All eight of the Pollard children graduated from high school and excelled at athletics or music. In 1919, as more than 25 race riots erupted in major U.S. cities, Fritz Pollard, a former Brown University All-American running back, joined the Akron Pros, a pro football team that would later become a charter member of the NFL. Pollard attended Melrose High School, where he played high school football. One of his team-mates, Irving Fraser, later told Pollard's biographer Jay Berry: "When he was tackled, they'd all pile on him and see if they could make him quit. ", "Look at the c-suites of your teams, the medical staffs, and the ultimate decision makers the head coaches and GMs and youll see those faces dont represent what your teams look like," Dungy wrote last year. It was named one of the 10 best BBQ restaurants in the city of Memphis by the Travel Channel. As ESPN's Bill Barnwell noted, Pollard has now touched the ball just eight times in his career after his 30th snap of a given game. Pollard established theNew York Independent News, the first weekly black tabloid. The same didn't happen in the coaching ranks. Instead, it's a box-checking exercise. The faces inside the helmets may look different than they did a century ago, but the team owners are still mostly all white men who together wield an often uncompromising power in the game. The next year, he was named co-head coach as he continued to play for the Pros. Tony isn't the only Pollard living his dream. "Crack Lincoln University Team Coached by Fritz Pollard". NFL to consider rule change after RB injury. Halas and Pollard had both grown up in Chicago and knew each other from high school. Pollard, 25, has assumed a big role in 2022 as he preps for free agency. Racial disparity in the league's coaching ranks was brought to the forefront last week whenformer Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the NFL and three of its teams, alleging racial discrimination in hiring practices. "He's the one that taught everybody how to barbeque.". Pollard felt that he never received the credit or recognition for his contributions to the early years of the NFL. "Opposing players make it a point of pride to rough him as much as possible. Fritz Pollard Jr suffered from Alzheimer's during the final years of his life, but just before he died there was a moment of clarity. Don't let anyone tell you 'no'. and three touchdowns. 'Bloody Wednesdays' were the scrimmages where reserve players could challenge starters for a spot on the team. USA TODAY NFL insider Mike Jones breaks down former Miami Dolphins' head coach Brian Flores' lawsuit against the NFL, Giants and Dolphins. This wasn't the first time the team had encountered such prejudice. The FPA negotiated with the NFL to establish a rule requiring teams to interview at least one ethnic minority candidate for each head coach vacancy. He wasn't just a star football player and coach. "He always let his skills on the field, and his actions off it, define who he was. Pollard himself was now in the factory town of Akron, Ohio. Against all these handicaps, Fritz Pollard plays with dauntless spirit. Since this would be the second consecutive season on . He called the team Redskins in 1933, a racial slur that was only dropped in July this year amid mounting pressure. After Pollard, the second black starting quarterback was Marlin Briscoe in 1968. Yet, Pollard's humble, quiet ways never changed. [2], Pollard accepted a football scholarship from the University of Memphis. Speaking of food, the running back's family owns a restaurant called "Pollard's BBQ" located in Memphis. Author of. But not all teams were integrated until Bobby Mitchell joined the Washington (Commanders) in 1962. "The NFL has one fundamental beliefabout Black coaches. He retired from football in 1937 to pursue a career in business and watched as the NFL ban on Black players started to lift after World War II. Instead, he let his play speak for itself. His teammates took a stand. With his last words, spoken to his family in 2003, he said: "Don't forget your quest.". He is closing in on 1,700 runs and receptions while just starting his sixth season. His grandson, Fritz III, became a three-sport All-American at college. https://t.co/5repnhdcW4. . He became their player-coach the following season. Football pioneer Walter Camp called Pollard "one of the greatest runners these eyes have ever seen."[1]. ", Fritz III recalls: "You could see all the reporters going 'who's Fritz Pollard?' Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Pollard is on the mend. They had to cut to a commercial and then my phone just blew up with people saying 'they're talking about your grandfather'.". "My granddaddy barbequed at home," said Tarrance Pollard, Tony's father. Still, some players didn't like that Pollard was playing and they despised even more that he was a star player in the NFL. Fritz Pollard Jr suffered from Alzheimer's during the final years of his life, but just before he died there was a moment of clarity. That quest had also been his own - to get his father into the US Pro Football Hall of Fame. Your email address will not be published. A memorial for Marshall outside Washington's stadium was removed in June, along with all other references to him, after it was spray-painted with the words "change the name". 38. "It's terribly ironic that we live in a time that Fritz Pollard's own coaching experience in the NFL isn't really that different from today," said Aron Solomon, chief legal analyst with Today's Esquire, which provides comprehensive legal analysis on news stories of the day. "Hammond and Milwaukee were bad, but never as bad as Akron. He is the sonof a despised race. Pollard was carted to the X-ray room with an air cast on his leg. How to get into American football a sport for all shapes and sizes that requires both mental and physical skills. USA TODAY. To settle who was the real champion, Halas reached out to Pollard to arrange a game between the Staleys and the Pros in Chicago. Here are 4 reasons why they should Related: Cowboys RB Tony Pollard undergoes surgery for injuries suffered vs. 49ers Related: What NFL salary cap increase means for Cowboys and how it affects RB . Days later, Pollard played in abenefit game inPittsburgh and was greeted with a hero's welcome. "My students know I get so mad at them if they call themselves 'stupid'. Omissions? [4], As a sophomore, he posted 36 receptions for 536 yards (14.9-yard avg.) When Pollard played, the NFL was new, rough and tumble, a backyard type of experiment, said Towns. Pollard became the second African-American in the College Hall of Fame in 1954. Pollard attended Albert G. Lane Manual Training High School in Chicago, also known as "Lane Tech," where he played football, baseball, and ran track. Eventually the hotel relented. There was one Black head coach in the NFL in 1921 when a tiny, incrediblyfast running back named Fritz Pollard was hired to coach theAkron Pros at the same time he played for the team. For Meredith, who teaches children aged three to eight, Pollard's legacy has a power stretching beyond family and football. Early years [ edit] Pollard was at the time just the sixth black pro-football player in an era when lynchings of black men by white mobs were almost a daily occurrence. He touched the ball on 16 of his 21 snaps Sunday. Then came a telegram that changed everything. Pollard continued to play and coach in the NFL until 1926. Halas was the greatest foe of Black football players, Pollard told a reporter in 1971, adding that Halas helped start the ball rolling that eventually led to the barring of blacks from professional football in 1933., While Halas dismissed the notion that he was racist, he wouldnt draft a black player until 1949 when he took George Taliaferro out of Indiana, the first African American to be drafted by an NFL team. Newspaper articles at the time, who described Pollard as a "colored" coach, praised his stellar football IQ. A year ago when Pollard averaged 4.3 to Zekes 4.0, and when Pollard got a late-season start against San Francisco and ran for 69 yards and two touchdowns on just 12 carries, it was because the 49ers were injured and prepared to face Elliott. The Fritz Pollard Association that certifies that NFL teams have complied with the Rooney Rule is also a tax exempt 501 (c) (6) organization. "The waiter took everybody's order but Pollard's. In 1917 he enlisted in the army, serving as a physical director in Maryland while coaching at the all-black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. As his team returned from one game in Gilberton, the train's windows were shot out. In 1981 Brown University conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) Pollard's wins above replacement also ranks third in the NFL, behind Jacobs and Nick Chubb. RELATED: Defense leads the way in Memphis' 44-34 win over North Texas. [8], Pollard was considered one of the best kickoff return specialists in college football, tying a FBS record with seven career kick-return touchdowns, 87 kickoff returns (second in school history), 2,616 kickoff return yards (second in school history), 30.1 kick-return average (school record) and 4,680 all-purpose yards (second in school history). He also played for the Milwaukee Badgers, Hammond Pros, Gilberton Cadamounts, Union Club of Phoenixville and Providence Steam Roller. When the team went to sign in at the hotel, the front desk refused Pollard. Both he and Halas were at that meeting of team owners in 1933, when Marshall pitched the idea of banning black players. [22] In Week 5, against the New York Giants, Pollard totaled 103 scrimmage yards in the 4420 victory. I didnt go sniffing around hoping theyd accept me. 1. (Complete Story), The Life And Career Of NFL Co-Founder Carl Storck (Story), The Life And Career Of Jim Thorpe (Complete Story), Top 20 Most Underrated Coaches In NFL History (Complete List), The Life And Career Of QB Jim Plunkett (Complete Story), The Life And Career Of Deion Sanders (Complete Story). He spent some time organizing all-African American barnstorming teams, including the Chicago Black Hawks in 1928 and the Harlem Brown Bombers in the 1930s. At Brown, Pollard led the Bears to their first and only Rose Bowl appearance. His brother Terrion now carries on the family tradition, working with his dad at Pollard's. "I kind of love it. He was born Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard. They taught Fritz that he could never retaliate, despite the provocation he was sure to face. It's cheaper. He also saw how it changed between then. We look at why having two black quarterbacks in the Super Bowl is such a big moment for the NFL, and profile star men Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts. "The narrative we are dealing with here is very close to the narrative FritzPollard dealtwith 100 years ago.". "No cabins were provided, nor were they given a place to sleep after reaching Hampton. At the hotel, Assistant Coach Bill Sprackling demanded to see the manager. He was a theater agent, booking African-Americans in clubs across New York City. "African-Americans have historically been drummed out of the quarterback position and shifted into more 'athletic' positions like wide receiver, defensive back or running back," says Professor N Jeremi Duru of American University in Washington DC, one of the leading experts in US sports law and discrimination. "Offensive co-ordinators tend to come from quarterbacks, and head coaches from offensive co-ordinators, so the pipeline is thin for African-Americans because of discrimination against black players in so-called 'thinking' positions.". I never saw him angry.". "Pollard's Orange and Blue Juggernaut Crushes Camp Dix". He proved me wrong.". In 1920, the leagues inaugural season, when there was no playoff and the champion was determined by its win-loss record, Pollards Pros went 8-0-3 and took the title. Courtesy of Brown University, Providence, R.I. (1894-1986). "When he was six years old, he said 'Mom, I'm going to the NFL.' [8] Paul Robeson was enlisted by Lincoln's alumni to coach the Thanksgiving 1920 game against Howard. ), 39 receptions for 458 yards (11.7-yard avg. "My dad was a single parent, and when he wasn't working all the hours he did it was phone call after phone call, meeting after meeting, trying to get my great-grandfather's name out there.". His brother Terrion now carries on the family tradition, working with his dad at Pollard's. Its also possibly his way of talking around what seems to be a delicate situation. follow. As a player, coach and team owner, he was as important as any single figure in helping to put the league on a course to become the sprawling multibillion-dollar juggernaut that it is today. As a football player, entertainment promoter and social activist, Pollard might have applauded the leagues partnership with Jay-Z and his entertainment company to use musical events to build community relations. At his first game, he had to get dressed in the owner's cigar shop and was abused by his own team's fans. Aged 21, Pollard was only 5ft 8ins - small for football, even then. He feared he had squandered any chance of playing professional football. Are you an NFL rookie? Its possible the head coach simply believes that. Pollard got all of 13 carries and turned it into 109 yards, his second biggest day as a pro. In 1921, he became the first African-American head coach in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Memphis, and was drafted by the Cowboys in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft . Here are five things Cowboys fans might not know about the running back and special teams ace: Stayed home. He called the team Redskins in 1933, a racial slur that was only. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). And of the 12-year absence of blacks from the league from 1934 to 1946, Halas would say, Probably the game didnt have the appeal to black players at the time.. Three years after Pollard's death,Art Shell was hired as head coach of the Raiders, the first Black head NFL coach of the modern era. In his freshman year, he was the only black player in the Ivy League and Brown's win over Yale saw them earn an invite to the Rose Bowl in January 1916. In 2003, in response to criticism over the lack of Black coaches in the league, the NFL created the Rooney Rule, a policy that requires teams to interview at least one ethnic-minoritycandidatefor vacant head coaching jobs. Pollard coached Lincoln University's football team in Oxford, Pennsylvania during the 1918 to 1920 seasons [4] and served as athletic director of the school's World War I era Students' Army Training Corps. [14], He had 13 carries for 24 yards in his NFL debut in Week 1 against the New York Giants in the 3517 victory. Many believe that the Cowboys just found their next kick returner. He subsequently became the first black running back to ever be selected for the All-American team. Updates? In his second, he faced future Hall of Famer Jim Thorpe. Pollard was wickedly smart and, while playing halfback at Brown as the school's first Black player, he majored in chemistry, earning almost all As. It was one of many measures he'd take to avoid being targeted, verbally and physically, by fans and players alike, across the game's heartland of the American Northeast and Midwest. Fritz was gifted with speed and elusiveness but he was small. "At certain times, we were struggling ourselves as parents, just trying to do for the kids and the family," she said. As he walked on, he wouldheartaunts shouted from the stands. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The US summer of 1919 was known as the Red Summer. None of this is meant to discredit Elliott. They lost the game through lack of rest." They had some prejudiced people there. Fritz Pollard, an All-America halfback from Brown University was a pro football pioneer in more ways than one. He wanted the trails he blazed to change the future of the NFL. In 1923, while playing for the Hammond Pros, he became the first African American quarterback in the league. In 1937, Fritz Pollard retired from pro football and pursued a career in business. ProFootballHistory.com. The family had prospered. Everything he learnt from his brothers was about to be put to the test. He attended Albert G. Lane Manual Training High School in Chicago where he played football, baseballand ran track. In Akron, Pollard became the first black head coach and quarterback in the NFL and the most vocal advocate for black players in the formative years of the league. "You just lived with it. "Why?" Get the latest news. NFL pioneer Fritz Pollard's life story more relevant than ever Published: Jun 17, 2020 at 05:18 PM Anthony Smith "Fritz Pollard: A Forgotten Man", directed and produced by NFL Network senior. It wasan incredible display of solidarity. But his family's quest finally came to fruition in 2005 when - two years after his son's death - Pollard was inducted into the Hall of Fame. But when the Pro Football Hall of Fame opened in 1963, he was not among the charter class of 17 inductees. Still, many were motivated to see them by the opportunity for abuse. "Fred Pollard Finishes as Coach for Lincoln", "Path Lit by Lightning" by David Maraniss, Last edited on 22 February 2023, at 22:16, Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Racial issues faced by black quarterbacks, "Jim Muldoon inducted into Rose Bowl Hall of Fame", "Mark Brunell, Fritz Pollard, Tyrone Wheatley and Jim Muldoon to be Inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame presented by Northwestern Mutual", "Alpha Athletes at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany", Brown University and the Black Coaches Association establish annual Fritz Pollard Award, Fritz Pollard and early African American professional football players, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fritz_Pollard&oldid=1141008765. The Yale supporters also turned 'Bye Bye Blackbird', a popular song of the day, into a racially abusive anthem. He then went to Brown University, majoring in chemistry. The Pollards were well known in Rogers Park, a suburb on the north side of Chicago. [16] During Week 15 against the Los Angeles Rams, Pollard finished with 131 rushing yards on 12 attempts, including a 44-yard touchdown as the Cowboys won 4421. Yet the social revolution that Pollard led in the professional game is largely responsible for the sports endurance as the countrys most popular spectator sport. "My grandfather started playing pro football in 1919. Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here. Rival fans would taunt Pollard with it throughout his career. Pollard played and coached at a time when restaurants wouldn't serve him and hotels shunned him. But he combated such treatment with tricks he learned from his brothers. He continued to promote the integration of more black players. Your essential guide to Super Bowl 57 as the Kansas City Chiefs face the Philadelphia Eagles in Arizona for the NFL championship. Fans started showing up to see what this footballleague was all about. His white teammates had high respect for Pollard and often stuck up for him as he faced discrimination. The rule is named for former Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who chaired the league's diversity committee. With the US in the depths of the Great Depression and millions of white people unemployed, he argued that paying black men to play football would be bad for business. His mother was Native American, his father an African American who boxed professionally during the Civil War. ), ten touchdowns with one kickoff return for a touchdown. [7] By the fall of 1920, he had begun to play for Akron, missing key Lincoln losses to Hampton (014) and Howard (042), much to the consternation of the alumni and administration. He didn't care to serve Fritz," Gibbons wrote. He was the seventh of eight children born to a Native American mother and an African American father. Frederick Douglass " Fritz " Pollard (January 27, 1894 - May 11, 1986) was an American football player and coach. This article is about the football pioneer. Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard (January 27, 1894 May 11, 1986) was an American football player and coach. Pollard's team won most of those games, said Towns. He had waited65 years from his hiringas an NFL coach to see if he had pioneered a change. Yet, Solomon said, Black men still aren't given equal opportunity to coach the teams they, perhaps, played for. It would be almost half a century until the NFL next had a black starting quarterback. His brothers decided they had to toughen him up. degree on Pollard, recognizing his achievements as athlete and leader. Nonetheless, in the opening week of the NFL season, there were four black head coaches, one black general manager and nine black starting quarterbacks. 128th overall selection in the 2019 NFL Draft, Pollard finds himself in the midst of an ever-important contract year. Here's when clocks will 'spring forward' in 2023, Cordova High School alum Quinton Bohanna makes Dallas Cowboys 53-man roster, Defense leads the way in Memphis' 44-34 win over North Texas. Teams would take kick-offs short, so that Pollard could be gang-tackled as soon as he received the ball. I'd rather watch him do it.". [15] During Week 3 against the Miami Dolphins, Pollard posted his first career 100+-yard game as he finished with 103 rushing yards on 13 carries and a touchdown as the Cowboys won 316.
Southwest Airlines Golf Tournament,
Ideal Breast Size For Height And Weight Chart,
Cari And Jemele Stick To Sports Cancelled,
Psychiatric Emergency Response Team Riverside County,
Black Boule Celebrities,
Articles I