Pollard: The Search for Recognition
In his quest to break barriers for Blacks in American sports, Pollard often downplayed the bigotry and harrassment he had endured. An unpleasant consequence of his silence on this issue was that it became easy for others to dismiss his accomplishments. In the 1950s, Pollard had attempted, without success, to establish a separate Sports Hall of Fame for African Americans in order to recognize the contributions that were being ignored in the white-dominated sports media. At the end of his life, Pollard expressed deep bitterness about the neglect that African American sports achievements routinely received. His long-delayed induction into the Professional Football Hall of Fame is a first step toward correcting that imbalance.
Pollard’s prophetic visit to the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
Pollard was the first African American elected to the National College Football Hall of Fame.
John (“Jay”) Barry, Class of 1950, was instrumental in keeping the Pollard legend alive. When Fritz was elected to the National Collegiate Football Hall of Fame in 1954, Barry organized “Fritz Pollard Day” at Brown to coincide with the induction ceremony. As Brown’s official football historian, Barry wrote extensively about Pollard in the pages of the Brown Alumni Monthly, and, at the time he died in 1985, was producing a book length biography of Fritz Pollard and a documentary film on Pollard’s career. A friend of Fritz Pollard and the principle champion of his legacy, it would seem that, twenty years after Barry’s death, his lobbying efforts have finally won Pollard his rightful spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
J. Barry, Pollard’s biographer, with Pollard on the steps of Brown Stadium.
Letter from Pollard to J. Barry which mentions his coaching philosophy (“…no coach is any good without players.…[the players] picked are what go to make up a good team, and then a coach just moulds them…”).
Pollard was inducted into the Brown University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1971. Dr. Vernon Alden, Class of 1945, offers congratulations.