Just under 100 years ago, well under 1% of NFL players were African American. That figure now stands at approximately 70%. The path to that growth begins, in part, with Fritz Pollard. OnlyAGameNPR
Fritz Pollard was born in Chicago in 1894, the seventh of eight children. His mother was Native American, his father an African American who boxed professionally during the Civil War. Pollard ran track and played baseball and football at Chicago’s Lane Tech High School, where his athleticism was celebrated.In 1915, he enrolled at Brown University on a Rockefeller Scholarship.
"He learned how to protect himself by rolling over and kicking his feet like a cat if somebody tried to pile on and drag their feet on him to cut him," Pollard III says."They would all wear baggy uniforms, so that way no one could tell in the game who he was," Pollard III says."And sometimes they even darkened their faces with shoe polish, so they couldn’t tell who he was.""Yes, during games! Back then, in 1915 and 1916, that’s unheard of.
"The team then refused to stay, and the hotel worked it out", Towns says. "Meaning they let him stay." He did that a lot. Before the Akron Pros’ first game against the powerhouse Canton Bulldogs, he tried it out on a football legend. "Unfortunately, he used to have to get dressed in his car. Can you imagine that? Your star player having to get dressed in his car and then come onto the field?" Towns asks.
"In 1933, the league sort of enacted this 'gentleman’s agreement' that barred African American players from the league," Dodson says. "And he took it upon himself to continue those opportunities for those Black players who had proven, like himself, that they were able to play in the National Football League at the highest level."
"They were beating some of the pro teams so badly that they had to hold the score down, because they were afraid that they weren’t going to play them anymore," Towns says."So it was a little bit more than an exhibition game. When you got white players at that point in time playing Black players, it meant something."
One of them was NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who, according to Towns, would hand out books celebrating his grandfather’s life.
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