- First spring
- 1921
- Last spring
- 1951
- Owner
- William Wrigley Jr.
- Still standing
- The clubhouse
William Wrigley Jr. bought a share of the Chicago Cubs in 1916 and bought Catalina Island in 1919. In 1921, the year he took control of the team, he brought the Cubs across the channel for spring training, and for most of the next three decades Avalon was where they got ready for the season.
Why Catalina
Wrigley had a team that needed somewhere warm in February and an island he wanted the country to hear about. The Cubs had scouted it the spring before, and from 1921 every newspaper story about the team’s spring training was also a story about Avalon. His pitch to fans was simple: the Cubs are here, you should come too.
Where they played
Wrigley built a ballfield in Avalon Canyon, beside the golf course, laid out to match the dimensions of the Cubs’ home park in Chicago. The field is gone now; a plaque marks the spot below the golf course.
The clubhouse survives. Finished in time for the 1928 camp, the Mission-style building with a red tile roof and Catalina tile is now the Catalina Island Country Club, the golf course’s clubhouse and an event venue, and its bar is full of Cubs photographs and memorabilia.
A spring on the island
Players stayed at the Hotel St. Catherine near Descanso Bay, a grand hotel long since gone. Conditioning meant hiking the hills above town, and evenings meant the Casino ballroom after it opened in 1929. Some of the biggest names in the game came through: Rogers Hornsby, Gabby Hartnett, Hack Wilson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Charlie Grimm, Charlie Root and Dizzy Dean among them, with manager Joe McCarthy.
One piece of the era still flies over Avalon. The “W” flag of Wrigley’s steamship line became the flag the Cubs raise after a win, and you’ll see it around town.
The announcer who stayed for a screen test
In the 1930s a young radio sportscaster from WHO in Des Moines talked his bosses into sending him to cover the Cubs’ spring training. In March 1937, while the team was on Catalina, Ronald Reagan slipped away to the mainland for a screen test at Warner Bros. He signed a studio contract that April, and his career in Hollywood, and later politics, began with a trip to cover the Cubs on Catalina.
The end of an era
During World War II travel restrictions kept the team closer to home: from 1943 to 1945 the Cubs trained in French Lick, Indiana. They came back to Catalina after the war and held their last spring on the island in 1951, then moved their camp to Mesa, Arizona, where it still is.
Quick answers
When did the Cubs train on Catalina Island?
From 1921 to 1951, except during World War II, when the team trained in French Lick, Indiana (1943 to 1945).
Why did the Cubs train on Catalina?
William Wrigley Jr. owned both the Chicago Cubs and Catalina Island, and used spring training to bring attention, and visitors, to Avalon.
Where did the Cubs play on Catalina?
On a field Wrigley built in Avalon Canyon beside the golf course. The field is gone, but the clubhouse survives as the Catalina Island Country Club.
Did Ronald Reagan go to Catalina?
Yes. As a radio sportscaster he covered the Cubs’ spring training on Catalina, and in March 1937 slipped away for the Warner Bros. screen test that launched his film career.
Golf & mini golf on the island
See all →No photo yet Avalon27 min from the ferry- Opens 7am tomorrowAvalon17 min from the ferry4.2(106)
No photo yet Opens 7am tomorrowAvalon16 min from the ferry- Avalon9 min from the ferry4.7(346)
Sights & landmarks on the island
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- Avalon10 min from the ferry4.8(272)
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Avalon26 min from the ferry
