Essay On Fritz Pollard

Frederick “Fritz” Pollard, the first African American to ever play in the Rose Bowl and the first African American to ever coach an NFL team, changed the history of football and America while enduring different racial criticism. Pollard faced many difficulties throughout his childhood and adulthood. Pollard was not like the typical “black star” of the 1890-1910 time period. Pollard was raised in a nice home, instead of the “ghetto”, and was able to acquire higher education than that of the average African-American child of his time period. Pollard was racially criticized throughout his amateur and professional life. One incident being the time Pollard got into an argument with a child on whether or not he was a football player, “There I was,

Fritz Pollard, maybe the best darn halfback ever to come out of Chicago and I’m dressed like a circus clown and holding a debate with some little kid about whether or not I’m a football player. I think of that incident now and I can laugh. That day, though, things didn’t seem so funny” (Fritz Pollard: Pioneer in Racial Advancement). Throughout Pollard’s college years, the opposing team’s fans used to call him “Blackbird” instead of the dreaded n word, even though both stung in the same way. Yet, Pollard trained himself to never let the fans get to his head and affect the way he played.
Frederick Douglass “Fritz” Pollard was born on January 27, 1894, in Chicago, Illinois.

Pollard was raised in Rogers Park, a predominantly white neighborhood and was racially criticized/ bullied throughout his childhood. As a youth Pollard would be called the “n” word by other kids in his neighborhood. It wasn’t until Pollard started high school that he wasn’t as mistreated. While attending Lane Tech High, Pollard was a three-time track champion, an outstanding baseball player, and a star football player. Pollard later on received a scholarship to attend Brown University in 1915. Pollard not only led Brown too but was also the very first African American to play in the Rose Bowl in 1915. In 1916 Pollard was unstoppable and the unrestrainable force that led Brown University to back-to-back wins over Yale and Harvard, two all-star football Ivy League schools. For all his achievements, Pollard was honored with a position to become the first African American running back in Walter Camp’s All American Team. A privilege to any other young football player. Yet, that position was taken away after the discovery of Pollard’s love for partying and hatred for school, causing him to no longer be considered academically eligible. Pollard was then employed to coach at Lincoln University. It wasn’t until the Indians coach, Ralph “Fat” Waldsmith, gave Pollard a second chance to his pathway of football greatness. Pollard was offered $200 by the Indians to play in one game against the Tigers and Pollard quickly caught a train to Ohio. After the game against the Tigers, Pollard was signed to play with Akron for the remainder of the season. The Akron Pros joined the American Professional Football Association (APFA), now today known as the NFL, in 1920, making Pollard one of the only two African-American’s in the

organization.
After a headline released in the daily news, almost everyone knew who Pollard was. Except for one gentleman who worked as a counterman for a cigar store, who gave Pollard a strange look and then said “What do you want, nigger?” The more and more Pollard became more prominent in the world of football, the more he basically began shaping the idea of diversity in the eyes of many Americans. Pollard, although discriminated in the world of football, basically started the pathway of African-Americans being excepted in the world of sports. Frank Nied, although a little bit disappointed when first seeing Pollard, gave Pollard one of the biggest chances in his life. The very first time Pollard tried to check into a hotel before one of his games, he was turned away because was African American. At Pollards very first game, he was forced to get dressed at the cigar store across the street and was the last player to arrive. Nied introduced Pollard to his new team, in a tone of voice that would ensure that Pollard would be welcomed.
During the time period, Akron was even worse than Georgia when it came to racial standards. Akron was home to redneck southerners, who had come to work there for the war (World War 1). The worse part about being the only African American on a predominately white team was having different types of “red neck” southerners who hated blacks. Some of his teammates where from all over the United States such as Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama, each the most segregated states in America. Yet, all of them were forced to except Pollard as a part of the team because the manager said so. Pollard was considered the milestone to the beginning of a new era for America. Pollard accepted the fact that he was basically an outsider to football and to the world. The fans hated him and his teammates were forced to get along with him. Yet, Pollard was still an inspiration for other African American’s who were afraid to step out of their identity. Even though Pollard was being racially discriminated, he did not let that stop him.
In 1928, Pollard began the Chicago Black Hawks, the first ever predominately African American professional football team in the APFA. Pollard showed America that blacks and whites could simply get along, on the field, without racial segregation getting in the way. During the three year run from 1929-1932, the Black Hawks were one of the most popular teams in America. In 1933, the owners of the APFA to came to an agreement to begin not signing anymore black players. Afterwards, from 1935-1938, Pollard was recruited to serve as the head coach of another, predominantly African American, team The Brown Bombers. Throughout all of Pollard’s life, he had to endure different racial slanders. Yet, even though he was not the first paid African American to ever play football, Pollard was the first African American star in the APFA during the time period (1919-1936). Although Pollard began shaping the idea of non-segregation, it was up to other to carry out the deed itself.
Pollard’s endless work to exceed in his sport, surpassed the idea of just one African American playing in the APFA/ NFL. Pollard opened the gateway for other African Americans to be looked at as possible contenders to join all different types of sports, such as Jackie Robinson, who was racially criticized by his teammates, fans, and rivals for being the only black pro baseball player to play for The Brooklyn Dodgers. Pollard’s grandson, Fritz Pollard III, stated “Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the 40’s… My grandfather started playing pro football in 1919. Pro football back then was not a televised sport. If it had been televised, the credit would have been there. Baseball, in ’47, was well publicized” (McClelland, Fritz Pollard: Football’s Unsung Trailblazer). Even though Pollard’s work as a professional football player was never visually recorded, his hard work was still put into consideration by plenty of people and seemed to enlighten other African Americans to begin the movement into racial diversity.
After Pollard’s years of being a professional football player, he went into the field of several different businesses. Pollard founded the F.D. Pollard and Co. Investment firm in 1922, which was one of the very first black owned firm in America. Pollard put his investment to use and used his firm to serve the African American Community. By 1935, Pollard founded the New York Independent News, one of the very first black tabloids in America. Pollard used his newspaper to promote congregationalism and also used it to support other issues such as women’s suffrages. Pollard kept achieving by going into different fields of work. Pollard was a talent scout/ casting agent for Ebony, studio manager/ producer, and a tax consultant. In 1954, Pollard became the very first African American to ever be in the National College Football Hall of Fame. In 1981, Pollard received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Brown University. Pollard died five years later on May 11, 1986 at the age of 92. Pollard died leaving his legacy to his family.
It wasn’t until 2005 that Pollard was honored, which was long overdue, with an election into the Pro Football Hall of Fames. Now, Pollard’s legacy is used through the Fritz Pollard Alliance, which used to help the hiring of minorities into the NFL. Pollard pioneered the pathway for African American’s to be accepted in society. From Pollard being racially criticized for not living in Akron and being black to Pollard being praised for leading his multiple teams to championships. Pollard single handedly began the race for the acceptance of diversity in America. The infamous “Blackbird” was able to change American society using football. After Pollard came many other African American civil rights activist. Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, etc… took over the challenges after Pollard. After many years of racial discrimination and African American’s being looked down upon, the race for segregation to stop has still yet to have ended but is now less serious. The Frederick “Fritz” Pollard statue still stands tall, giving admiration to the pioneer for his 8 years of football and lifetime of civil rights activism.