Pro Football Historian (PFH) is a blog page written by Flint Given. Pro Football Historian or PFH is a page to inform people on prior NFL events that people might not know about. Learning about teams from the 1920s or even the first few NFL World Championships in the 1930s fascinates me. It's these kinds of events that I want to discuss in this blog. Hopefully you are interested and will continue to check up on my blogs. Check out the website at https://profootballhistorian.lovable.app/
Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard was an American professional football player and coach. In 1921, he became the first African-American head coach in the National Football League. Pollard and Bobby Marshall were the first two African-American players in the NFL in 1920. Football pioneer Walter Camp called Pollard "one of the greatest runners these eyes have ever seen."
Pollard coached Lincoln University's football team in Oxford, Pennsylvania during the 1918 to 1920 seasons and served as athletic director of the school's World War I era Students' Army Training Corps. During 1918–1919, he led the team to a victorious season defeating Howard University's Bisons 13–0 in the annual Thanksgiving classic as well as Hampton University (7–0) on November 9, 1918, and teams of military recruits at Camp Dix (19–0) on November 2, 1918, and Camp Upton (41–0). By the fall of 1920, he had begun to play for Akron, missing key Lincoln losses to Hampton (0–14) and Howard (0–42), much to the consternation of the alumni and administration. Paul Robeson was enlisted by Lincoln's alumni to coach the Thanksgiving 1920 game against Howard.
Pollard criticized Lincoln's administration, saying they had hampered his ability to coach and had refused to provide adequate travel accommodations for the team. "Prior to the Hampton game, the team was compelled to go to Hampton by boat, sleeping on the decks and under portholes," he told a reporter. "No cabins were provided, nor were they given a place to sleep after reaching Hampton. They lost the game through lack of rest." He also blamed the school for not providing the proper equipment. "I, myself, bought and paid $200 out of my pocket for football shoes for the team." 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.
He played professional football with the Akron Pros, the team he would lead to the APFA championship in 1920. In 1921, he became the co-head coach of the Akron Pros, while still maintaining his roster position as running back. He also played for the Milwaukee Badgers, Hammond Pros, Gilberton Cadamounts, Union Club of Phoenixville and Providence Steam Roller. An article in the October 1, 1921 issue of the Chicago Whip newspaper stated that Pollard served as "assistant coach of the backfield men" of Northwestern University's football team.
Some sources indicate that Pollard also served as co-coach of the Milwaukee Badgers with Budge Garrett for part of the 1922 season.
On November 19, 1922, Pollard and Paul Robeson led the Badgers to victory over the great Jim Thorpe and his Oorang Indians. The final was 13–0 with Robeson scoring both touchdowns in his finest pro football performance.
Fritz also coached the Gilberton Cadamounts, a non-NFL team. In 1923 and 1924, he served as head coach for the Hammond Pros.
Pollard, along with all nine of the African American players in the NFL at the time, were removed from the league at the end of the 1926 season, never to return again. 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.
In the 1930s, Pollard founded his own professional football team, the Brown Bombers. 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. He produced Rockin' the Blues in 1956, which included such performers as Connie Carroll, The Harptones, The Five Miller Sisters, Pearl Woods, Linda Hopkins, Elyce Roberts, The Hurricanes, and The Wanderers.
Pollard also published the New York Independent News from 1935 to 1942, purportedly the first African American-owned tabloid in New York City. The war and a rivalry forced it to close. The paper's offices were on 125th Street and at its peak, the paper had a weekly circulation of approximately thirty-five thousand, ranking it among the top most read Black newspapers in the country.
Carroll, John M. (1998). Fritz Pollard: Pioneer in Racial Advancement. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. p. 4. ISBN 0252067991.
Gray, LaVerne (March 1, 2022). "Naomi Willie Pollard Dobson: A Pioneering Black Librarian". Libraries: Culture, History, and Society. 6 (1): 1–20. doi:10.5325/libraries.6.1.0001. ISSN 2473-0343.
Reasons and Patrick, "Pollard Set Records as Black Football Player, Coach", The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio, 1972, February 27, Section E: 5.
"Crack Lincoln University Team Coached by Fritz Pollard", Philadelphia Tribune, October 19, 1918
"Lincoln University Victor over Howard", Washington Post November 29, 1918.
"Pollard's Orange and Blue Juggernaut Crushes Camp Dix", Philadelphia Tribune, November 9, 1918.
"Lincoln Swamps Camp Upton", Chicago Defender, November 30, 1918.
"Fred Pollard Finishes as Coach for Lincoln", Chicago Defender, December 4, 1920.
"Fritz Pollard Answers Critics", Baltimore Afro-American, December 17, 1920.
"Pollard Made Asst. Coach at Northwestern". The Chicago Whip. October 1, 2021. Retrieved August 9, 2024. Pollard started his duties last Tuesday, appearing on the field in uniform
"Path Lit by Lightning" by David Maraniss
"Rockin' the Blues" – via www.imdb.com.
"Pearl Woods". Discogs.
John M. Carroll (1998). Fritz Pollard: Pioneer in Racial Advancement. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-06799-0.
"Fritz's Fame". Brown University. Brown Alumni News. March 2005. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
"Fritz Pollard: A Forgotten Trailblazer". Retrieved May 26, 2022.
Carroll, John M. (1998). Fritz Pollard: Pioneer in Racial Advancement. University of Illinois Press. pp. 194–196. ISBN 978-0-252-06799-0.
Dunlap, Keith (February 18, 2021). "Fritz was ritz as pioneer for Black football players". Retrieved May 26, 2022.
"03-078 (Fritz Pollard Award)". www.brown.edu.
"Jim Muldoon inducted into Rose Bowl Hall of Fame". Pac-12. Pac-12 Conference. December 30, 2015. Archived from the original on December 30, 2015. Retrieved February 3, 2016. Also inducted (was) ... Brown's Fritz Pollard (1916 Rose Bowl Game)
"Mark Brunell, Fritz Pollard, Tyrone Wheatley and Jim Muldoon to be Inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame presented by Northwestern Mutual". Tournament of Roses. Pasadena, CA. September 25, 2015. Archived from the original on October 30, 2015. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
"Alpha Athletes at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany". Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Retrieved January 10, 2010.
Brown University – Brown University and the Black Coaches Association establish annual Fritz Pollard Award February 18, 2004.
The Union Club of Phoenixville was a professional football team based in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. The team was the result of a 1919 merger between the Phoenixville Union Club and the upstart Phoenix Athletic Club. From 1907 until 1919, the Union Club was considered one of the best football teams in eastern Pennsylvania. However in 1919, the upstart Phoenix Athletic Club signed many of the top players of the area, leaving the Union Club no choice but to merge with the Phoenix A.C. The team is best known for defeating the Canton Bulldogs 14-7, in 1920. The team however would fold in 1921.
In 1907 the Phoenixville Union Club fielded its first football team. The team frequently played rival clubs from Schuylkill County, as well as teams from Philadelphia and New Jersey. Within a few years, the Union Club became one of the strongest teams in the region. Several times they were declared the mythical "Champions of the Schuylkill Valley" and "Champions of Eastern Pennsylvania". However the team experience tragedy on occasion. In November 1913, George Gay, a star player for the Ursinus College football team, died from a neck injury three days after it was broken in a Phoenixille-Pottstown game. He broke his neck after being tackled from behind.
World War I and the 1918 flu pandemic had a sever impact on Phoenixville's 1917 football season. The team had only managed to schedule 5 games in 1917, while only one game was played in 1918. In 1919, the Union Club and the new Phoenix Athletic Club merged. The merger began when the Phoenix Athletic Club signed away many of the area's top football players. This left Union in a dilemma. In 1919, Union played what should have been an easy game against a local high school. However that game resulted in scoreless tie. As a result, the Union Club merged with the Phoenix A. C.
Meanwhile the Union Club of Phoenixville ended their 1919 season with a 6-0-3 record. The final game of the season against the Conshohocken Athletic Club, ended in a scoreless tie. However Phoenixville, managed to sign many ex-college players to their roster including; Heinie Miller of Penn and Butch Spagna of Lehigh University.
The 1920 Phoenixville Club fielded many of the top players of the era. These players included Lou Little, Lud Wray, Fats Eyrich, Bodie Weldon, Heinie Miller, Earl Potteiger, Stan Cofall and future Hall of Famer, Fritz Pollard. The club also fielded several members (eight in all, including Ockie Anderson and Swede Youngstrom) of the Buffalo All-Americans of the National Football League; Pollard and Cofall also had NFL jobs, Pollard with the Akron Pros and Cofall with the Cleveland Tigers. The NFL players would play a non-league game with Phoenixville on Saturdays, then hop the train for Buffalo or Ohio and the next day’s game. This arrangement helped the All-Americans earn extra money.
Incidentally, the team had been organized by Bert Bell, the future NFL commissioner and Philadelphia Eagles owner, but Bell had planned to play the team as the "Philadelphia Collegians" before Phoenixville's managers came and signed all of Bell's players.
The Phoenixville club went 11-0 in 1920. The team defeated several local teams, including their rivials, the Conshohocken Athletic Club, Holmesburg Athletic Club, and the pre-NFL Frankford Yellow Jackets. However the team still had the biggest game of the year, and in team history, to play.
At the end of the 1920 season, Phoenixville fans began to wonder how their team stacked up to the best teams of the era. Prior to 1920, the Canton Bulldogs were considered the best pro football team in world. The team featured Joe Guyon and the legendary Jim Thorpe, both future Pro Football Hall of Famers. The team was also not only a member of the mythical Ohio League, which consisted of the best teams in pro football, but won the league's championship in 1916, 1917 and 1919.
On December 12, 1920 an estimated 17,000 fans turned out to watch the Union Club and Canton Bulldogs play at the Baker Bowl. Despite the Bulldogs scoring first off of a Pete Calac touchdown, the Phoenixville soon gained control of the game with a fumble recovery by Heinie Miller. That play set-up a Stan Cofall touchdown pass to Lou Hayes. Later in the third quarter, Cofall blocked a Guyon punt which was returned for another touchdown by Hayes. While Canton did manage a late game drive to the Phoenixville 20 yard line, a Guyon fumble, was recovered by Phoenxiville's Heinie Miller. Phoenixville would go on to win the game 14-7.
Despite their victory, the Union Club could not claim any national professional championship based upon the outcome of the Canton game. The 1920 Canton Bulldogs were just not the dominant football team that they had been in previous seasons. In the NFL, the Akron Pros, Decatur Staleys (renamed the Chicago Bears in 1922) and the Buffalo All-Americans had all placed higher ahead of the Bulldogs in the standings.
In 1921, the Union Club's status as a premier professional team disappeared. The club's board of directors rejected Heinie Miller's proposal to for the team to reform with a similar 1920 lineup for the 1921 season. The club instead opted to field a less costly team of mostly local talent. The Big Red went on to a 5-2-0 record in what turned out to be its final season. However Miller, managed to keep most of the 1920 team intact and fielded them in 1921 as the Union Quakers of Philadelphia in 1921.
"Football Injury Fatal". The New York Times. New York, New York. November 5, 1913. p. 9. Retrieved July 23, 2021 – via Newspapers.com Open access icon.
"Canton Bulldogs". Ohio History Central. May 23, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2013.
Lewis, Perry (December 12, 1920). "Albert Union Eleven Defeats Canton, 13-7". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 20. Retrieved July 23, 2021 – via Newspapers.com Open access icon.
1921: Once More, with Feeling. Professional Football Researchers Association. Retrieved November 30, 2015.
