affiliated with a Major League franchise, which was the St. Louis Cardinals. The club was founded in 1888, and played in the Texas League at various levels throughout the majority of its existence. Most recently, from 1959 through 1961, the team played in the Triple-A American Association as the top affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. The Buffaloes derived their nickname from Buffalo Bayou, the principal waterway through Houston to the Houston Ship Channel, outlet to the Gulf of Mexico. The team's last home was Buffalo Stadium, built in 1928. Before that, they played at West End Park from 1905–1928, and at Herald Park prior to that. The Houston Buffaloes were purchased by the Houston Sports Association in 1961 to obtain the Houston metropolitan-area territorial rights for the new expansion team in Major League baseball and the National League, Houston Colt .45s (known since 1965 as the Houston Astros named after their futuristic enclosed indoor domed stadium, the Astrodome - the first of its kind in America). Several of those associated with the Buffaloes continued with the Colt .45s major league team including manager Harry Craft. The Buffaloes organization then ended their relationship with the Cubs, and became a Triple-A affiliate of the Colt. 45s. For the following 1962 season, they were reorganized and later moved north to become the Oklahoma City 89ers, which are known today as the Oklahoma City Dodgers. The 1931 and 1941 Buffaloes teams were recognized as being among the 100 greatest minor league teams of all time. History Amateur predecessors (1861–1884) On April 11, 1861, a baseball team in Houston was organized at a meeting held in the Palmer Building above J.H. Evans' dry goods store. The team was simply known as the "Houston Base Ball Club". However, it is unknown if the Houston Base Ball Club played any games. The American Civil War began shortly thereafter, and there was a great lack of organized sports during this time. Following the war, a newspaper article in The Daily Telegraph was published that detailed the first baseball game by a Houston team. The Houston Stonewalls defeated the Galveston Robert E. Lees at the site of the San Jacinto Battleground in what was dubbed as the Texas "State Championship" on April 21, 1868 (San Jacinto