Category: History and More

When discussing integration of the National Football League, much is made of pro football’s “reintegration,” when the NFL –in 1946 – opted to end a ban on black players it instituted in 1933.

But years before the circuit decided to incorporate segregation into its business model, Frederick Douglass “Fritz” Pollard was already breaking down barriers.

And he never stopped.

Pollard – along with Bobby Marshall – was one of the first two African-American players to earn roster spots in the American Professional Football Association, the forerunner of the NFL.

Pollard was also the first black coach in NFL history, and after his playing/coaching days were done, he became a successful business leader and entertainment manager.

Pollard was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005.

Charles Follis is believed to be the first African-American professional football player, starring for the Shelby (Ohio) Blues from 1904 to 1911.

And before Pollard, there was also Doc Baker (Akron Indians, 1906-08 and 1911); Henry McDonald (1911-17, Rochester Jeffersons); and Gideon Smith, who suited up one game for the Canton Bulldogs in 1915.

In fact, Marshall played pro ball in Minnesota from 1913-17 and again in 1919, and technically was the first African-American athlete to participate in an APFA game when he suited up for Rock Island on September 26, 1920. Although the contest came against a non-league opponent – the independent St. Paul Ideals – it ultimately counted in the final APFA standings and thus considered an “NFL game.”

Pollard, however, built on the accomplishments of those who came before him and carved out his own legacy.

A 5-9, 165-pound halfback who played for Brown University and helped the team to a 1916 Rose Bowl appearance, he was the first black player to earn Walter Camp All-America Team honors.

After coaching college ball and serving in World War I, he was signed to a pro contract on November 5, 1919. (The Akron Indians were in the process of upgrading from semi-pro to APFA membership, and would change their nickname to the Akron Pros in 1920).

The headline on the front page of the Akron Evening Times on November 6, 1919, read, “Fritz Pollard, Greatest Of Present Day Grid Stars, To Play With Indians Sunday.”

A day later in a preview of the game with the Massillon Tigers, the paper described Pollard this way: “Weighing only 145 pounds, Pollard is the fastest man in moleskins today. He is not only fast, but is a wonder on picking his holes in the line and the greatest open field runner the game has ever known.”

Akron fell to Massillon, 13-6, with Pollard getting the losing team’s lone touchdown. Still, he was considered the star of the game.

“Fritz Pollard, playing for the first time with the Indians, did remarkable work,” according to a piece in The Akron Beacon on November 10. “His efforts were the bright features of the afternoon’s entertainment. In running back punts, he was sensational. While from the backfield position he carried the ball many times for long gains.

“ … Pollard made his gains without any protection whatever. He was either too fast for interference or the formations were loosely ran. Had Pollard been given a cleared way to his end runs he would have likely turned the tide of victory.”

As you might imagine, Pollard had issues to deal with off the field.

“When I got to Akron, the town was filled with thousands of Southerners who had come up to work in the factories during World War I,” Pollard told the Staten Island Advance for an April 11, 1978 story. “They told me I couldn’t even change in the locker room. The guy who owned the club also owned a cigar store. That’s where I changed my clothes. I couldn’t even stay in a decent hotel.”

But thanks to his exploits on the field, Pollard was hard to ignore.

“I went out and beat Canton for them,” Pollard said. “Canton was the big rival – they had Jim Thorpe. By the end of the year, I was in that locker room. The next season, I was coaching the team.”

In 1920 the Pros won the league title with an 8-0-3 record, and Pollard led the charge with 24 points – second in the league. In 1921 he was named co-coach and also managed to score seven touchdowns and amass an APFA-best 42 points.

“Elgie Tobin was listed as the coach, but when I came, they were still using some old plays,” Pollard said in an interview with The New York Times in 1978. “So, I said why don’t we try some of the stuff we had been doing at Brown. The owner, Frank Neid, told everybody if they didn’t want to listen to me, they could leave right then.”

Mixing in playing and coaching, Pollard worked with the Pros as well as the Milwaukee Badgers, Hammond Pros and Providence Steam Roller.

After exiting the NFL in 1926, Pollard formed the Chicago Black Hawks, an all-African American team that played exhibition games against Midwest teams and, during the winter, West Coast clubs.

When he finally hung up his whistle and pads, he did everything from tax consulting to film and music production. He also published the New York Independent News from 1935-42; it was the first black-owned tabloid in the city’s history.

So, while Pollard ultimately left his footprints everywhere, his cleat marks also made an indelible mark.

“When the Pros offered me a contract to play in Akron, there were only a few other blacks in the league. But they paid me $500, because that was my price.

“I know people had no right to judge me by anything but my character, and that’s the way I judged them. Look, the people who made it toughest when I got to Akron were the ones who were sorriest when I finally decided to leave.”

I admit, sometimes I get a bit nostalgic for the way college football was – or at least the way I thought it was when I was a kid.

I grew during the era when there usually was just one televised game per Saturday, so that was the game you watched. If it happened to be a matchup that featured the team you cheered for, well, that made a big deal that much bigger.

It was a time when there were only a handful of bowl games and national champions were determined by a vote of coaches and sports writers.

By today’s standards, it was downright primitive. But when it was all you knew, it all seemed pretty good.

Now here we are in 2025, with Notre Dame and Ohio State the last teams standing in major college football following a 12-team tournament. They’ll meet on January 20 in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, an event that culminates the first year of a “real” playoff.

(I realize something called the CFP Playoff has been around since 2014, but up until the 2024 season it included only four schools. As I’ve said many times, when a national championship is settled among four out of 134 teams, that’s not a playoff, merely an invitational).

Yet – speaking as a fan – the game gives off a completely different vibe now. The teams represent colleges, but what they’re playing doesn’t seem like NCAA football anymore.

Big-time college football has become so … transient. Players are looking to make the most of their opportunities, and nowadays that means jumping from one team to another thanks to the transfer portal and the possibility of a financial windfall.

Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia suited up for New Mexico Military Institute and New Mexico before making his way to Nashville and the SEC.

Alan Bowman calls signals for Oklahoma State. Previously, he was on the rosters of both Texas Tech and Michigan.

And before moving on to the coaching ranks in 2024, J.T. Daniels played QB for Southern Cal, Georgia, West Virginia and Rice. The list goes on and on.

The Athletic reports that by the time the winter transfer portal had closed last month, more than 3,000 Football Bowl Subdivision players had entered it. That’s a whole lot of shuffling.

Playing time is the primary reason, of course, with the subtext being that more snaps increase NIL opportunities. Now that athletes can make money off their name, image and likeness, it’s even more important to join a program where you can elevate the profile of your name, image and likeness.

At this point you probably expect me to play the old man card and start pining for the “good ol’ days.”

I’m not gonna do that.

If a player can ink a big money sponsorship deal with Aunt Gertrude’s Old-Fashioned Carbuncle Salve, more power to him. And I’m glad revenue sharing will come into play starting with the 2025-26 season.

With head coaches making as much as $10 million per season, it’s criminal for athletes not to benefit financially. They’re the ones putting their bodies on the line and bringing fans to the stadium (and eyes to the TV).

That said, the evolution of college football has taken away much of its charm. While my decades-long fandom came with a heavy dose of naivety, I liked the fact that Saturdays were reserved for “amateur” kids playing for school pride. Sundays, meanwhile, were all about grown men playing for a paycheck.

The lines between college football and the NFL were clearly drawn, and I appreciated the distinction.

And while there’s still a huge gulf between the Power Four and the 32 franchises that play with the ball bearing Roger Goodell’s autograph, the relationship is increasingly symbiotic.

Today’s elite college players are often ready to move to the NFL and make an impact by the end of their junior years. And choosing a school is less about growing up cheering for that school and more about which institution provides the clearest path to the NFL – and the biggest payday.

Again, all of this makes perfect sense and I’m completely in the players’ corner. College football is big business, even if we like to pretend otherwise, and these guys have every right to make the best business decisions for themselves.

However, these major changes mean the game has morphed into more of a pro-type league – one with unlimited free agency and major financial disparity, depending on the team and conference. Many institutions have “collectives,” which raise money from donors to provide NIL compensation. The playing field is tilted, and the have-nots are falling even further behind the haves.

In cbssports.com’s report on the Buckeyes’ 28-14 victory over Texas in Friday’s Cotton Bowl semi-final, one line read, “Ohio State’s $20 million roster, one of the most expensive in college football, was on display throughout a gutsy win over the Longhorns.” 

With that kind of cash floating around, I imagine there’ll come a time – likely soon – when the top 40 or 50 programs break away and form their own “Super League.”

It’ll be at the top of the collegiate pyramid, moving far ahead of the FBS, Football Championship Subdivision and Division II. Calling it “NFL Lite” won’t be too far off the mark.

What college football “was” to me is now merely a fond memory. The days when a scholarship was the dangling carrot to lure a student-athlete are long gone.

What college football “is,” well, it’s a natural progression, and that progression comes with a hefty price tag.

We might not like it from our outside-looking-in vantage point, but we have no choice but to acknowledge it.

When you think of the greatest players in Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers history, names like LaDainian Tomlinson, Junior Seau and Dan Fouts quickly come to mind.

But the greatest individual performance by a Bolt? That came on January 5, 1964, courtesy of fullback Keith Lincoln. And the stakes couldn’t have been higher.

Sixty-one years ago, the American Football League – after just four seasons – had established itself as a major threat to the NFL. The last clubs standing in the 1963 campaign were the Chargers (11-3) and Boston Patriots (8-6-1), who met at San Diego’s Balboa Stadium in the AFL Championship Game.

The Chargers had the league’s best record while Boston had to defeat the Buffalo Bills (also 8-6-1) in an Eastern Conference playoff game to earn the right to play for the crown.

It was never a contest as San Diego rolled to a 51-10 victory.

Obviously, a rout of that magnitude suggests the Chargers had superlative play across the board, and that was certainly true.

The winners outgained the Pats 610 yards to 261, and a smothering defense recorded several sacks totaling negative 42 yards and forced a pair of turnovers. Jumping out to a 14-0 lead, it was 31-10 at the half and San Diego scored all 20 second half points.

Winning QB Tobin Rote capped off a league Most Valuable Player season with a terrific championship game performance, throwing for 173 yards and two TDs and rushing for another score.

On defense, Paul Maguire and Bob Mitinger each had interceptions.

However, Lincoln closed the day with 206 ground yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries; reeled in seven receptions for 123 yards; and completed a 24-yard pass on an option play. He was voted title game MVP, picking up 38 of 39 votes.

Days before the clash Boston coach Mike Holovak inadvertently predicted the future when asked how to stop Chargers halfback Paul Lowe.

“We don’t expect Lowe to gain 200 yards, but we’re not going to key on him,” Holovak told the Associated Press. “Key on Lowe, and Lincoln will kill you.”

The Patriots boss was right, although Lincoln said after the game he felt out of sorts in the first quarter.

“I didn’t feel real good there early in the game,” Lincoln said. “My legs sort of went out after I made those first couple of runs. The heat got me. I just didn’t seem to have life in my legs. I felt I might have trouble running the 100 as fast as (Chargers 320-pound lineman) Ernie Ladd.

“This is the greatest game I ever played, but running 50 yards seemed like running a mile.”

Lincoln’s first four carries went for 56, 67, 11 and 44 yards – an astonishing 44.5 yards per carry average.

“Our offensive line was just too much,” the 6-1, 215-pounder said. “Our line just tore them open. Not often do you see any of Boston’s linebackers getting knocked down, but today they were.”

He got no argument from Patriot defensive end Bob Dee.

“Lincoln is the best back in the league, bar none,” Dee said. “One time about five of us hit him and we couldn’t bring him down.”

And Chargers coach Sid Gillman had high praise for his star freight-toter as well.

“Lincoln is the best all-around back we have on the squad,” Gillman said.

No question, Lincoln’s exploits in the AFL Championship Game were epic, but he was hardly a one-hit wonder.

In an eight-year AFL career – seven spent with the Chargers – he rushed for 3,383 rushing yards and scored 19 touchdowns on the ground while tallying 19 more TDs on 2,250 receiving yards (165 catches).

He was a five-time AFL All-Star and two-time First Team All-AFL selection.

In the AFL Championship Game the following season, Lincoln was immortalized again as the recipient of “The Hit Heard ‘Round The World.” He was crumpled by Buffalo linebacker Mike Stratton on a vicious collision that broke one of Lincoln’s ribs and knocked him out of the game midway through the first quarter.

The Bills dethroned the defending champs with a 20-7 victory.

Lincoln, who was voted into the Chargers Hall of Fame in 1980, starred at Washington State before playing pro ball and was nicknamed the “Moose of the Palouse.” A member of the Cougars’ Hall of Fame – setting a school career rushing record (1,501 yards), a single season punting average record (43.4 in 1959), and a career punting average record (40.3) – Lincoln passed away in 2019.

Still, his legend and legacy live on.