February 14, 2022 - Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard

Today on Super Bowl Sunday 2022 we are also in the midst of the Olympic competitions-so it is appropriate that Lyles Station Historic School and Museum call attention to Frederick Douglass “Fritz” Pollard.
Pollard established many “firsts” in his life, many based on his outstanding athletic abilities. The All-American halfback was a “triple threat” at the University of North Dakota, the university’s first African American player, excelling in football, track, and boxing. In 1915, Pollard led Brown University to the Rose Bowl, the first African American to play in the Rose. Standing only 5’9”, the 165 pound halfback turned pro in 1919 when he joined the Akron Pros following a stint in the military during World War I. The next year, the Pros joined the American Professional Football Association which then became the National Football League.
Pollard went on to break another color barrier in 1921 and 1922 when he was named as the first African American coach in the National Football League. Pollard was one of only two African Americans in the newly formed NFL-but he earned even more distinction as the first African American head coach in NFL history when named as co-coach of the team. At that time, he was earning the highest salary in professional football, earning as much as $1,500 a game.
Pollard’s speed on the field was legendary, and even when tackled didn’t let it slow him down; he would purposely collapse when tackled then roll on his back and cock his feet in the air to discourage the opposing team from piling on him.
Pollard took his speed to the 1936 Olympics where he brought home the bronze for running the 110-meter hurdles. Joining Jesse Owens and the other African American athletes that year, Pollard and the others embarrassed Adolf Hitler and his claims of the superiority of the Aryan race, winning a total of twelve medals.
Pollard also promoted integrated rosters for football teams and recruited prominent African American players to the NFL, organizing exhibition games to showcase their athletic abilities.
After retiring from coaching, Pollard enjoyed success as a business entrepreneur, starting in 1922 with the first African American owned investment firm in the United States and then founding many businesses including coal companies in Harlem and Chicago and the first African American tabloid newspaper, the New York Independent News. He also took on the entertainment world as a casting agent in 1933 for the famous movie The Emperor Jones, producing videos and a film featuring African American entertainers, heading up the Suntan Movie Studios in Harlem.
Pollard was the first African American elected to the National College Football Hall of Fame and received an honorary doctorate from Brown University.
Pollard, a man of many firsts, not just in the sports world, was posthumously inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005.