"About time": A forgotten hero to be honored by Pro Football Hall of Fame

[nickderiso]

Marino and Young will get the headlines. But there is another of the four inductees in today's ceremonies at Canton that should get his due: Fritz Pollard, the first African-American coach in the NFL - and also was the first African-American player to appear in the Rose Bowl.

Pollard is one of two old-timers to be honored - Benny Friedman, a prolific quarterback in the 1920s, will also go into the Hall posthumously.

But Pollard's induction will shine a light on the early history of the NFL, when Pollard was an elusive back and then, even more importantly, a coach in a league reluctant to employ black players.

His accolades are legendary, yet his accomplishments were nearly forgotten.

This is the story of Fritz Pollard, who more than eight decades ago battled defensive backs and Jim Crow laws in a segregated nation.

Before he left the National Football League in 1926, Pollard became the league's first quarterback and its first black head coach and led the Akron Pros to the 1920 league championship.

His name should be synonymous with influential black athletes like Jackie Robinson, Jack Johnson, Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali, Arthur Ashe and others. He shattered just as many racial barriers and records, and he suffered through just as many degrading situations.

Even as he coached the Akron Pros, he dressed and ate in different places than his players.

``When people think about Jackie Robinson, most people don't think about what his batting average was, or how many bases he stole,'' said John Wooten, the former Browns offensive lineman and chairman of a group called the Fritz Pollard Alliance. ``They think about how courageous he was, and what stuff he had to put up with. In my mind, Pollard's in the exact same category.''

That's why his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Sunday has as much to do with his ability to open doors formerly closed for blacks, and prop them open for the next guy.

``He was bigger than football,'' biographer John Carroll said. ``He integrated the league. At the time (early 1920s) there were 12 blacks in the league, and I think Pollard was responsible for bringing in eight of them.''

Just as Pollard seemed to solidify his immortal place in the game, never to be forgotten, racism's ugly hand made sure that he was.

He became a ghost.

In recent years, when his grandson talked to pro football historians about his grandfather, they often had no idea who he was talking about. They had no records. Fritz Pollard III wondered if anyone would ever learn of his grandfather's exploits. Maybe his accomplishments would be lost forever.

``That's what has really scared me,'' he said. ``I was afraid that would happen.''

MORE HERE: http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/sports/football/nfl/cleveland_browns/12319157.htm

The NFL Hall of Fame voters have finally decided to give Fritz Pollard his due. Pollard was up for induction a ridiculous 42 times before this year. Finally, the NFL powers that be have deemed him fit for a bust in Canton.

Fritz Pollard played his college football for Brown University in the 1910's, dominating his opposition and leading his team to huge upset wins over powerhouses like Harvard and Yale. Understand that back then, college football was a much bigger draw than the fledgling NFL. He eventually made his way to pro football, playing for the NFL's Akron Pros. He also coached the Akron Pros and claimed to have coached several other teams, although there is no way to substantiate his claims because of poor record keeping.

Pollard, who is considered to be the first black coach in the NFL, endured a ridiculous amount of prejudice. During his playing days the hatred towards him was so great and so widespread that he had to create a strategy to protect himself after plays. When he was tackled, he'd quickly spin onto his back and stick his cleats and knees into the air above him. Later on as a coach, Pollard formed the "Brown Bombers" a team comprised of all black players. Why did he do this? To showcase the talent of black players because the NFL refused to take any such players from 1934 to 1946.

Fritz Pollard died in 1986. He had earned the praise and respect of most mainstream media and most of his contemporaries. However, it took nearly another 20 years for the NFL Hall of Fame voters to secure a place for him in Canton.

On Sunday, Fritz Pollard will finally be enshrined.

It's about damn time!

http://www.realfootball365.com/nfl/articles/fritz-pollard-hof030805.php

 

[nickderiso]

Re: "About time": A forgotten hero to be honored by Pro Football Hall of F

As Gary Estwick notes, in the above piece ...

Pollard's induction is a victory for all of the early black football players and inventors and industry workers and other common folk whose contributions to society are buried under decades of bigotry. That list includes Moses Fleetwood Walker, the first black to play professional baseball, and black jockeys who rode horses to Kentucky Derby wins in the early 1900s before the sport was considered a sport, thus knocking them to the stables.

Maybe timing wasn't on his side. Pollard didn't play professional football during the age of television like Jackie Robinson, which forced people to take notice. Pollard played in the early years of a fledging professional football league that had not yet found the audience it enjoys today. The game was found in smaller U.S. cities like Akron.



For what it was worth, Fritz sure led an interesting life.

After football, he became a businessman, founding a black investment firm, starting a newspaper, managing a talent agency and a movie studio, working as a tax consultant and in the coal business.

 

[Paul Dolemite Taylor]

Re: "About time": A forgotten hero to be honored by Pro Football Hall of F

It has been past time. Every black player owes him in the nfl right now.

How does one start a old timer's campaign for a hall of fame candidate? I think Paul Tank Younger should be in the hall of fame right now. He was a pioneer also. One of the only few players i have ever know to make all pro at 2 significant positions.

 

[THAMES]

Re: "About time": A forgotten hero to be honored by Pro Football Hall of F

nick,

Great article. I had heard the name before but didn't know a lot about him.

Fritz Pollard