Pollard: Professional Football & Coaching
(1918–1926)
Fritz learned football from his older brothers, and the game became a central part of his identity at an early age. Like his brothers before him, he coached whenever he wasn’t playing; but often he combined playing and coaching for the same team. Beginning in the fall of 1917, while still in Providence, Pollard served as backfield coach for the Providence Steamroller team. During the summer of 1918, he landed his first college coaching job at Lincoln University, where Leslie Pollard had previously coached. Fritz coached at Lincoln for two seasons, while at the same time playing professionally.
Fritz’s brother Leslie Pollard (standing, left) as Lincoln University team coach, 1914. An important role model for the young Fritz, Leslie played football at Dartmouth and was coaching at Lincoln University by the time Fritz graduated from high school. Fritz followed in his footsteps to coach at Lincoln in 1918.
It was after leaving Lincoln University that Pollard established himself as an NFL coach. Joining the Akron pro team in 1919, Pollard incorporated formations he had learned under Robbie Robinson at Brown into his coaching strategy. Between 1919 and 1926, Pollard also coached professional teams in Hammond, Indiana, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1925, he played for three different NFL teams while serving as head coach for two of them. Never loathe to share his skill, the energetic Pollard also found time to coach the team at Wendell Phillips High School, an all Black public school on Chicago’s South Side, in 1923. Yet despite his pioneering efforts as a professional player and coach, Pollard found that white coaches often got the credit for his coaching, and the recognition his efforts deserved eluded him.
Pollard on bottom, right with Akron Professionals, 1920. The Pros were unbeaten, and handed arch-rival Jim Thorpe and his Canton team two shut-out losses.
Providence Steam Rollers (9) vs. Chicago Bears (6) – Professional Football – Braves Field, Boston, Dec. 9 1925. Pollard standing left of pennant. (38" panoramic photo by General Studios, Boston.)
Pollard and Red Grange of the Bears were the principle gate attractions for this game, which the Steam Rollers won. Pollard was paid $500 for the game.
When his career as an NFL player ended in 1926, Pollard shifted into a new role as a full-time sports promoter. He organized all-star teams of African American players that provided a platform for showcasing their talent. His 1928 Chicago Black Hawks and 1935 Brown Bombers challenged NFL teams, but during the period of segregation in the NFL (1933 through 1946), there were no takers.
Pollard was coach of the Brown Bombers, named after heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis.
Pollard’s activities in sports were not limited to football. In the winter of 1917, after leaving Brown, he organized a touring Black basketball team named the Providence Collegians — with Fritz as their captain and guiding light — thus beginning his career as a promoter. The scheduled game shown here against the Incorporators, who billed themselves as “the colored world champions,” did not take place.