African American Football Trailblazers – SABR’s Baseball Cards Research Committee

The rule that shapes this run

My pursuits embody historical past, sports activities, and my African American heritage. I additionally get pleasure from reconnecting with the sensation of my youth via gathering sports activities playing cards.

I completely loved constructing a gathering run of the 87 Negro League gamers who additionally performed within the main leagues. For 86 of these 87, it was potential to safe a card issued whereas the participant was nonetheless lively. The thought was not mine. Joe Genovese laid it out in his sequence “From the Negro League to MLB” on the SABR Baseball Playing cards weblog in 2021. This new run brings the same idea to soccer.

My old flame in sports activities is soccer. What follows is a run of 18 trailblazers of the game and their typically acknowledged rookie playing cards. They don’t seem to be one of the best Black gamers of their period, nor are they the celebrities I grew up with. Every qualifies for this record by assembly two checks: he broke an necessary barrier in professional soccer, and he appeared on a card issued throughout his enjoying profession.

The second check offers the run its form. Early soccer playing cards had been scarce, and not one of the pre-World Conflict II early Black professionals had a identified card issued throughout his enjoying profession. Soccer’s historical past is strikingly much like baseball. There have been Black skilled soccer gamers from the early days of the sport till the house owners determined to now not permit them to play. Charles Follis was paid to play in 1904. Fritz Pollard performed for and co-coached Akron in 1921 (sure, Akron had an expert group). Duke Slater, Bobby Marshall, Joe Lillard and Ray Kemp all performed within the NFL. Then the house owners quietly shut the door after the 1933 season.

The primary 4 who reintegrated major-league professional soccer

In 1946, Kenny Washington and Woody Strode reintegrated the NFL, whereas Invoice Willis and Marion Motley joined the newly fashioned All-America Soccer Convention (AAFC). Washington signed with the Rams on March 21, changing into the primary Black participant signed by an NFL membership for the reason that league’s exclusion started after the 1933 season. Woody Strode adopted on Could 7. The Rams had simply moved to Los Angeles, and the Coliseum Fee made integration a requirement following strain from the Black press.

Paul Brown signed Invoice Willis and Marion Motley to the Browns of the AAFC a number of months later in August. The AAFC was a rival league that later merged with the NFL. As a result of the AAFC season opened first, Willis and Motley performed their first official video games earlier than Washington and Strode. All 4 built-in earlier than Jackie Robinson signed with the Dodgers.

Washington signed first, months earlier than the opposite three. He has different similarities with Jackie Robinson. He was a multi-sport star who performed in the identical backfield with Robinson on the UCLA soccer group. He was a wonderful baseball participant and the primary African American to play varsity baseball at UCLA. Some thought of Washington a greater baseball prospect than Robinson. By the point his 1948 soccer playing cards had been printed, his knees had been severely injured, and 1948 was his final season. He has two playing cards from that 12 months, the 1948 Leaf and the 1948 Bowman.

Motley is the one different member of the 1946 quartet represented right here by a playing-days card. Motley had the extra distinguished skilled profession of the 2. He led the AAFC in speeding in 1948 and the NFL in 1950, the primary Black again to win all-league honors in each.

Willis and Strode don’t have any playing-days playing cards. This can be a explicit disgrace for Willis, who performed eight seasons, was first-team all-league seven instances and is in Canton. As greatest I can inform, Willis is the one Corridor of Fame participant whose profession started in 1946 or later who by no means appeared on a card whereas he was enjoying. Strode performed one season for the Rams after which two for Calgary of the CFL, the place he received the 1948 Gray Cup, earlier than a protracted Hollywood profession. He’s most remembered as Draba, the gladiator who refuses to kill Kirk Douglas’s Spartacus within the area.

Different firsts for African American gamers

George Taliaferro of Indiana was the primary Black participant taken in an NFL draft, by the Bears in 1949. He by no means performed for them. He had already signed with the Los Angeles Dons of the AAFC. Taliaferro’s card is a 1948 Leaf.

The primary Black draftee to play in an NFL recreation was Wally Triplett of Penn State, taken within the nineteenth spherical by the Lions that very same 12 months. Triplett’s card is a 1950 Bowman, his second NFL season.

Tank Youthful, represented by his 1950 Bowman, was the primary NFL participant from a traditionally Black school. In 1949 the NFL was not centered on HBCUs like Grambling, and Youthful’s success with the Rams opened the pipeline that ran via Grambling, Jackson State, Morgan State and Southern. By way of the category of 2026, 36 of the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame’s 387 members attended an HBCU together with two of the best gamers within the historical past of the sport: Walter Payton from Jackson State and Jerry Rice from Mississippi Valley State.

Joe Perry, additionally in 1950 Bowman, was the primary Black participant named NFL MVP, in 1954. That 12 months he turned the primary participant of any colour to hurry for 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons.

Emlen Tunnell’s 1951 Bowman is necessary as a result of he was the primary African American elected to the Corridor of Fame. He was elected in 1967 after a 14-year profession through which he made 9 Professional Bowls, was first-team All-NFL six instances and retired with a report 79 interceptions.

Bob Mann broke a number of obstacles. He and Mel Groomes had been the primary Black gamers for the Lions in 1948. In 1949 he led the NFL with 1,014 receiving yards, the primary Black participant to steer the league in receiving. His reward was a requirement that he take a pay lower from $7,500 to $6,000. He refused. The Lions shipped him to the New York Yanks who then lower him three weeks later. No group would signal him regardless of his success. Mann filed a collusion go well with in opposition to the NFL. The Packers signed him on November 25, 1950, which ended the go well with. This made him the primary Black participant of the fashionable period for Inexperienced Bay. So far as I can discover, he’s the one man to combine two NFL franchises, and the primary Black participant to take the league’s house owners to courtroom.

Bobby Mitchell’s 1959 Topps rookie concludes this a part of the run. In 1962, the Kennedy administration instructed George Preston Marshall that Washington couldn’t play in D.C. Stadium with an all-white roster. Sixteen years after the primary 4 gamers reintegrated the sport, Washington had the infamy of being the final group to just accept a Black participant.

Black quarterbacks

Reintegration didn’t convey equal alternative at quarterback. Black gamers broke a succession of obstacles on the place over the subsequent 4 a long time, culminating in Doug Williams’s Tremendous Bowl victory. Willie Thrower threw eight passes for the Bears in 1953, the primary Black quarterback within the fashionable NFL. Eldridge Dickey of Tennessee State was the primary Black quarterback taken within the first spherical, by the Raiders in 1968. Nevertheless, in what would turn out to be a sample, he was moved to receiver upon becoming a member of the group.

The primary card is of Marlin Briscoe, who on October 6, 1968, turned the primary Black quarterback to start out a recreation within the fashionable period. He threw 14 touchdowns that season, a Broncos rookie report that stood till 2024. Nevertheless, he was instructed the subsequent summer season that he wouldn’t be the starter, so he requested for his launch. He was not given the chance to be a quarterback once more and his 1972 Topps card reveals him as a Buffalo Payments receiver.

James Harris of Grambling was the primary Black quarterback to start out a season opener, for Buffalo of the AFL in 1969, and the primary to start out and win a playoff recreation, for the Rams in 1974. His card is a 1975 Topps card.

Doug Williams, additionally from Grambling, was the primary Black quarterback to start out a Tremendous Bowl. He led Washington to victory and was named Tremendous Bowl MVP. His 1979 Topps rookie is probably going the primary card that many informal collectors acknowledge.

Warren Moon closes this a part of the run on quarterback trailblazers. He went undrafted in 1978 as a result of groups solely wished him for different positions. He selected to play within the CFL, went to Edmonton, and received 5 straight Gray Cups. He then joined the Houston Oilers in 1984 on his personal phrases. His card right here is his 1985 Topps NFL rookie, though earlier Canadian points doc his years in Edmonton. In 2006 he turned the primary Black quarterback within the Corridor of Fame.

Their legacy? When the 2026 season opened, 15 of the 32 beginning quarterbacks within the NFL had been Black.

Firsts off the sector

The final 5 playing cards are of males who broke obstacles after they stopped enjoying. Each considered one of them is a playing-days card of a participant who went on to run one thing. That does say one thing that the one individuals to get to interrupt a barrier had been former skilled gamers.

Buddy Younger’s 1950 Bowman is the earliest. He was a 5-foot-4 halfback for the AAFC Yankees, the Dallas Texans and the Colts. In 1964, Pete Rozelle employed him as the primary Black government in any main league’s workplace. Two years later Younger wrote Rozelle a five-page memo on the league’s therapy of Black gamers that urged each membership to place at the least one Black particular person in its entrance workplace. Rozelle despatched it to all 15 groups. The Rooney Rule arrived 37 years later. Tank Youthful, already within the binder for Grambling, earns a second line right here: in 1975 the Chargers made him the primary Black assistant basic supervisor within the league.

Artwork Shell and Gene Upshaw performed collectively on the Raiders offensive line for a number of seasons, drafted a 12 months aside. Upshaw turned government director of the NFL Gamers Affiliation in 1983, the primary Black man to steer a significant sports activities union. Shell turned the primary Black head coach of the fashionable period when Al Davis employed him in 1989. Their rookie playing cards are Upshaw’s 1972 Topps and Shell’s 1973 Topps.

Tony Dungy’s solely playing-days card is the 1979 Topps Steelers group leaders card, the place he shares the entrance with Franco Harris, L.C. Greenwood and Larry Anderson as a result of he led Pittsburgh with six interceptions in 1978. Twenty-eight years later he was the primary Black head coach to win a Tremendous Bowl, teaching in opposition to Lovie Smith on the opposite sideline.

Ozzie Newsome’s 1979 Topps rookie completes the management part. In 2002, the Ravens made him the primary Black basic supervisor in NFL historical past.

A placing characteristic of this group is that each man first established himself as an expert participant earlier than breaking a management barrier. Two particularly consequential obstacles stay: Black controlling possession of an NFL franchise and the commissioner’s workplace.

What the 20 playing cards say

For me, the enchantment of this run is just not its value. It’s how a lot historical past these 20 playing cards maintain. They’re nice examples of overcome adversity. Regardless of the recognition of the NFL, its historical past is much less understood than that {of professional} baseball, and that features its African American historical past.

Kenny Washington deserves a spot within the public reminiscence alongside Jackie Robinson. His story—and people of the opposite soccer pioneers represented right here—is much much less acquainted than it ought to be. Regardless of being a critical fan myself, most of those firsts had been new to me, which was lots of the enjoyable to find.

Editor’s Notice: SABR member Lou Moore’s ebook The Great Black Hope is a good learn on the historical past of the Black quarterback.

Creator: aaronmpowell

Businessman by day, husband and father on a regular basis.

Ardour for Negro Leagues, blues music, and historical past.
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