Fritz Pollard Papers

Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard was born on January 27, 1894 in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood. Pollard graduated from Lane Tech College Prep High School in 1912 where he participated in many activities and sports including track, football, baseball and the debate team. He went on to play football at Brown University. At Brown, he became the first African American to play in a Rose Bowl game in 1916.

Pollard served in WWI and began playing for the NFL. In 1921 he became the NFL's first African American head coach. Pollard coached for four different NFL teams; the Pros/Indians (1920-1921 and 1925-1926), the Milwaukee Badgers (1922), the Hammond Pros (1923, 1925), and the Providence Steam Rollers (1925). Fritz also spent time in 1923 and 1924 playing for the Gilberton Cadamounts, a strong independent pro team in the Pennsylvania “Coal League.” In 1928, Pollard organized and coached the Chicago Black Hawks, an all-African American professional football team. He died May 11, 1986 in Silver Spring, Maryland. Fritz Pollard was posthumously inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005.

Sources:

Carroll, John, Fritz Pollard: Pioneer in Racial Advancement. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992.