[1] The 1910 U.S. Census shows him as the fourth of seven children living with his widowed mother, Mary Nichols, in Sessums Township, just outside Starkville.

However, rather than attending night school as planned, Bell spent most of his time playing baseball in the neighborhood.

For 1922, Bell moved to the East St. Louis Cubs, a semi-pro team that paid him $20 weekly to pitch on Sundays.

By 1924, at the urging of manager Bill Gatewood, Bell began working on his defensive skills and appearing more in the outfield.

When he batted left-handed, his baserunning speed was even more trouble for opponents because he was a couple of steps closer to first base.

While with the Stars, he played alongside close friend and shortstop Willie Wells and first baseman Mule Suttles.

[10] Bell bounced to the Kansas City Monarchs and the Mexican league until finding a home with the Pittsburgh Crawfords in the reorganized NNL.

In Pittsburgh, he played with Ted Page and Jimmie Crutchfield to form what is considered by many to have been the best outfield in the Negro leagues.

Bell, Satchel Paige and other Crawfords players went to the Dominican Republic to play on a team assembled by dictator Rafael Trujillo.

Trujillo felt that a baseball championship would strengthen his ruling power and he kept the players under armed supervision.

The second-place team featured several Negro league players, Cuban star Luis Tiant, Sr. and manager Martin Dihigo, a future Hall of Famer.

He finished his Negro league career with a .341 batting average; he hit .391 in exhibitions against MLB players.

[14] Though statistics were not meticulously maintained for most of Bell's career, it is clear that he was known as one of the best players in Negro league baseball.

Leaving out the explanatory details, Paige liked to say that Bell was so fast he could turn off the light and be under the covers before the room got dark.

In an exhibition game against white all-stars, Bell is said to have broken for second on a bunt and run with Paige at the plate.

By the time the ball reached Paige, Bell was almost to second and seeing the third baseman had broken towards home to field the bunt, rounded the bag.

The catcher, Roy Partee of the Boston Red Sox, ran to third to cover the bag and an anticipated return throw from first.

His Hall of Fame plaque highlights the fact that Bell's contemporaries regarded him as the fastest runner on the base paths.

[1] Negro league players Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Monte Irvin and Buck Leonard were inducted between 1971 and 1973.

[23] Cool Papa Bell Drive is the road leading into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in Jackson, of which he is a member.

References to Bell appeared in Hanging Curve by Troy Soos, a 1999 novel about the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.

His character makes a brief appearance in the 2009 feature film The Perfect Game, encouraging and aiding the 1957 Little League World Series champion team from Monterrey, Mexico; the role is played by Lou Gossett Jr.[24] In 1999, Bell was ranked 66th on The Sporting News list of Baseball's Greatest Players,[25] one of five players so honored who played all or most of his career in the Negro leagues, and was nominated for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.