Fritz Pollard

 

Fritz Pollard in 1921 became

 

 the first black to coach an NFL

 team, and the only one until

 Art Shell took charge of the

  Oakland Raiders in 1989.

 Five years earlier, Pollard had

  been the second black named

  to the college football All-

 American team.

 

 

 

Fritz Pollard, an All-America halfback from Brown University
     was a pro football pioneer in more ways than one. 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.  In 1920, the
    Pros joined the newly founded American Professional Football
       Association, later renamed the National Football League.
      That season, with Pollard leading the charge, the Pros went
         undefeated (8-0-3) to win the league's first crown.  As a
         member of the new league, Pollard immediately earned a
        place in pro football history as one of just two African Americans
        in the new league.  In 1921 he earned another distinction be-
          coming the first African American head coach in NFL history
         when the Pros named him co-coach of the team. Contemporary
        accounts indicate that Pollard, an exciting elusive runner, was
        the most feared running back in the fledgling league.  During
       his pro football career the two-time All-America played and
        sometimes coached for four different NFL teams, the Pros/
        Indians (1920-21/1925-26), the Milwaukee Badgers (1922),
         the Hammond Pros (1923, 1925), and the Providence Steam
        Roller (1925). Fritz also spent time in 1923 and 1924 playing
        for the Gilberton Cadamounts, a strong independent pro team
        in the Pennsylvania “Coal League.” In 1928, Pollard organized
        and coached the Chicago Black Hawks, an all-African American
       professional team based in the Windy City.  Pollard's Black
      Hawks played against white teams around Chicago, but enjoyed
       their greatest success by scheduling exhibition games against
      West Coast teams during the winter months.  From 1929 until
        1932 when the Depression caused the team to fold, the Black
      Hawks had become one of the more popular teams on the West
       Coast.

 

Frederick "Fritz" Pollard
Elected To Professional
Football Hall of Fame

 

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