Fritz Pollard

At 5’6 and weighing 160 pounds, Frederick Douglass “Fritz” Pollard looked more like a water boy standing on the sidelines than a star football player.

But put a football in his hands and Pollard became a whirling, twirling, now-you-see-him now-you-don’t dynamo who left defenders flat-footed and fans electrified with his silky moves, blazing speed and trademark baggy pants flapping in the breeze.

With each game he played in the fledgling American Professional Football Association (which in 1922 became the National Football League), Pollard found new ways to stun teammates, opponents and fans, whether by returning kicks for 100 yard touchdowns, taking a handoff and criss-crossing the field for long runs or throwing an unexpected pass.

“He had all of the tools and was fun to watch,” a sportswriter wrote. “He was a ‘catch me if you can’ type of player. No one could catch him.”

A trailblazer off the field

Despite his on the field success, Pollard was better known as a trailblazer off the field. In 1920, he was the first African American to play in the APFA/NFL while playing for the Akron Pros. The next year, he led the Akron Pros as professional football’s first black head coach and the team’s star running back.

“I wanted the honor of being the first black coach more than anything else,” Pollard later told NFL Films.

Born in Chicago in 1894 to a Native American mother and African American father who made a name for himself as a boxer during the Civil War, Pollard ran track, played baseball and football before deciding to focus solely on football in high school.

He received a scholarship to Brown University, where he re-wrote the records of not only Brown University, but the ones for all of college football. Pollard was the first black player to play in the Rose Bowl as well as the first African American running back to make the prestigious Walter Camp All America team.

Said Walter Camp, Pollard was "one of the greatest runners these eyes have ever seen."

But Pollard’s first days at Brown University were far from easy. Being the school’s first black football player ever caused unease among his teammates, and many did not immediately accept him, according to his grandson, Fritz Pollard III.

"His teammates, basically, really wouldn’t talk to him or anything until they saw what he could do," his grandson said. "Once they saw his talent, he won them over. And his personality also won them over. So, from then on, they had his back no matter what."

Pollard’s teammates grew to love him so much that some even put dark shoe polish on their faces to make it harder for opposing players to identify him.

But Pollard’s teammates could not protect him from abusive fans.

"There were times when he had to be escorted onto the field by the police," said Dr. Steven Towns, another of Fritz Pollard’s grandsons. "The Yale fans used to sing 'Bye Bye Blackbird' when he came on the field."

After college, Pollard coached at Lincoln University during the 1918 to 1920 seasons before playing – and coaching – professionally in 1921.

Before an Akron Pros game against their rival Canton Bulldogs, Pollard had an unsettling meeting with the Bulldogs’ star player, the legendary Jim Thorpe.

"Jim Thorpe walked up to him and said, 'Do you know who I am?'" recalled Pollard’s grandson.

"And [Pollard] goes, 'Yes, I know who you are. I’ve heard about you.’”

Thorpe said he had heard of Pollard, too, then used a racial slur. Pollard returned the insult and gazed at Thorpe, who promised to annihilate Pollard when they met on the football field.

“Well, if you’re ready to kill me, you can find me down there in your end zone,” Pollard told Thorpe. On the opening kickoff Pollard returned it for a touchdown and waved sarcastically at Thorpe afterwards.

Thorpe later called Pollard the best running back he had ever seen.

Pollard died in 1986 in Silver Spring, Md. at age 92.