Because my son proved me wrong.". And believe us, Fritz got some service after that.". Brown finished with an 8-1 record, with their star player selected in the All-America team. As a senior, he was a two-way starter at wide receiver and cornerback on the high school football team. He's also caught 39 passes for 337 yards. 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. "We better let him play," the linebacker told the coach. Pollard and Thorpe were pro football's highest-paid players, the main attractions. "In making the decision to file the (complaint), I understand that I may be risking coaching the game that I love and that has done so much for my family and me. ), 39 receptions for 458 yards (11.7-yard avg. 38. "Why?" He also played for the Milwaukee Badgers, Hammond Pros, Gilberton Cadamounts, Union Club of Phoenixville and Providence Steam Roller. On the train coming out, Pollard hadn't been allowed to sit with his teammates in the dining car. Bleacher crowds and outside towns jeerhim and taunthim about his color," read anarticle in the Akron Evening Times December 5, 1920. To settle who was the real champion, Halas reached out to Pollard to arrange a game between the Staleys and the Pros in Chicago. He spent years defending his accomplishments, believing that the racism of the early years of the league was played down to lessen the impact of his role and to raise the legend of men like Halas, whom he believed was a racist. He left Memphis as one of the most accomplish kick returners in NCAA history. 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. 3:09. "My grandfather started playing pro football in 1919. They believe that Black head coaches are not fit to be leaders of men.". That's where he got the nickname Fritz. I'd rather watch him do it.". and six touchdowns. (I'd) just look at themand grin, and the next minute run 80 yards for a touchdown.". It was evident in my first year at Akron back in 1919 that they didnt want blacks in there getting that money, Pollard said. 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. His case is typical of a process called 'racial stacking' which still influences the number of black head coaches we see today. "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. It was the best game I'd ever seen.". 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. He made up for it at Memphis' pro day by clocking in at a 4.37. Their move north had paid off. But the hiring didn't break down barriers. Mother Amanda was a respected seamstress while father John was a successful businessman. That'sjust the way the times were back then," Pollard would say. Hes quicker. How to get into American football a sport for all shapes and sizes that requires both mental and physical skills. Fritz III gave his permission to name it the Fritz Pollard Alliance (FPA). [7] In the 2018 Birmingham Bowl against Wake Forest, he recorded 318 all-purpose yards (209 on kickoff returns) and one rushing touchdown. Fritz III says his grandfather felt there were two reasons why he wasn't voted into the Hall of Fame during his lifetime: George Halas and George Preston Marshall. Henry had 35 carries in the Titans overtime win and Cook ran 22 times in defeat at Arizona. I was there to play football and make my money.. Still, some players didn't like that Pollard was playing and they despised even more that he was a star player in the NFL. . 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. I was never interested in socializing with whites. 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. The same didn't happen in the coaching ranks. Halas was involved with the Chicago Bears from their creation in 1920 until his death in 1983, first as a player, then coach and team owner. [26] During the 2022-23 NFC divisional playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers, Pollard suffered a high ankle sprain and fractured fibula in the second quarter when 49ers defensive back Jimmie Ward landed on his ankle while making the tackle. Pollard was not the first black athlete paid to play football, but he was the first to star in the confederation of Midwestern franchises that became the National Football League. 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. "The first was Fritz Pollard. https://t.co/5repnhdcW4. Eventually the hotel relented. The Pollard family tells ABC24 how it took a village to help the former Memphis Tiger achieve his dreams. Its also possibly his way of talking around what seems to be a delicate situation. George Halas Bears, then called the Staleys, also claimed the title with a 10-1-2 record. Pollard was carted to the X-ray room with an air cast on his leg. He became a tax consultant. "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?'" That's because Pollard was an exceptional return man for Memphis. He coached and managed all-black teams in exhibition games, giving them a chance to showcase their talent. 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. "My students know I get so mad at them if they call themselves 'stupid'. On November 19, 1922, Pollard and Paul Robeson lead the Badgers to victory over the great Jim Thorpe and his Oorang Indians. He founded a newspaper, and set up an investment fund and a company trading coal. They dressed in locker rooms, ate with teammates at restaurants, slept in team hotels and became multi-million-dollar superstars. USA TODAY. In 2020, there are three black coaches - the same as when the rule was instituted. He founded the first African-American investment firm: F.D. Last updated on 2 October 20202 October 2020.From the section American Football. When they tell you something that they want to do, listen. Mark Wahlberg pours tequila for fans at Dallas restaurant during thunderstorm, Luka Doncic-Kyrie Irving tandem clicks with joint 40-point displays in Mavs win vs. 76ers, Dallas Cowboys focused on adding another dynamic offensive weapon, Ex-Cowboys OC Kellen Moore opens up on Dallas departure, shows gratitude for Mike McCarthy, 12 Dallas-Fort Worth restaurants that have closed in 2023. Yet, Solomon said, Black men still aren't given equal opportunity to coach the teams they, perhaps, played for. They'd then verify the information. Get the latest news. Yet the next summer Denver held quarterback meetings without him and he asked to be released. He called the team Redskins in 1933, a racial slur that was only dropped in July this year amid mounting pressure. He finished with 101 carries for 435 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns to go along with 28 receptions for 193 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown. Pollard's father had been a boxer who fought professionally during the Civil War. Despite his accomplishments in football, he was hardly immune to the discrimination African-Americans facedincluding before that 1916 Rose Bowl. Zeke is 25th in rushing and averaging 3.9 per carry. "My granddaddy barbequed at home," said Tarrance Pollard, Tony's father. Read about our approach to external linking. 3: See photos from DeSoto's Class 6A state semifinal win over Pearland, A day after powerful thunderstorms, North Texas surveys the damage, 3 children killed, 2 wounded at Ellis County home; suspect in custody, How a Texas districts reaction to school shooting fears highlights discipline concerns, Carrollton man advertised pills on social media to entice teens to buy fentanyl, feds say. [27], Last edited on 27 February 2023, at 01:13, "Tony Pollard, Memphis , All Purpose Back", "Prep insider: All-district 16-AAA football teams", "Tony Pollard is AAC special teams player of the year; Five other Tigers earn all-conference honors", "2017 American Athletic Conference Football Postseason Honors", "Birmingham Bowl - Memphis vs Wake Forest Box Score, December 22, 2018", "Tony Pollard 2018 University of Memphis", "Memphis football's Tony Pollard declares for the NFL Draft", "Memphis' Tony Pollard added to Senior Bowl Roster", "Tony Pollard Draft and Combine Prospect Profile", "Tony Pollard, Memphis, WR, 2019 NFL Draft Scout, NCAA College Football", "New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys September 8th, 2019", "Prescott, Cowboys get out of funk, ease past Dolphins 316", "Cowboys render coin toss mix-up moot, throttle Rams 4421", "2020 Dallas Cowboys Statistics & Players", "San Francisco 49ers at Dallas Cowboys December 20th, 2020", "Dallas Cowboys at Los Angeles Chargers - September 19th, 2021", "New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys - October 10th, 2021", "2022 NFL season, Week 5: What We Learned from Sunday's games", "Updates: Tony Pollard Wins Weekly RB Award", "Cowboys RB Tony Pollard, Chiefs TE Travis Kelce highlight Players of the Week", "Source: RB Pollard undergoes surgery for ankle", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tony_Pollard_(American_football)&oldid=1141830404, This page was last edited on 27 February 2023, at 01:13. "If you think about everything Pollard fought for,this is the same thing we are fighting today," he said. Five of the 11 men who had agreed to ban black players were, however. Many credit Pollard and Jim Thorpe with saving the fledgling league as it struggled to compete with baseball and boxing. FRISCO, Texas At the age of 14, Tony Pollard started flipping burgers at his family's famous restaurant, Pollard's Bar-B-Que on Elvis Presley Boulevard, in Memphis, Tenn . Are we to believe that youre really doing exhaustive searches, trying to uncover the best coaches, but only two out of the last 20 have been African Americans?". Now, the power of his legacy is growing through an organisation that bears his name. His three older brothers all played the game and felt black players could do well - if they adhered to an unwritten code of conduct. They had to cut to a commercial and then my phone just blew up with people saying 'they're talking about your grandfather'.". American football was different. It would be almost half a century until the NFL next had a black starting quarterback. He then went to Brown University, majoring in chemistry. Things have not been much different in 100 years, said Solomon. In 1921, Pollard became the league's first black coach and in 1923 its first black quarterback. 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. said his grandson Dr. Stephen Towns, a dentist in Indianapolis. "Even if it helps just one person in the same situation as my great-grandfather, with the odds stacked against them, to persevere and make something of themselves, then it was worth it. "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.". From there, Black players joined the league and began dominating on the field. Alternate titles: Frederick Douglass Pollard, Sr. Regents Professor of History at Lamar University. 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. He played and coached when, despite being the highest paid player in the league $1,500 a game he wasn't allowed to dresswith his team. The No. He was the son of Fritz Pollard Sr., who also held a few "first" designations, one of which was . His professional career was finally about to begin. 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. On the train out west to Los Angeles, even black porters refused to wait on him. ProFootballHistory.com. He is the sonof a despised race. He was the seventh of eight children born to a Native American mother and an African American father. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. It's cheaper. [24] In Week 8, against Chicago, Pollard had 13 carries for 141 yards and three rushing touchdowns in the 4929 win, and was named Ground Player of the Week. Early years [ edit] Pollard becamethe first Black man to play in the Rose Bowl. His imprint on this issue is felt daily through the work of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, an organization that advocates for diversity and equality in coaching, scouting and the front office in the NFL. When the Los Angeles Raiders hired Art Shell as head coach in 1989, he was asked in a live broadcast how it felt to be the NFL's first black coach. 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. The US summer of 1919 was known as the Red Summer. this year amid mounting pressure. "And the other big difference is that 70% of the players are Black.". It was named one of the 10 best BBQ restaurants in the city of Memphis by the Travel Channel. Tony Dungy, who became the first Black . Since Pollard got here in 2019, he has 10 runs of 20 yards or more in 203 carries about one every 20 rushing attempts. Yet he welcomed Pollard with a highly abusive racial slur, saying he was going to kill him. There are three awards in his name at Brown and in the 1970s, when his grandson Fritz III played football there, a local shop owner refused to take his money and said: "My father took me to see your grandfather play. Todd Brock. Academic difficulties meant Pollard's college career was cut short. 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. Fritz Pollard, an All-America halfback from Brown University was a pro football pioneer in more ways than one. "Times got hard, he let me skip a payment here, skip a payment there and train them anyway," Tarrance said. Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard (January 27, 1894 May 11, 1986) was an American football player and coach. Pollard and Bobby Marshall were the first two African-American players in the NFL in 1920. Not the way Solomon believes Pollard might have expected. His is a story for too long left untold. Are you an NFL rookie? Pollard's Barber Shop was a popular neighbourhood hang-out and the Pollard boys played football for hours in the local park. 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. "He's the one that taught everybody how to barbeque.". I said 'No you're not, sit down.' This wasn't the first time the team had encountered such prejudice. 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. Knowing that the NFL would be oneof the biggest businesses in the nation andthat 70% of the players on 32 teams would be Black? Many believe that the Cowboys just found their next kick returner. [8], Pollard criticized Lincoln's administration, saying they had hampered his ability to coach and had refused to provide adequate travel accommodations for the team. 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. Along with becoming the league's first African-American head coach, he also was its first African-American quarterback (1923) and first African-American to play on a championship team (1920). 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". 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. Tony Randall Pollard (born April 30, 1997) is an American football running back for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). 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". After he was let go by Akron (which had changed its name to the Indians) in 1926, Pollard continued to promote integration in professional football as a coach of the barnstorming Chicago Black Hawks (192832) and the New York Brown Bombers (193537). The Yale supporters also turned 'Bye Bye Blackbird', a popular song of the day, into a racially abusive anthem. Fans started showing up to see what this footballleague was all about. Its possible the head coach simply believes that. "And it has been discouraging to see that in the last three hiring cycles of head coaches, things have not been much different.