is tony pollard related to fritz pollardnicole alexander bio

But the fleet-footed running back quickly became the team's star player, dubbed 'the human torpedo' because he ran so low to the turf. The following year Pollard was the star player for the Akron Pros, who won the first NFL championship. At that time, black players were banned from the sport. As he faced criticism and discrimination, Pollard didn't fight back, not off the field. Pollard played halfback on the Brown football team, which went to the 1916 Rose Bowl. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC. As his team returned from one game in Gilberton, the train's windows were shot out. There are twoBlack head coachesin the NFL in 2022. His Black fans "were so wild over having him in their midst that they arranged a parade and met him at the railroad depot," wrote Gibbons. Pollard would probably recognize all of this as progress for both black people and the game, but chances are he would call on the NFL to do more to increase the number of black head coaches, front office executives and team owners. Marshall was an avowed segregationist who owned the Washington football franchise from its inception in 1932 to his death in 1969. Pollard and Bobby Marshall were the first two African-American players in the NFL in 1920. Hes quicker. That's 4.8%. [3] He finished among the national leaders in kickoff return average (28.1 yards). And they would state this as if it were simply true, end of story. "My dad was a single parent, and when he wasn't working all the hours he did it was phone call after phone call, meeting after meeting, trying to get my great-grandfather's name out there.". When Pollard was a rookie in 2019 (and when it wasnt necessarily true), the difference between his 5.3 yards per carry and Zekes 4.5 that season was explained away along these lines and by quite a few different people: When Zeke is in the game, the defense puts eight men in the box. The play that ended Tony Pollard's postseason had huge ramifications on the Cowboys offense in . When an opposing linebacker greeted Pollard with a deeply offensive racial slur, he responded by waltzing past him and into the end zone. The Dallas Cowboys selectedTony Pollard in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft. I was never interested in socializing with whites. "My grandfather started playing pro football in 1919. [9], On January 11, 2019, Pollard declared for the 2019 NFL Draft. But the discussion of balance that was all about run vs. pass after Tampa Bay should shift to the balancing act the two running backs necessitate. So that played a big part too. That's something that was drummed into me.". They dressed in locker rooms, ate with teammates at restaurants, slept in team hotels and became multi-million-dollar superstars. All Rights Reserved. With the US in the depths of the Great Depression and millions of white people unemployed, he argued that paying black men to play football would be bad for business. In 1920, with Pollard leading the team, the Pros went undefeated (8-0-3) to win the league's first championship. Some of the worst violence took place in Pollard's home town of Chicago. He attended Albert G. Lane Manual Training High School in Chicago where he played football, baseballand ran track. When owners colluded to shut black players out of the league from 1934 to 1946, Pollard used the pages of a newspaper that he started after his retirement to press for change. [3] He became the first African American running back to be named to Walter Camp's All-America team. The Dallas Cowboys lost in the playoffs to the San Francisco 49ers for a second straight year, and their Pro Bowl running back suffered a serious injury in the process. degree on Pollard, recognizing his achievements as athlete and leader. He made up for it at Memphis' pro day by clocking in at a 4.37. Today, SI looks back on the legacy of Fritz Pollard. Pollard had died just three years before, at the age of 92, but so many people were only hearing his name for the first time. [22] In Week 5, against the New York Giants, Pollard totaled 103 scrimmage yards in the 4420 victory. Mark Wahlberg pours tequila for fans at Dallas restaurant during thunderstorm, Luka Doncic-Kyrie Irving tandem clicks with joint 40-point displays in Mavs win vs. 76ers, Dallas Cowboys focused on adding another dynamic offensive weapon, 12 Dallas-Fort Worth restaurants that have closed in 2023, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones responds to Lakers star LeBron James comments. Actually, if defenses should focus on anyone, its Pollard. "Now it's a healthy engagement, an exchange of ideas and not always agreement, but overall it's a working relationship with open lines of communication.". "All of us got played by the NFL," he said. In 1923 and 1924, he served as head coach for the Hammond Pros.[2]. Pollard was illegally hit during games and, if he landed on the ground, white players would pile on top of him and beat him, according to newspaper accounts. I was there to play football and make my money.. A memorial for Marshall outside Washington's stadium was removed in June, along with all other references to him, after it was spray-painted with the words "change the name". The Life And Career Of Steve Sabol (Story), The Fascinating Life Of Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder (Story), What Happened To NFL Referee Mike Carey? Race riots took place across the country. In Akron, Pollard became the first black head coach and quarterback in the NFL and the most vocal advocate for black players in the formative years of the league. I will not have that," she says. Im wondering what it will be this week after Elliott was good against the Chargers and Pollard was great. Halas and Pollard had both grown up in Chicago and knew each other from high school. On those eight touches, Pollard has totaled 113 yards (14.1 per . What also helped build momentum was an advocacy group formed in 2003 that champions diversity and the hiring of NFL coaches, scouts and front-office staff from minority backgrounds. He didn't get to see it. ", In February 2021, Dungywrote an open letter to NFL ownersabout the league's lack of minority hires. But the hiring didn't break down barriers. The Fritz Pollard Alliance was in 2016 one of the first to support Colin Kaepernick, another black quarterback who has had to wait for the significance of his deeds to be acknowledged by his sport. Last updated on 2 October 20202 October 2020.From the section American Football. Marshall was an avowed segregationist who owned the Washington football franchise from its inception in 1932 to his death in 1969. In 1921, he became the first African-American head coach in the National Football League (NFL). Its more than fair to wonder about the opposite.More from Cowboys-Chargers, Poor clock management made game-winning kick longer than it needed to be, Cowboys were very comfortable playing in SoFi Stadium, Cowboys gained much-needed confidence from a victory the Chargers bungled away, Tony Pollard, Ezekiel Elliott run all over Chargers defense, Rookie LB Micah Parsons records first NFL sack while lined up at DE, 5 takeaways from Cowboys-Chargers, including the best game from Dallas linebackers in years, Cowboys were very comfortable playing in SoFi Stadium: That was our home game, National reaction to Cowboys-Chargers: Greg Zuerlein drills game-winning FG; Tony Pollard shines. ), ten touchdowns with one kickoff return for a touchdown. If someone can slug him without the referee seeing him, it is done. Torria and Tarrance Pollard made sure Tony and his older brother Terrion had every opportunity to succeed on the field, even if that meant expensive camps and training. One of his team-mates, Irving Fraser, later told Pollard's biographer Jay Berry: "When he was tackled, they'd all pile on him and see if they could make him quit. Reasons and Patrick, "Pollard Set Records as Black Football Player, Coach". "Times got hard, he let me skip a payment here, skip a payment there and train them anyway," Tarrance said. The NFL has now acknowledged it did exist.external-link. He managed the Suntan Movie Studio in Harlem. As a native American, Thorpe had battled racial prejudice to become a multi-sport star, winning golds in decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Olympics. Then a fateful meeting took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After Pollard, the second black starting quarterback was Marlin Briscoe in 1968. And it wont be a surprise if Pollard stays above 5.0 all season. Pollards has been recognized by the Travel Channel as 1 of 10 Memphis BBQ places to visit! Then in November 1923, after switching teams, he played an entire game at quarterback for the Hammond Pros. Only 5 feet 7 inches (1.7 metres) and 150 pounds (68 kg), Pollard won the grudging acceptance of his teammates at Brown University in Rhode Island in 1915, leading the team to a victory over Yale and an invitation to the Tournament of Roses game in Pasadena, California. RELATED: Defense leads the way in Memphis' 44-34 win over North Texas. It was a German-immigrant part of town. In 1981 Brown University conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) "That's the only way you can come in," Torria Pollard, the mother of Dallas running back Tony Pollard, said with a laugh. At Brown, Pollard led the Bears to their first and only Rose Bowl appearance. They had to cut to a commercial and then my phone just blew up with people saying 'they're talking about your grandfather'.". The Pollard family will now have to switch to Cowboys fans now that they have family ties with the team. Who could blame him? Gibbons went on to describe an incident that happened atan Akron restaurant as Pollard sat with a group of teammates. Some 27 years before Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier in baseball, Fritz Pollard was the best player for the first NFL champions in 1920. Watch quarterback Jalen Hurts' best plays from his biggest games for the Philadelphia Eagles as he prepares to face the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday's Super Bowl. The next year, he was named co-head coach as he continued to play for the Pros. In a decade during which hundreds of African-Americans were still being lynched, he was playing a 'white man's game' when the NFL was in its brutal infancy. If the field was a quagmire, his face would be held in the water. They'd then verify the information. "It was a literal fight," she says. "They said no African Americans, period, because it was bad for business," said Towns. 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.[9]. On special teams, he totaled 2,616 kick return yards and seven touchdowns. Pollard wanted the same thing. Lets just make sure no one ever wrings their hands about Pollard taking carries away from Zeke. Their move north had paid off. [20] Overall, he appeared in all 16 games, of which he started two, in the 2020 season. Ultimately, the Pros prevailed on the strength of their won-loss percentage and the quality of their opponents, but the controversy sharpened a simmering feud between Halas and Pollard over competing narratives of the formative years of the NFL. . Pollard attended Melrose High School, where he played high school football. And maybe this will simply be like 2006, when it was clear all season that Marion Barber was more productive than Julius Jones, when Barber scored 10 more touchdowns and averaged almost a yard per carry more than Jones but Barber never started until the team got into the playoffs. 3:09. "Even if it helps just one person in the same situation as my great-grandfather, with the odds stacked against them, to persevere and make something of themselves, then it was worth it. Pollard was one of the first two along with Bobby Marshall African-Americans in the National Football League in 1920. Along with becoming the league's first African-American head coach, he also was its first. They also threatened not to play when he was denied a room in LA. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, Fritz Pollard Ran Through Barriers to Become the NFLs first black head coach, For Brown, The Wrong Shoe Was On The Foot In The '16 Rose Bowl Game, Florence Griffith Joyner Smashed Records and Stereotypes, Remembering Satchel Paige, Maybe The Best Pitcher To Ever Live, Paul Robeson Was America's Quintessential Renaissance Man. this year amid mounting pressure. "The waiter took everybody's order but Pollard's. 'Bloody Wednesdays' were the scrimmages where reserve players could challenge starters for a spot on the team. Kansas CIty Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes' touchdowns from his biggest games this season ahead of Sunday night's NFL Super Bowl against the. None of this is meant to discredit Elliott. After escaping slavery, he had fought for the Union during the Civil War. But when the Pro Football Hall of Fame opened in 1963, he was not among the charter class of 17 inductees. In 1921, he became the first African-American head coach in the National Football League (NFL). They believe that Black head coaches are not fit to be leaders of men.". He became their player-coach the following season. As a player, coach and team owner, he was as important as any single figure in helping to put the league on a course to become the sprawling multibillion-dollar juggernaut that it is today. Pro Football Hall of Fame (inducted 2005), https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fritz-Pollard, Ohio History Central - Biography of Frederick D. Pollard, Pro Football Hall of Fame - Biography of Fritz Pollard, Fritz Pollard - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). He touched the ball on 16 of his 21 snaps Sunday. Doyel: 100 years ago, the NFL took its first baby steps in Indiana. "The big contrast now is absolutely how crazy big the NFL is as a business, billions and billions of dollars," he said. Instead, it's a box-checking exercise. One opposing school'sfans would sing "Bye Bye Blackbird"when his grandfathercame on the field, Towns said. Yet the social revolution that Pollard led in the professional game is largely responsible for the sports endurance as the countrys most popular spectator sport. In the second quarter of the Cowboys-49ers divisional matchup, the Cowboys running back had his left ankle trapped underneath a . There have been500 head coaches in the NFL's history 24 of them have been Black. ProFootballHistory.com. Against all these handicaps, Fritz Pollard plays with dauntless spirit. When he showed up for football practice that September, none of the players wanted him on the team. That is a heavy, heavy workload, and if there is one thing I give head coach Mike McCarthy credit for, its understanding this. January 26, 2023 11:18 am CT. ), 39 receptions for 458 yards (11.7-yard avg. If I figured a hotel or restaurant didnt want me, I stayed away. If he is tackled, as many as possible pile on him. He became a tax consultant. But its unlikely Zeke will get beyond 4.5 yards per carry, where he finished in 2019. Three years after Pollard's death,Art Shell was hired as head coach of the Raiders, the first Black head NFL coach of the modern era. The rule now applies to general managers and co-ordinators too. The Dallas Cowboys selected Tony Pollard in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft. Tony Pollard broke his left . For his son, the Olympic hurdler, see. But McCarthy has said the team will be careful with Elliotts carries because they need him at the end of the year. Be the smartest Cowboys fan. According to Sports Info Solutions, only Josh Jacobs and Aaron Jones have a higher EPA generated per rushing attempt than Pollard. Pollard ended his playing career in 1926, aged 32. [10] Just six days later, on January 17, 2019, Pollard was added to the 2019 North Senior Bowl roster. 128th overall selection in the 2019 NFL Draft, Pollard finds himself in the midst of an ever-important contract year. "He detests crowds and avoids the spotlight whenever possible," Gibbons wrote. In 1921, Pollard was made player-coach and finished as the league's top scorer. and 30 carries for 230 yards (7.7-yard avg.) Pollard got all of 13 carries and turned it into 109 yards, his second biggest day as a pro. Fritz Pollard, the Brown University halfback, in 1916. Subjects: Do you find this information helpful? "You couldn't eat in the restaurants or stay in the hotels," Pollard told the New York Times in 1978. Now the family shop is where Tony's family and friends gather to cheer him on. FRISCO, Texas At the age of 14, Tony Pollard started flipping burgers at his family's famous restaurant, Pollard's Bar-B-Que on Elvis Presley Boulevard, in Memphis, Tenn . (Story), What Happened To Ed Hochuli? That'sjust the way the times were back then," Pollard would say. A standout athlete at Brown University, Pollard also qualified for the 1916 Olympics in Berlin for the low hurdles, but the games were cancelled after the outbreak of World War I. [1] He helped the team reach the playoffs, while making over 1,200 receiving yards, 20 touchdowns and being named All-District 16-AAA. Since this would be the second consecutive season on . By Farrell Evans. In 1919, as more than 25 race riots erupted in major U.S. cities, Fritz Pollard, a former Brown University All-American running back, joined the Akron Pros, a pro football team that would later become a charter member of the NFL. Speaking of food, the running back's family owns a restaurant called "Pollard's BBQ" located in Memphis. His case is typical of a process called 'racial stacking' which still influences the number of black head coaches we see today. And, his grandson said, 100 years after Pollard coached in the NFL and 36 years after his death, he is sure Pollard would have wanted more from the league he helped build. His brothers decided they had to toughen him up. The FPA negotiated with the NFL to establish a rule requiring teams to interview at least one ethnic minority candidate for each head coach vacancy. Growingup, Towns said his grandfather didn't complain or talk much about those trials. Sometimes Pollard's team stayed in centre-field at half-time rather than run the gauntlet of going into the locker room. Pollard's team won most of those games, said Towns. The banwas made official in 1934 at the height of the Great Depression when NFL team owners agreed to forbid any Black players in the league. Bothered by an upset stomach, the running back ran a 4.52 40-yard dash at the combine, which was a slow time for him. [16] During Week 15 against the Los Angeles Rams, Pollard finished with 131 rushing yards on 12 attempts, including a 44-yard touchdown as the Cowboys won 4421. "And it's not even close.". "Opposing players make it a point of pride to rough him as much as possible. But I was there to play football. When the team went to sign in at the hotel, the front desk refused Pollard. He left Memphis as one of the most accomplish kick returners in NCAA history. In 1921, he became the co-head coach of the Akron Pros, while still maintaining his roster position as running back. I never saw him angry.". [2] He was the first African American football player at Brown. "He always let his skills on the field, and his actions off it, define who he was. "(Two teammates)watched the proceedings as long as they could. "My son is on TV playing for the Cowboys? When returning kick-offs, he often dived to the floor, leaving the tacklers to collide with each other, before getting back to his feet to continue running. He is closing in on 1,700 runs and receptions while just starting his sixth season. "What Pollard would have said is that at least 70%of coaches would be Black," Solomon said. Fritz III gave his permission to name it the Fritz Pollard Alliance (FPA). Here are five things Cowboys fans might not know about the running back and special teams ace: Stayed home. Tony Dungy, who became the first Black . He can pad his totals with long runs that Elliott really hasnt been able to accumulate since he burst on the scene as the 2016 rushing champion. Briscoe passed for 14 touchdowns in 1968 - still a Denver Broncos record for a rookie. The figure to keep Pollard from becoming a free agent is $10.1 million. It was really important to us as a family to get that known. [5] He led the nation with a school-record 40-yard average per kickoff return (22 for 881 yards) and four returns for touchdowns. He coached and managed all-black teams in exhibition games, giving them a chance to showcase their talent. He averaged 30.1 yards per return. Take away his first game as a rookie against the Giants when he had 24 yards on 13 carries (weirdly, Zeke wasnt good in his debut against the Giants, either, in a season where he averaged more than 100 yards per game), and here are Pollards totals when he gets at least 12 carries: The 2021 numbers are skewed because we are only two weeks into the season, but the quality of Pollards start is undeniable. The 5-9, 165-pound back, who led Brown to the Rose Bowl in 1915, turned pro in 1919, when he joined the Akron (OH) Pros following army service during World War I. The Pollards have been Barbequing for four generations. and six touchdowns. "Becausethey didn't want him in the locker room.". Pollard suffered a fractured left . Courtesy of Brown University, Providence, R.I. (1894-1986). Additionally, Pollard ranks ninth in positive EPA play percentage, meaning he is . 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