Quick Facts
- NAME: Fritz Pollard
- OCCUPATION: Coach, Football Player
- BIRTH DATE: January 27, 1894
- DEATH DATE: May 11, 1986
- EDUCATION: Brown University
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Chicago, Illinois
- PLACE OF DEATH: Silver Spring, Maryland
- Full Name: Frederick Douglass Pollard Sr.
- AKA: Frederick Pollard Sr.
- AKA: Frederick Douglass Pollard
Best Known For
Fritz Pollard was the first African American to play in the Rose Bowl, the first African-American NFL coach and one of the NFL's first black players.
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Play NowFritz Pollard. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 01:25, Jun 20, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/fritz-pollard-9443774.
Fritz Pollard. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/fritz-pollard-9443774 [Accessed 20 Jun 2013].
"Fritz Pollard." 2013. The Biography Channel website. Jun 20 2013, 01:25 http://www.biography.com/people/fritz-pollard-9443774.
"Fritz Pollard," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/fritz-pollard-9443774 [accessed Jun 20, 2013].
"Fritz Pollard," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/fritz-pollard-9443774 (accessed Jun 20, 2013).
Fritz Pollard [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 Jun 20] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/fritz-pollard-9443774.
Fritz Pollard, http://www.biography.com/people/fritz-pollard-9443774 (last visited Jun 20, 2013).
Fritz Pollard. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/fritz-pollard-9443774. Accessed Jun 20, 2013.
Profile
Born on January 27, 1894, in Chicago, Illinois, Fritz Pollard began playing football for Brown University in 1915. The following year, he became the first African American to play in the Rose Bowl, and went pro soon after, signing with the Akron Pros of the American Professional Football Association. When the APFA was renamed the National Football League in 1922, Pollard became one of the first African-American NFL players, as well as the first African-American coach of the NFL (he had become head coach of the Pros in 1921, continuing to play for the team thereafter). He would continue to play and coach football over the following years, ending his coaching career in 1925 after one season with Indiana's Hammond Pros, and ending his playing career the following year with the Pros, renamed the Akron Indians prior to the 1926 season. Pollard died in 1986 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005.
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