139: Fritz Pollard - NFL

Sports' Forgotten Heroes

Fritz Pollard is not a name most football fans are familiar with. Yet, his place in NFL History is about as iconic as any. Pollard is the first African-American to coach and NFL team. To be fair, he was a co-head coach. In 1920, with the Akron Pros of the American Professional Football Association, the APFA, later to re-brand itself as the NFL, Pollard led the Pros to an 8-0-3 season and the APFA Championship. Art Shell, who many consider to be the first, certainly deserves his share of such recognition as well, only his historic standing is that of the first African-American Head Coach in modern NFL history. Pollard coached in a totally different time in American history. In fact, he coached before minorities such as African-Americans were "banned" from the game. Pollard was also a player. A dual role as player-coach, which wasn't totally unusual during that period of time. A terrific tailback, Pollard rushed for 16 touchdowns during his playing days and also caught two touchdown passes. The game was played much differently than it is today and those numbers, 18 touchdowns, were quite impressive during that era. On this episode of Sports' Forgotten Heroes, Dr. Charles Ross, Professor of History and African American Studies at Ole Miss joins the podcast for a terrific discussion about one of the most important figures in American Sports History - Fritz Pollard.