By February 1933, there had been 13 black players in the NFL. Pollard asked to run the play twice more and scored two more touchdowns. Pollard, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, died in 1986. Newspaper articles at the time, who described Pollard as a "colored" coach, praised his stellar football IQ. Bleacher crowds and outside towns jeerhim and taunthim about his color," read anarticle in the Akron Evening Times December 5, 1920. In 1921, Pollard was made player-coach and finished as the league's top scorer. Lets just make sure no one ever wrings their hands about Pollard taking carries away from Zeke. But the discussion of balance that was all about run vs. pass after Tampa Bay should shift to the balancing act the two running backs necessitate. He was posthumously inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005. At Brown, Pollard led the Bears to their first and only Rose Bowl appearance. It was really important to us as a family to get that known. That's how good the 5-9 Pollard was. Things have not been much different in 100 years, said Solomon. This year, the NFL is celebrating its 100th season and a heritage that began when 11 teams met on Aug. 20, 1920, in Canton, Ohio, to form the American Professional Football Association. His legacy lives on with the Fritz Pollard Alliance, an initiative that promotes the hiring of minority candidates across professional football. On special teams, he totaled 2,616 kick return yards and seven touchdowns. That quest had also been his own - to get his father into the US Pro Football Hall of Fame. "My son is on TV playing for the Cowboys? He was the son of Fritz Pollard Sr., who also held a few "first" designations, one of which was . [23], In Week 5, against the Los Angeles Rams, Pollard had a 57-yard rushing touchdown. As he walked on, he wouldheartaunts shouted from the stands. Tony Pollard broke his left . If someone can slug him without the referee seeing him, it is done. Get the latest news. Pollard had died just three years before, at the age of 92, but so many people were only hearing his name for the first time. Aged 21, Pollard was only 5ft 8ins - small for football, even then. For the game at Yale, Pollard had been smuggled into the stadium via a separate gate. and 30 carries for 230 yards (7.7-yard avg.) Its more than fair to wonder about the opposite.More from Cowboys-Chargers, Poor clock management made game-winning kick longer than it needed to be, Cowboys were very comfortable playing in SoFi Stadium, Cowboys gained much-needed confidence from a victory the Chargers bungled away, Tony Pollard, Ezekiel Elliott run all over Chargers defense, Rookie LB Micah Parsons records first NFL sack while lined up at DE, 5 takeaways from Cowboys-Chargers, including the best game from Dallas linebackers in years, Cowboys were very comfortable playing in SoFi Stadium: That was our home game, National reaction to Cowboys-Chargers: Greg Zuerlein drills game-winning FG; Tony Pollard shines. The final was 13-0 with Robeson scoring both touchdowns in his finest pro football performance. Instead, he let his play speak for itself. In a 2011 interview with VladTV, Pollard revealed that a third season of her VH1 dating competition series, I Love New York, was scheduled to go into production but got yanked due to . Don't let anyone tell you 'no'. MEMPHIS, Tenn. Pollard's BBQ is back open on Sundaysbut you better have your Cowboys gear on. Because my son proved me wrong.". Marshall's Washington team was the last to sign a black player - after the government threatened to revoke the team's lease on their publicly funded stadium if they did not. Updated January 24, 2023 3:22 PM. He didn't care to serve Fritz," Gibbons wrote. But Pollard appears more likely for several reasons. Yet, Solomon said, Black men still aren't given equal opportunity to coach the teams they, perhaps, played for. Two of the oldest teams, the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears, who opened this years season on Thursday night, were all-white when they first met. In a decade during which hundreds of African-Americans were still being lynched, he was playing a 'white man's game' when the NFL was in its brutal infancy. This wasn't the first time the team had encountered such prejudice. Brown finished with an 8-1 record, with their star player selected in the All-America team. Many know that Pollard suffered from food poising at the NFL combine. "You just lived with it. Your email address will not be published. Pollard continued to play and coach in the NFL until 1926. [19] In Week 15 against the San Francisco 49ers, Pollard recorded 132 yards from scrimmage and two rushing touchdowns during the 4133 win. "They couldn't find anything so I said 'you're looking in the wrong papers'," says Fritz III. "It was bad for white people to come and watch Black people who have jobs.". There was one Black head coach in the NFL in 1921. "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. Pollard played and coached at a time when restaurants wouldn't serve him and hotels shunned him. Fritz Pollard, byname of Frederick Douglass Pollard, Sr., (born January 27, 1894, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.died May 11, 1986, Silver Spring, Maryland), pioneering African American player and coach in American collegiate and professional gridiron football. USA TODAY. "You couldn't eat in the restaurants or stay in the hotels," Pollard told the New York Times in 1978. "If you think about everything Pollard fought for,this is the same thing we are fighting today," he said. "God had gifted me with a special talent to coach the game of football, but the need for change is bigger than my person goals," Flores said in a statement. His grandson, Fritz III, became a three-sport All-American at college. "What Pollard would have said is that at least 70%of coaches would be Black," Solomon said. In 1923, while playing for the Hammond Pros, he became the first African American quarterback in the league. In fact, he helped it change. His professional career was finally about to begin. [9], On January 11, 2019, Pollard declared for the 2019 NFL Draft. Fritz Pollard was born in Chicago in 1894, the seventh of eight children. [10] Just six days later, on January 17, 2019, Pollard was added to the 2019 North Senior Bowl roster. "Prior to the Hampton game, the team was compelled to go to Hampton by boat, sleeping on the decks and under portholes," he told a reporter. Two days after he suffered a broken left fibula and high ankle sprain in Dallas' 19-12 loss against the San . [6], As a junior, even though he shared the backfield with Darrell Henderson, he totaled 78 carries for 552 yards (7.1-yard avg. RELATED: Defense leads the way in Memphis' 44-34 win over North Texas. Corrections? 'Bloody Wednesdays' were the scrimmages where reserve players could challenge starters for a spot on the team. I said 'yeah, I know, that's what I've been telling you'.". He never played quarterback again. Football pioneer Walter Camp called Pollard "one of the greatest runners these eyes have ever seen."[1]. It was evident in my first year at Akron back in 1919 that they didnt want blacks in there getting that money, Pollard said. By the time the NFL's second black head coach was appointed in 1989, Pollard, who died in 1986, had long been written out of the history books. Three years later, the National Football League hired its second black head coach, Arthur "Art" Shell of the Oakland ( California) Raiders. Fritz was gifted with speed and elusiveness but he was small. Pollards has been recognized by the Travel Channel as 1 of 10 Memphis BBQ places to visit! Example video title will go here for this video. While Brown lost the Rose Bowl 14-0 to Washington State,it was a historic game. How to get into American football a sport for all shapes and sizes that requires both mental and physical skills. 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. 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. 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. To settle who was the real champion, Halas reached out to Pollard to arrange a game between the Staleys and the Pros in Chicago. BBC Sport looks at some of the stories that make Super Bowl LVII one of the most exciting yet as the Kansas City Chiefs face the Philadelphia Eagles. Pollard's father had been a boxer who fought professionally during the Civil War. Pollard would probably recognize all of this as progress for both black people and the game, but chances are he would call on the NFL to do more to increase the number of black head coaches, front office executives and team owners. Pollard's wins above replacement also ranks third in the NFL, behind Jacobs and Nick Chubb. On those eight touches, Pollard has totaled 113 yards (14.1 per . "Sometimes I sit at home and say, 'I can't believe this,' Torria said. As his team returned from one game in Gilberton, the train's windows were shot out. NFL to consider rule change after RB injury. The Pollards were well known in Rogers Park, a suburb on the north side of Chicago. There were four 100-yard rushers in the NFL Sunday and three of them are basically the legendary runners top fantasy picks, if you will in the game. His case is typical of a process called 'racial stacking' which still influences the number of black head coaches we see today. In 1917 he enlisted in the army, serving as a physical director in Maryland while coaching at the all-black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. According to Sports Info Solutions, only Josh Jacobs and Aaron Jones have a higher EPA generated per rushing attempt than Pollard. It doesn't force any teamto hire a Black head coach. Eventually the hotel relented. Its difficult to imagine the game without black players. "If somebody were to ask Fritz Pollard, 'What do you think 100 years from now it's going to be like in the National Football League?'" A standout athlete at Brown University, Pollard also qualified for the 1916 Olympics in Berlin for the low hurdles, but the games were cancelled after the outbreak of World War I. . In 2020, there are three black coaches - the same as when the rule was instituted. American football was different. In his seven-year pro career, Pollard played for four NFL teams plus two in rival leagues in Pennsylvania. A year ago when Pollard averaged 4.3 to Zeke's 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 . Tony Dungy, who became the first Black . But not all teams were integrated until Bobby Mitchell joined the Washington (Commanders) in 1962. But on Thursday night at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, as a sign of how far things have come since Pollards day, 70 percent of the players on the active rosters of the Bears and Packers were black, a statistic that mirrors the dominant presence of blacks on the field in a league that had $8.78 billion in revenue in 2018. Pollard took the matter into his own hands and created an all-Black football team, the Chicago Black Hawks, in 1928, challengingNFL teams to exhibition games. [2], Pollard accepted a football scholarship from the University of Memphis. January 26, 2023 11:18 am CT. In 1920, with Pollard leading the team, the Pros went undefeated (8-0-3) to win the league's first championship. [3] He finished among the national leaders in kickoff return average (28.1 yards). Something like that. Are you an NFL rookie? Only 5 feet 7 inches (1.7 metres) and 150 pounds (68 kg), Pollard won the grudging acceptance of his teammates at Brown University in Rhode Island in 1915, leading the team to a victory over Yale and an invitation to the Tournament of Roses game in Pasadena, California. Yet after he retired, the doors he forced open were slammed shut by a 'gentleman's agreement' that saw African-Americans banned from 1934 until 1946. Their move north had paid off. Florence Griffith Joyner Jackie Joyner-Kersee Wilma Rudolph Althea Gibson. Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. He continued to promote the integration of more black players. Flores suit came afterthe New York Giants hiredBrian Daboll over him as head coach. Pollard told him: "You'll find me down there in your end zone.". ", "I will never tell a child again to sit down. "Oh yes," said Towns. Keep working, keep going. Pollard was small, even for. His white teammates had high respect for Pollard and often stuck up for him as he faced discrimination. The Bears recently unveiled statues of Halas and one of his great draft choices, Walter Payton, the Hall of Fame running back, who could not have played in the league were it not for the sacrifices of men like Pollard. He produced Rockin' the Blues[11] in 1956, which included such performers as Connie Carroll, The Harptones, The Five Miller Sisters, Pearl Woods,[12] Linda Hopkins, Elyce Roberts, The Hurricanes, and The Wanderers. Some 27 years before Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier in baseball, Fritz Pollard was the best player for the first NFL champions in 1920. For this reason the FPA has in recent years been vocal in flagging potential violations of the rule while seeking to enhance it. It was Halas, who in 1922, suggested to the other owners that the name of the league be changed from the American Professional Football Association to the National Football League. I had to duck the rocks and the fellas trying to hurt me.". Todd Brock. When they tell you something that they want to do, listen. Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Pollard, middle, is carted off the field during the 19-12 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. The former Memphis standout is currently earning a base salary of $965,000 while carrying a cap charge of $1.131 million, via Spotrac. Its possible the head coach simply believes that. Here are five things Cowboys fans might not know about the running back and special teams ace: Pollard was raised in Memphis and decided to stay in the city when he made his college choice. The Life And Career Of Steve Sabol (Story), The Fascinating Life Of Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder (Story), What Happened To NFL Referee Mike Carey? As well as being a running back, he was a defensive back, receiver, kicker, punt returner and kick-off returner. "For Brown, The Wrong Shoe Was On The Foot In The '16 Rose Bowl Game," by Frank Bianco (Nov. 24, 1980), More Black History Month Pioneers:* Florence Griffith Joyner Smashed Records and Stereotypes* Remembering Satchel Paige, Maybe The Best Pitcher To Ever Live* Paul Robeson Was America's Quintessential Renaissance Man, 2023 ABG-SI LLC. Yet, through it all, Pollard held his head high and helped lead Brown to the Rose Bowl against Washington State in 1916. Both men are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. He was a theater agent, booking African-Americans in clubs across New York City. The Pollards have been Barbequing for four generations. After leaving Brown, Pollard pursued a degree in dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania for two years. Reality television is a place where anything and everything is on the table. It's kind of weird to say, but I. Some of the worst violence took place in Pollard's home town of Chicago. For Meredith, who teaches children aged three to eight, Pollard's legacy has a power stretching beyond family and football. He had two returns for touchdown and was named the American Athletic Conference's Special Teams Player of the Year. Rival fans would taunt Pollard with it throughout his career. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Yet he welcomed Pollard with a highly abusive racial slur, saying he was going to kill him. He registered 29 receptions for 298 yards (10.3-yard avg. The 5-9, 165-pound back, who led Brown to the Rose Bowl in 1915, turned pro in 1919, when he joined the Akron (OH) Pros following army service during World War I. Thirty percent of assistant NFL coaches are Black. He called the team Redskins in 1933, a racial slur that was only. When returning kick-offs, he often dived to the floor, leaving the tacklers to collide with each other, before getting back to his feet to continue running. Both he and Halas were at that meeting of team owners in 1933, when Marshall pitched the idea of banning black players.
