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. Its possible the head coach simply believes that. Surrounded by family and BBQ. IE 11 is not supported. USA TODAY NFL insider Mike Jones breaks down former Miami Dolphins' head coach Brian Flores' lawsuit against the NFL, Giants and Dolphins. Race riots took place across the country. 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. 3:09. Yet, through it all, Pollard held his head high and helped lead Brown to the Rose Bowl against Washington State in 1916. 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?". On special teams, he totaled 2,616 kick return yards and seven touchdowns. "And it's not even close.". The Depression ended the Brown Bombers' run in 1938, and Pollard went on to other ventures, including a talent agency, tax consulting, and film and music production. His brother Terrion now carries on the family tradition, working with his dad at Pollard's. "I kind of love it. Pollard got all of 13 carries and turned it into 109 yards, his second biggest day as a pro. Example video title will go here for this video. In 1916 Pollards outstanding play led Brown to a season of eight victories and one defeat, including wins over both Yale and Harvard. https://t.co/5repnhdcW4. Yet, Solomon said, Black men still aren't given equal opportunity to coach the teams they, perhaps, played for. Pollard and Bobby Marshall were the first two African-American players in the NFL in 1920. "Sometimes I sit at home and say, 'I can't believe this,' Torria said. Actually, if defenses should focus on anyone, its Pollard. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC. The following 1920 season was the first for the American Professional Football Association - renamed the NFL in 1922 - and the Akron Pros went undefeated, outscoring their opponents 151-7. 100 years ago, the NFL took its first baby steps in Indiana, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. There have been500 head coaches in the NFL's history 24 of them have been Black. Pollard played and coached at a time when restaurants wouldn't serve him and hotels shunned him. When they tell you something that they want to do, listen. "(I) didnt get mad and want tofight them. The Pollard family tells ABC24 how it took a village to help the former Memphis Tiger achieve his dreams. Then in November 1923, after switching teams, he played an entire game at quarterback for the Hammond Pros. He repeated as the American Athletic Conference's Special Teams Player of the Year. The former Memphis standout is currently earning a base salary of $965,000 while carrying a cap charge of $1.131 million, via Spotrac. 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. With his last words, spoken to his family in 2003, he said:. Be the smartest Cowboys fan. Pollard's legacy lives on through his grandson Fritz D Pollard III (and children Meredith Pollard Russell and Marcus Pollard) his other grandson Dr Stephen Towns and granddaughter Stephanie Towns. "Id look at themand grin," Pollard said in a 1974 interview with NFL Films. I didnt go sniffing around hoping theyd accept me. Tony isn't the only Pollard living his dream. He had waited65 years from his hiringas an NFL coach to see if he had pioneered a change. And of the 12-year absence of blacks from the league from 1934 to 1946, Halas would say, Probably the game didnt have the appeal to black players at the time.. I dont know what guidance, if any, he gives offensive coordinator Kellen Moore when it comes to using his two backs. 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. Hes quicker. "We better let him play," the linebacker told the coach. "He's the one that taught everybody how to barbeque.". It didn't end until the Los Angeles Rams signed Kenny Washington in 1946, and the NFL wasn't fully reintegrated until 1962. [7] By the fall of 1920, he had begun to play for Akron, missing key Lincoln losses to Hampton (014) and Howard (042), much to the consternation of the alumni and administration. He never played quarterback again. I will not have that," she says. "Oh yes," said Towns. When the team went to sign in at the hotel, the front desk refused Pollard. The play that ended Tony Pollard's postseason had huge ramifications on the Cowboys offense in . It was time for his family to take up the story. He had two returns for touchdown and was named the American Athletic Conference's Special Teams Player of the Year. ", Fritz III recalls: "You could see all the reporters going 'who's Fritz Pollard?' If I figured a hotel or restaurant didnt want me, I stayed away. Kansas CIty Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes' touchdowns from his biggest games this season ahead of Sunday night's NFL Super Bowl against the. In 1921, he became the first African-American head coach in the National Football League (NFL). Halas is a name rightfully synonymous with the founding of the NFL. 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 . ", "I will never tell a child again to sit down. "If you think about everything Pollard fought for,this is the same thing we are fighting today," he said. George Halas Bears, then called the Staleys, also claimed the title with a 10-1-2 record. In fact, he helped it change. Their move north had paid off. 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. The Fritz Pollard Association that certifies that NFL teams have complied with the Rooney Rule is also a tax exempt 501 (c) (6) organization. The opposing teams gave me hell too.". Fritz Pollard, the Brown University halfback, in 1916. It was really important to us as a family to get that known. Here's the latest on Pollard's injury: Tony Pollard injury update. He proved me wrong.". This wasn't the first time the team had encountered such prejudice. Some of the worst violence took place in Pollard's home town of Chicago. At that time, black players were banned from the sport. He is one of the great football stars of all time.". Gibbons went on to describe an incident that happened atan Akron restaurant as Pollard sat with a group of teammates. In 1917 he enlisted in the army, serving as a physical director in Maryland while coaching at the all-black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Fritz III's daughter Meredith Kaye Russell, born in 1988, also joined the cause, helping with research and acting as her father's secretary. His legacy lives on with the Fritz Pollard Alliance, an initiative that promotes the hiring of minority candidates across professional football. Keep working, keep going. 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. All Rights Reserved. The No. In 1920, with Pollard leading the team, the Pros went undefeated (8-0-3) to win the league's first championship. "What Pollard would have said is that at least 70%of coaches would be Black," Solomon said. 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. Last updated on 2 October 20202 October 2020.From the section American Football. They knew he'd be targeted because of his size and skin colour. When Pollard played, the NFL was new, rough and tumble, a backyard type of experiment, said Towns. Pollard ended his playing career in 1926, aged 32. It is remarkable to watch the hoops that people will jump through, the injuries they will risk to avoid stating the rather obvious fact that Tony Pollard is a better runner than Ezekiel Elliott. He was posthumously inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005. He was the school's first black athlete a triple threat when it came to sports in football, track and boxing. He was so swift and agile that even those who scoffed -- and worse -- at a Black player, couldn't help but cheer when he ran for three50-yard touchdowns in one game. Zeke is 25th in rushing and averaging 3.9 per carry. He was 65. He was the seventh of eight children born to a Native American mother and an African American father. 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. [15] During Week 3 against the Miami Dolphins, Pollard posted his first career 100+-yard game as he finished with 103 rushing yards on 13 carries and a touchdown as the Cowboys won 316. This article is about the football pioneer. It wasan incredible display of solidarity. 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. At that time Pollard was 69 and the owner of several business ventures. The NFL did not respond to a request for comment on this story. Tony Dungy, who became the first Black . Fritz Pollard, the NFL's first African-American head coach, was a true pioneer of the sport. degree on Pollard, recognizing his achievements as athlete and leader. Halas and Pollard had both grown up in Chicago and knew each other from high school. He's also caught 39 passes for 337 yards. Pollard grew up in Rogers Park, a community area on the north side of Chicago, Ill. "My granddaddy barbequed at home," said Tarrance Pollard, Tony's father. American football was different. 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. At his first game, he had to get dressed in the owner's cigar shop and was abused by his own team's fans. The same players that shunned Pollard four months earlier were now bringing him food. "They said no African Americans, period, because it was bad for business," said Towns. He became a tax consultant. It's cheaper. For decades the team owners claimed there was no unwritten agreement. The new owner of a team there had got in touch with him. Instead, it's a box-checking exercise. We look at why having two black quarterbacks in the Super Bowl is such a big moment for the NFL, and profile star men Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts. As a senior, he was a two-way starter at wide receiver and cornerback on the high school football team. 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. He later worked as a tax and public relations consultant. Pro Football Hall of Fame (inducted 2005), https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fritz-Pollard, Ohio History Central - Biography of Frederick D. Pollard, Pro Football Hall of Fame - Biography of Fritz Pollard, Fritz Pollard - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Because my son proved me wrong.". Bleacher crowds and outside towns jeerhim and taunthim about his color," read anarticle in the Akron Evening Times December 5, 1920. Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard was born Jan. 27, 1894. In that same time frame, Zeke has nine in 572 carries about one every 63 rushing attempts. 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. "But I'm not," he said. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Many believe that the Cowboys just found their next kick returner. 0:00. Its a safe bet that Elliotts numbers will go up, and that he will eventually get so many more chances than Pollard that he will pass him in yards. [6], As a junior, even though he shared the backfield with Darrell Henderson, he totaled 78 carries for 552 yards (7.1-yard avg. 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. Thats Tennessees Derrick Henry, Minnesotas Dalvin Cook and Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson. "He wantedto see anotherhe wanted to seemany African American coaches.". [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's where he got the nickname Fritz. Sometimes we have to pinch ourselves and say, 'Is this real? When he began playing football aged 15 in 1909, he measured 4ft 11ins and weighed 89 pounds. They believe that Black head coaches are not fit to be leaders of men.". Black players began dominatingthe NFL. 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. The Dallas Cowboys selectedTony Pollard in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft. this year amid mounting pressure. Pollard became the second African-American in the College Hall of Fame in 1954. I said 'yeah, I know, that's what I've been telling you'.". Latest on Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Pollard including news, stats, videos, highlights and more on ESPN In 1937, Fritz Pollard retired from pro football and pursued a career in business. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). If so, watch our guide to the key rules, the player positions and the ultimate aim of the game. He also founded an all-black football team in Harlem that was unsuccessful in luring local NFL teams to play exhibition games. "Hammond and Milwaukee were bad, but never as bad as Akron. NFL to consider rule change after RB injury. Pollard continued to play and coach in the NFL until 1926. They were the suburb's only black family. 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. As a player-coach and later a fierce private advocate for black advancement in the game, Pollard never backed down to this authority. Fritz was gifted with speed and elusiveness but he was small. From the SI Vault: They had reservations at a hotel in Pasadena, but upon their arrival, the desk clerk announced that the hotel had space for everyone except Pollard. Here's when clocks will 'spring forward' in 2023, Cordova High School alum Quinton Bohanna makes Dallas Cowboys 53-man roster, Defense leads the way in Memphis' 44-34 win over North Texas. His white teammates had high respect for Pollard and often stuck up for him as he faced discrimination. [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. 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. [2], Pollard accepted a football scholarship from the University of Memphis. "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.". 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". His case is typical of a process called 'racial stacking' which still influences the number of black head coaches we see today. Pollard was born on Feb. 18, 1915, in Springfield, Mass. For his son, the Olympic hurdler, see. 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[7] In the 2018 Birmingham Bowl against Wake Forest, he recorded 318 all-purpose yards (209 on kickoff returns) and one rushing touchdown. Is Dallas becoming unaffordable due to rising housing costs, inflation and stagnating pay? That quest had also been his own - to get his father into the US Pro Football Hall of Fame. 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. As a redshirt freshman, he appeared in 13 games, of which he started seven. He played college football at Memphis, and was drafted by the Cowboys in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft . Pollard's wins above replacement also ranks third in the NFL, behind Jacobs and Nick Chubb. Pollard underwent surgery. Pollard was the only Akron player named in the All-Pro side, but when the team received their championship trophy, he wasn't invited. He also blamed the school for not providing the proper equipment. 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. The family had prospered. He missed the 1920 Howard game, he said, because his Lincoln salary was so low that he was compelled to augment it with pay from Akron.[9]. I never saw him angry.". In 40 college games, Pollard recorded 941 rushing yards and 1,292 receiving yards. "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. 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. "Becausethey didn't want him in the locker room.". I was there to play football and make my money.. Yet he welcomed Pollard with a highly abusive racial slur, saying he was going to kill him. But when the Pro Football Hall of Fame opened in 1963, he was not among the charter class of 17 inductees. The Fritz Pollard Alliance was in 2016 one of the first to support Colin Kaepernick, another black quarterback who has had to wait for the significance of his deeds to be acknowledged by his sport. He was born Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard. . 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. But in the 1916 season, Brown beat Yale and Harvard on consecutive weekends. (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). Not the way Solomon believes Pollard might have expected. The manager appeared, and Pollard got a room. [9], On January 11, 2019, Pollard declared for the 2019 NFL Draft. Author of. Pollard died in 1986 at 92, outliving his rival, George Halas, by three years. USA TODAY. 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. As a football player, entertainment promoter and social activist, Pollard might have applauded the leagues partnership with Jay-Z and his entertainment company to use musical events to build community relations. Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here. It's kind of weird to say, but I. [8], Pollard was considered one of the best kickoff return specialists in college football, tying a FBS record with seven career kick-return touchdowns, 87 kickoff returns (second in school history), 2,616 kickoff return yards (second in school history), 30.1 kick-return average (school record) and 4,680 all-purpose yards (second in school history). [1] He helped the team reach the playoffs, while making over 1,200 receiving yards, 20 touchdowns and being named All-District 16-AAA. His brother Terrion now carries on the family tradition, working with his dad at Pollard's. 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. Yet the next summer Denver held quarterback meetings without him and he asked to be released. ), 31 carries for 159 yards (5.1-yard avg.) 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. Here are 4 reasons why they should Related: Cowboys RB Tony Pollard undergoes surgery for injuries suffered vs. 49ers Related: What NFL salary cap increase means for Cowboys and how it affects RB . The NFL has now acknowledged, Meet the young UK wrestlers fighting their demons. 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). "Pollard has grown tosuch heights of fame that today he is the athlete hero of his race.". In 1921, Pollard was made player-coach and finished as the league's top scorer. His grandson, Fritz III, became a three-sport All-American at college. Pollard attended Albert G. Lane Manual Training High School in Chicago, also known as "Lane Tech," where he played football, baseball, and ran track. They dressed in locker rooms, ate with teammates at restaurants, slept in team hotels and became multi-million-dollar superstars. Pollard left a legacy no one would soon forget in his years at UND. Alternate titles: Frederick Douglass Pollard, Sr. Regents Professor of History at Lamar University. The final was 13-0 with Robeson scoring both touchdowns in his finest pro football performance. Pollard tied an NCAA record with seven kickoff returns for touchdowns. 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. He also played for the Milwaukee Badgers, Hammond Pros, Gilberton Cadamounts, Union Club of Phoenixville and Providence Steam Roller. It's a game thatalmost didn't happen. Pollard played halfback on the Brown football team, which went to the 1916 Rose Bowl. "You couldn't eat in the restaurants or stay in the hotels," Pollard told the New York Times in 1978. Updated January 24, 2023 3:22 PM. His professional career was finally about to begin. Henry had 35 carries in the Titans overtime win and Cook ran 22 times in defeat at Arizona. How to get into American football a sport for all shapes and sizes that requires both mental and physical skills. As he walked on, he wouldheartaunts shouted from the stands. "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.". But Pollard appears more likely for several reasons. Pollard was one of only two African-Americans at Brown in 1915 and the first to live on campus. 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. Frederick Douglass " Fritz " Pollard (January 27, 1894 - May 11, 1986) was an American football player and coach. Florence Griffith Joyner Jackie Joyner-Kersee Wilma Rudolph Althea Gibson. Pollard's magic on the field created a following for the NFL. He called the team Redskins in 1933, a racial slur that was only. Against all these handicaps, Fritz Pollard plays with dauntless spirit. "And the other big difference is that 70% of the players are Black.". He has a better burst. He opened the Sun Tan Studios, where the likes of Duke Ellington and Nat King Cole rehearsed, and produced music videos called 'soundies'. 1. 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. Newspaper articles at the time, who described Pollard as a "colored" coach, praised his stellar football IQ.