In 1945, the Cleveland Buckeyes were the second-highest-paid team in the Negro Leagues after the Homestead Grays, and Bob Williams (Sports Editor of the Cleveland Call & Post) wrote in his June 2, 1945, Sports Rambler column that:

There can be but one explanation for this. Ernest Wright, owner, intends to have a good team. Actually, the Erie Pennsylvania backer wants a championship club, and he wants it bad enough to pay for it.

After spring training in Muskogee, Oklahoma, their home opener at League Park on May 27 was attended by 10,000 people. That Buckeyes' two-game sweep of the Memphis Red Sox set the tone for what would indeed be their championship season. Eight batters averaged over .300 to fill the Buckeyes' "Murderers Row" that year, and they knocked out 49 wins to only 16 losses. Bob Williams wrote on September 8, 1945:

They have made every team in the league look like a bunch of amateurs this season.

The Buckeyes won the Negro League World Series, sweeping the Homestead Grays in four games behind the pitching of Eugene Bremer, Frank Carswell, and brothers Willie and George Jefferson. The Buckeyes were led by Player-Manager Catcher Quincy Trouppe and star outfielder Sam Jethroe. Game Two of that series was played at League Park on September 16, 1945.

Capping off the season, fans of the Negro American League Championship Buckeyes honored General Manager Wilbur Hayes with a certificate for a new car.

The Buckeyes won another Negro American League championship in 1947 but lost the World Series to the New York Cubans.