Black Players In Professional American Football
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Black Players In Professional American Football
Details of the history of black players in professional American football depend on the professional football league considered, which includes the National Football League (NFL); the American Football League (AFL), a rival league from 1960 through 1969 which eventually merged with the NFL; and the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), which existed from 1946 to 1949. Early years Charles Follis is believed to be the first black professional football player, having played for the Shelby Blues from 1902 to 1906. Follis, a two-sport athlete, was paid for his work beginning in 1899. From its inception in as a loose coalition of various regional teams, the American Professional Football Association had comparatively few African-American players; a total of nine black players suited up for NFL teams between 1920 and 1926, including future attorney, black activist and internationally acclaimed artist Paul Robeson, as well as famed race record producer J. Mayo Williams. Fritz Po ...
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American Football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with possession of the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with the ball or passing it, while the defense, the team without possession of the ball, aims to stop the offense's advance and to take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs or plays; if they fail, they turn over the football to the defense, but if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs to continue the drive. Points are scored primarily by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins. American football evolved in the United States, ...
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Orange Tornadoes
The Orange Tornadoes and Newark Tornadoes were two manifestations of a long-lived professional American football franchise that existed in some form from 1887 to 1941 and from 1958 to 1970, having played in the American Amateur Football Union from 1888 to 1895, the National Football League from 1929 to 1930, the American Association (football), American Association from 1936 to 1941, the Atlantic Coast Football League from 1963 to 1964 and 1970, and the Continental Football League from 1965 to 1969. The team was based for most of its history in Orange, New Jersey, with many of its later years in Newark, New Jersey, Newark. Its last five seasons of existence were as the Orlando Panthers, when the team was based in Orlando, Florida. The NFL franchise was sold back to the league in October 1930. The team had four head coaches in its two years in the NFL – Jack Depler in Orange, and Jack Fish (American football), Jack Fish, Al McGall and Andy Salata in Newark. History Early years Th ...
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Buffalo (1920s NFL Teams)
Buffalo, New York had a turbulent, early-era National Football League team that operated under multiple names and several different owners between the 1910s and 1920s. The early NFL-era franchise was variously called the Buffalo All-Stars from 1915 to 1917, Buffalo Niagaras in 1918, the Buffalo Prospects in 1919, Buffalo All-Americans from 1920 to 1923, Buffalo Bisons from 1924 to 1925 and in 1927 and 1929, and the Buffalo Rangers in 1926. The franchise, which was experiencing financial problems in 1928, did not participate in league play that season. History Prior to the NFL Buffalo operated an early professional football circuit from at least the late 1800s onward. Among notable predecessors to the team discussed here were the Buffalo Oakdales, whose heyday was in the years 1908 and 1909 and who ceased operations c. 1915; the Cazenovias, who were New York's best team in 1910 and 1911; and the Lancaster Malleables, from the neighboring town of Lancaster, New York, who were the ...
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Jess Rodriguez
Ángel Jesús Rodríguez Ávila (August 7, 1901 – October 12, 1983), better known as Jess Rodriguez, was a Spanish-American professional American football player for the Buffalo Bisons of the National Football League (NFL). He and his brother, Kelly Rodriguez, are the first two Spaniards to have played in the NFL. It would only be them two until 2014 when Alejandro Villanueva played for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He played for the Bisons during its final 1929 season. He was the first Hispanic-American to play in the NFL and the second person of Hispanic descent to play in the league. Prior to 1999, Rodriguez was considered to be the first Latino to play in the league; however it was later discovered that Cuban-American Lou Molinet played for the Frankford Yellow Jackets in 1927 (but because Molinet was a Cuban citizen at the time, he was technically not a Hispanic-''American''). He is distinguished as being the first Spaniard Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance eth ...
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Frankford Yellow Jackets
The Frankford Yellow Jackets were a professional American football team, part of the National Football League from 1924 to 1931, although its origin dates back to as early as 1899 with the Frankford Athletic Association. The Yellow Jackets won the NFL championship in 1926. The team played its home games from 1923 in Frankford Stadium (also called Yellow Jacket Field) in Frankford, a section in the northeastern part of Philadelphia, noted for the subway-elevated transit line that terminates there. Origin Frankford Athletic Association The Frankford Athletic Association was organized in May 1899 in the parlor of the Suburban Club. The cost of purchasing a share in the association was $10. However, there were also contributing memberships, ranging from $1 to $2.50, made available to the general public. The Association was a community-based non-profit organization of local residents and businesses. In keeping with its charter, which stated that "all profits shall be donated to ...
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Lou Molinet
Ignacio Saturnino "Lou" Molinet (November 30, 1904 – August 27, 1976) was a Cuban-born professional American football player who played in the National Football League for the Frankford Yellow Jackets during the 1927 season. He is distinguished as being the first Cuban and Latin American to play in the league. Early life Lou's parents had come to Cuba from Spain, it is likely they were Catalonian or of Catalan origin as this is where the name Molina originated. He was educated primarily in America, attending the Peddie School in New Jersey before enrolling at Cornell University, where he followed in the footsteps of his older brother, Joaquin, who was later inducted into the Cornell Athletic Hall of Fame. Football career Molinet lettered twice each in basketball and football. However, after his sophomore year ended, both of his parents died. He found the prospect of returning to Cornell too challenging, so he remained at home in Cuba. But when the Frankford Athletic Associati ...
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Arthur Matsu
Arthur A. Matsu (April 30, 1904 – May 1987) was an American football player and coach. He was the first Asian-American student at The College of William & Mary and the quarterback and captain of the school's football team. He was later selected by the ''Richmond Times-Dispatch'' as the best quarterback to play at William & Mary in the first half of the 20th century. He played one season of professional football for the Dayton Triangles and was the first Asian-American quarterback in the National Football League. He was an assistant football coach at Rutgers University for more than 20 years. Early years Matsu was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1904. His father was Japanese, and his mother was Scottish. He moved with his family to Canada as a young child and then to Cleveland, Ohio. By age 13, Matsu had shown himself to be an exceptional athlete and was being compared to Jim Thorpe. Sportswriter Paul Purman wrote a nationally syndicated story about Matsu in July 1917. Purman wro ...
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Walter Achiu
Walter Tin Kit "Sneeze" Achiu (Chinese: 徐天杰) (August 3, 1902March 21, 1989) was an American football player of Chinese descent. He was a graduate of The Kamehameha Schools and Saint Louis College (now Saint Louis School) in Honolulu, Hawaii. Achiu is most well known for being the first person of East Asian descent to play in the National Football League. He was one of the first people of a minority to play in any major American professional sports league, preceding Jackie Robinson's entry to Major League Baseball by twenty years. He was elected into the University of Dayton Athletic Hall of Fame in 1974. College career Achiu was a standout three-sport athlete (football, baseball, and track) at the University of Dayton from 1922–1927. Professional career Achiu played for the now-defunct Dayton Triangles of the NFL in 1927 and 1928. He was primarily used as a running back and defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are ...
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Dayton Triangles
The Dayton Triangles were an original franchise of the American Professional Football Association (now the National Football League (NFL)) in 1920. The Triangles were based in Dayton, Ohio, and took their nickname from their home field, Triangle Park, which was located at the confluence of the Great Miami and Stillwater Rivers in north Dayton. They were the longest-lasting traveling team in the NFL (1920–1929), and the last such "road team" until the Dallas Texans in 1952, who, coincidentally, descended from the Dayton franchise. The Texans players and assets were moved to Baltimore in 1953, and then to Indianapolis in 1983, where they now operate as the Colts, just 117 miles west of their origin. They have kept their color scheme through the years and, ultimately, have never missed an NFL season in some form. Origins The original Dayton Triangles members first began playing together as basketball players at St. Mary's College, now the University of Dayton, from 1908 until ...
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Jim Thorpe
James Francis Thorpe ( Sac and Fox (Sauk): ''Wa-Tho-Huk'', translated as "Bright Path"; May 22 or 28, 1887March 28, 1953) was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States in the Olympics. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won two Olympic gold medals in the 1912 Summer Olympics (one in classic pentathlon and the other in decathlon). He also played American football (collegiate and professional), professional baseball, and basketball. He lost his Olympic titles after it was found he had been paid for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, thus violating the contemporary amateurism rules. In 1983, 30 years after his death, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) restored his Olympic medals with replicas, after ruling that the decision to strip him of his medals fell outside of ...
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Native Americans In The United States
Native Americans, also known as American Indians, First Americans, Indigenous Americans, and other terms, are the Indigenous peoples of the mainland United States ( Indigenous peoples of Hawaii, Alaska and territories of the United States are generally known by other terms). There are 574 federally recognized tribes living within the US, about half of which are associated with Indian reservations. As defined by the United States Census, "Native Americans" are Indigenous tribes that are originally from the contiguous United States, along with Alaska Natives. Indigenous peoples of the United States who are not listed as American Indian or Alaska Native include Native Hawaiians, Samoan Americans, and the Chamorro people. The US Census groups these peoples as " Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders". European colonization of the Americas, which began in 1492, resulted in a precipitous decline in Native American population because of new diseases, wars, ethni ...
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Carlisle Indians Football
The Carlisle Indians football team represented the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in intercollegiate football competition. The program was active from 1893 until 1917, when it was discontinued. During the program's 25 years, the Indians compiled a 167–88–13 record and 0.647 winning percentage, which makes it the most successful defunct major college football program. During the early 20th century, Carlisle was a national football powerhouse, and regularly competed against other major programs such as the Ivy League schools. Several notable players and coaches were associated with the team, including Pop Warner and Jim Thorpe. History The Carlisle Indian Industrial School was founded in 1879 by an American cavalry officer, Richard Henry Pratt, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Its purpose was to facilitate the assimilation of the Native American population into mainstream American society.
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