He is closing in on 1,700 runs and receptions while just starting his sixth season. "Fritz Pollards skin is black. Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard was born Jan. 27, 1894. Knowing that the NFL would be oneof the biggest businesses in the nation andthat 70% of the players on 32 teams would be Black? When Pollard played, the NFL was new, rough and tumble, a backyard type of experiment, said Towns. And here I was, playing and coaching and pulling down the highest salary in pro football. He didn't get to see it. RELATED: Defense leads the way in Memphis' 44-34 win over North Texas. On special teams, he totaled 2,616 kick return yards and seven touchdowns. Nonetheless, in the opening week of the NFL season, there were four black head coaches, one black general manager and nine black starting quarterbacks. Many believe that the Cowboys just found their next kick returner. In 2022, with the Steelers' Mike Tomlin and recently-named Texans head coach Lovie Smith, that percentage is 6.3%. When an opposing linebacker greeted Pollard with a deeply offensive racial slur, he responded by waltzing past him and into the end zone. Things have not been much different in 100 years, said Solomon. Discover short videos related to tony pollard throne on TikTok. Their move north had paid off. If they think they can't do something or belittle themselves. Sometimes Pollard's team stayed in centre-field at half-time rather than run the gauntlet of going into the locker room. It's kind of weird to say, but I love it," Terrion said. "Oh yes," said Towns. "What Pollard would have said is that at least 70%of coaches would be Black," Solomon said. [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. When he began playing football aged 15 in 1909, he measured 4ft 11ins and weighed 89 pounds. Fritz Pollard was born in Chicago in 1894, the seventh of eight children. Along with becoming the league's first African-American head coach, he also was its first. Imagine NFL stars of today like Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson having to arrive moments before kick-off and being driven on to the field. On the train coming out, Pollard hadn't been allowed to sit with his teammates in the dining car. The race to compete in Super Bowl 57 is under way - how many winners since 2000 can you name? 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 . 1. [5] He led the nation with a school-record 40-yard average per kickoff return (22 for 881 yards) and four returns for touchdowns. There have been500 head coaches in the NFL's history 24 of them have been Black. Fritz, the standout achiever, earned a Rockefeller Scholarship at Brown University, an Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island, on the United States' east coast. 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. Sometimes we have to pinch ourselves and say, 'Is this real? "This is a man who paved the way, who showed there is hope. ", Glittering drama based on the audacious Brinks-Mat security depot heist, A corrupt copper and a Leeds gangster are bound together by decades of dishonesty. Pollard's Barber Shop was a popular neighbourhood hang-out and the Pollard boys played football for hours in the local park. 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. "Fans have, perhaps, noticed that after staging one of his brilliant runs for a touchdown he seeks a place of seclusion sometimes even going so far to duck underneath the stands.". He opened the Sun Tan Studios, where the likes of Duke Ellington and Nat King Cole rehearsed, and produced music videos called 'soundies'. ), 39 receptions for 458 yards (11.7-yard avg. Briscoe passed for 14 touchdowns in 1968 - still a Denver Broncos record for a rookie. "When he was six years old, he said 'Mom, I'm going to the NFL.' It was named one of the 10 best BBQ restaurants in the city of Memphis by the Travel Channel. [18], Pollard continued his role as a backup to Ezekiel Elliott to go along with some kickoff return duties in the 2020 season. Fritz III's daughter Meredith Kaye Russell, born in 1988, also joined the cause, helping with research and acting as her father's secretary. Pollard himself was now in the factory town of Akron, Ohio. He's also caught 39 passes for 337 yards. It wasan incredible display of solidarity. Pollard became the second African-American in the College Hall of Fame in 1954. That's how good the 5-9 Pollard was. Its also possibly his way of talking around what seems to be a delicate situation. Is Dallas becoming unaffordable due to rising housing costs, inflation and stagnating pay? They believe that Black head coaches are not fit to be leaders of men.". He also founded an all-black football team in Harlem that was unsuccessful in luring local NFL teams to play exhibition games. Newspaper articles at the time, who described Pollard as a "colored" coach, praised his stellar football IQ. But I was there to play football. He managed the Suntan Movie Studio in Harlem. "Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the '40s," says Pollard's grandson, Fritz Pollard III. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 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. 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. 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. 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. Pollard's team won most of those games, said Towns. In the 1930s, Pollard founded his own professional football team, the Brown Bombers. But when the Pro Football Hall of Fame opened in 1963, he was not among the charter class of 17 inductees. On those eight touches, Pollard has totaled 113 yards (14.1 per . His grandson, Fritz III, became a three-sport All-American at college. Pollard was one of only two African-Americans at Brown in 1915 and the first to live on campus. Halas is a name rightfully synonymous with the founding of the NFL. Pollard played short stints of football for Northwestern, Harvard and Dartmouth before receiving a scholarship from the Rockefeller family to attend Brown University in 1915. "He's the one that taught everybody how to barbeque.". After going on to play and coach for four different NFL teams in Indiana and Milwaukee, Pollard was banned from the league in 1926 along with eight or nine other Black players "in a fateful decision to segregate," according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In 1917 he enlisted in the army, serving as a physical director in Maryland while coaching at the all-black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. At that time, black players were banned from the sport. His case is typical of a process called 'racial stacking' which still influences the number of black head coaches we see today. 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. 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. Actually, if defenses should focus on anyone, its Pollard. The former Memphis Tiger first stepped on a football field when he was four years old. Corrections? He wanted the trails he blazed to change the future of the NFL. At his first game, he had to get dressed in the owner's cigar shop and was abused by his own team's fans. Bothered by an upset stomach, the running back ran a 4.52 40-yard dash at the combine, which was a slow time for him. 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. And, his grandson said, 100 years after Pollard coached in the NFL and 36 years after his death, he is sure Pollard would have wanted more from the league he helped build. The new owner of a team there had got in touch with him. He founded a newspaper, and set up an investment fund and a company trading coal. In 2005, Fritz Pollard was posthumously inducted into the, In 2015, Pollard was posthumously inducted into the, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 22:16. All Rights Reserved. Pollard told him: "You'll find me down there in your end zone.". In 1923, while playing for the Hammond Pros, he became the first African American quarterback in the league. Marshall was an avowed segregationist who owned the Washington football franchise from its inception in 1932 to his death in 1969. Ultimately, the Pros prevailed on the strength of their won-loss percentage and the quality of their opponents, but the controversy sharpened a simmering feud between Halas and Pollard over competing narratives of the formative years of the NFL. On November 19, 1922, Pollard and Paul Robeson lead the Badgers to victory over the great Jim Thorpe and his Oorang Indians. He has a better burst. His Black fans "were so wild over having him in their midst that they arranged a parade and met him at the railroad depot," wrote Gibbons. Todd Brock. ", Fritz III recalls: "You could see all the reporters going 'who's Fritz Pollard?' Pollard established theNew York Independent News, the first weekly black tabloid. Subjects: Do you find this information helpful? 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. At the hotel, Assistant Coach Bill Sprackling demanded to see the manager. Take away his first game as a rookie against the Giants when he had 24 yards on 13 carries (weirdly, Zeke wasnt good in his debut against the Giants, either, in a season where he averaged more than 100 yards per game), and here are Pollards totals when he gets at least 12 carries: The 2021 numbers are skewed because we are only two weeks into the season, but the quality of Pollards start is undeniable. "And it's not even close.". 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. The rule is named for former Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who chaired the league's diversity committee. He has amassed 1,279 scrimmage yards and 12 touchdowns while sharing load with Elliott. "My grandfather started playing pro football in 1919. The 1993 Super Bowl was to be a landmark event for Arizona but it disappeared out of the state in a swirl of politics, polemic and division. 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. At Brown, Pollard led the Bears to their first and only Rose Bowl appearance. Watch quarterback Jalen Hurts' best plays from his biggest games for the Philadelphia Eagles as he prepares to face the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday's Super Bowl. Black players began dominatingthe NFL. He attended Albert G. Lane Manual Training High School in Chicago where he played football, baseballand ran track. 128th overall selection in the 2019 NFL Draft, Pollard finds himself in the midst of an ever-important contract year. During high school Pollard was actually a better baseball player, but he knew he wouldn't be able to progress. Fans started showing up to see what this footballleague was all about. Its difficult to imagine the game without black players. In 1921, he became the first African-American head coach in the National Football League (NFL). (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). They lost the game through lack of rest." "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. [9], On January 11, 2019, Pollard declared for the 2019 NFL Draft. He coached and managed all-black teams in exhibition games, giving them a chance to showcase their talent. Pollard left a legacy no one would soon forget in his years at UND. 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. Pollard, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, died in 1986. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, Fritz Pollard Ran Through Barriers to Become the NFLs first black head coach, For Brown, The Wrong Shoe Was On The Foot In The '16 Rose Bowl Game, 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. Many know that Pollard suffered from food poising at the NFL combine. That achievement speaks volumes, because like Dallas, Memphis is known for some good BBQ. 38. Frederick "Fritz" Pollard saw what the world was like in the 1890s and the 1980s. [2], Pollard accepted a football scholarship from the University of Memphis. "They couldn't find anything so I said 'you're looking in the wrong papers'," says Fritz III. January 26, 2023 11:18 am CT. All the while, he faced death threats from students and opposing teams. Get the latest news. AKA: Sharon K Fritz, Sharon Fritz-Pollard, Sharon K Pollard. The former Memphis standout is currently earning a base salary of $965,000 while carrying a cap charge of $1.131 million, via Spotrac. Segregation laws had been abolished in the northern states, but with many southerners migrating for work in the rubber factories of Ohio and the coal mines of Pennsylvania, he continued to experience racial discrimination almost everywhere he played. "Sometimes they would just pick him up, take him to camp and wouldn't ask for a dime," Torria said. What also helped build momentum was an advocacy group formed in 2003 that champions diversity and the hiring of NFL coaches, scouts and front-office staff from minority backgrounds. "My son is on TV playing for the Cowboys? This wasn't the first time the team had encountered such prejudice. But Fritz would get up laughing and smiling every time. https://t.co/5repnhdcW4. If he is tackled, as many as possible pile on him. As a native American, Thorpe had battled racial prejudice to become a multi-sport star, winning golds in decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Olympics. "Hammond and Milwaukee were bad, but never as bad as Akron. His brothers decided they had to toughen him up. [25] In Week 11, Pollard had 80 rushing yards, and six catches for 109 yards and two touchdowns in a 40-3 win over the Vikings, earning NFC Offensive Player of the Week. "But I'm not," he said. The Dallas Cowboys lost in the playoffs to the San Francisco 49ers for a second straight year, and their Pro Bowl running back suffered a serious injury in the process. 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. He played college football at Memphis, and was drafted by the Cowboys in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft. Marshall was an avowed segregationist who owned the Washington football franchise from its inception in 1932 to his death in 1969. That'sjust the way the times were back then," Pollard would say. He can pad his totals with long runs that Elliott really hasnt been able to accumulate since he burst on the scene as the 2016 rushing champion. Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Pollard, middle, is carted off the field during the 19-12 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. 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. Fritz was gifted with speed and elusiveness but he was small. 100 years ago, the NFL took its first baby steps in Indiana, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Zeke is 25th in rushing and averaging 3.9 per carry. Tony isn't the only Pollard living his dream. He made up for it at Memphis' pro day by clocking in at a 4.37. "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. There have been 24 in total, with three currently among the 32 teams, despite about 70% of NFL players being from ethnic minorities. "That's the only way you can come in," Torria Pollard, the mother of Dallas running back Tony Pollard, said with a laugh. 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. His brother Terrion now carries on the family tradition, working with his dad at Pollard's. "I kind of love it. Who could blame him? Reasons and Patrick, "Pollard Set Records as Black Football Player, Coach". The figure to keep Pollard from becoming a free agent is $10.1 million. Pollard, one of two Black players in the NFL and thefirst Black coach, would suit up in his car outside the football field or go to a nearby cigar store where the owner let him use a back room. [1] He helped the team reach the playoffs, while making over 1,200 receiving yards, 20 touchdowns and being named All-District 16-AAA. "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.". He touched the ball on 16 of his 21 snaps Sunday. And it wont be a surprise if Pollard stays above 5.0 all season. Eventually the hotel relented. There are twoBlack head coachesin the NFL in 2022. He feared he had squandered any chance of playing professional football. "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. Omissions? Something like that. Pollard played and coached at a time when restaurants wouldn't serve him and hotels shunned him. Don't let anyone tell you 'no'. Tony Randall Pollard (born April 30, 1997) is an American football running back for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). [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. That is a heavy, heavy workload, and if there is one thing I give head coach Mike McCarthy credit for, its understanding this. [17] Overall, in his rookie season, he finished with 86 carries for 455 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns to go along with 15 receptions for 107 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown. He played professional football with the Akron Pros, the team he would lead to the APFA championship in 1920. But the fleet-footed running back quickly became the team's star player, dubbed 'the human torpedo' because he ran so low to the turf. Coming out of the Reconstruction era which followed the American Civil War, the Pollards wanted to live free from the racial oppression of segregation laws in the south and had moved from Oklahoma in 1886. Pollard is severely underpaid as a mid-round draft pick. 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. Carolinas Christian McCaffrey is the only back ranked in the top 15 also averaging fewer than four yards per carry. IE 11 is not supported. 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. In 1921, he became the first African-American head coach in the National Football League (NFL). "The league was challenged with a report showing that, essentially, African-Americans were the last hired and first fired," says Duru, who worked with the FPA from its inception. Its possible the head coach simply believes that. "And the other big difference is that 70% of the players are Black.". 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. Running back Tony Pollard was not present during the open-to-media portion of the workout, a source telling CowboysSI.com that that the absence is non related to injury. The Pollards were well known in Rogers Park, a suburb on the north side of Chicago. For decades the team owners claimed there was no unwritten agreement. [20] Overall, he appeared in all 16 games, of which he started two, in the 2020 season. Pollard continued to play and coach in the NFL until 1926. In 1921, Pollard became the league's first black coach and in 1923 its first black quarterback. Then they leapt from their chairs, grabbed the waiter and proceeded to artistically maul him until he consented to wait on Pollard. But in the 1916 season, Brown beat Yale and Harvard on consecutive weekends. None of this is meant to discredit Elliott. "He always let his skills on the field, and his actions off it, define who he was. They had to cut to a commercial and then my phone just blew up with people saying 'they're talking about your grandfather'.". He is one of the great football stars of all time.". 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. I'd rather watch him do it.". Pollard wanted the same thing. George Halas Bears, then called the Staleys, also claimed the title with a 10-1-2 record. In 1919, he signed on to play for the Akron Pros in the American Professional Football Association, which was renamed the NFL in 1922. The restaurant comes highly rated, too. Updates? Pollardoften had to be escorted onto the field by police officers. Both he and Halas were at that meeting of team owners in 1933, when Marshall pitched the idea of banning black players. Yet, Solomon said, Black men still aren't given equal opportunity to coach the teams they, perhaps, played for. 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. When the team went to sign in at the hotel, the front desk refused Pollard. Pollard died in 1986 at 92, outliving his rival, George Halas, by three years. "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. It's cheaper. A century later, some say his coaching experience in the league mirrors today's NFL. The final was 13-0 with Robeson scoring both touchdowns in his finest pro football performance. He was born Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard. 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. In 1923 and 1924, he served as head coach for the Hammond Pros.[2]. Pollard wouldn't have to dodge the spotlight for long. 3:09. Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard (January 27, 1894 May 11, 1986) was an American football player and coach. I was never interested in socializing with whites. Against all these handicaps, Fritz Pollard plays with dauntless spirit.
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