Cockrell started his career as a top-level Negro league pitcher in 1917, playing for both with the Lincoln Giants[1] and Hilldale.

Cockrell was also the first Negro league pitcher to pitch at historic Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey.

After Dibo Johnson died, Cockrell led a fundraiser to get money for a memorial tablet for his grave.

Cockrell was murdered in 1951 when he was shot by a jealous husband in a case of mistaken identity as he walked out of a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania bar.

One year after his death, Cockrell received votes listing him on the 1952 Pittsburgh Courier player-voted poll of the Negro leagues' best players ever.