William Bass (1921 – September 28, 1967) was an all-star and

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

champion

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

in the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

and one of the first players to break the colour barrier in

Canadian football Canadian football () is a team sport, sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's sco ...

. Bass attended

University of Nevada, Reno The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12, ...

and

Tennessee State University Tennessee State University (Tennessee State, Tenn State, or TSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, it is the only state-funded historically black university in Tenness ...

, and was surrounded in controversy when a Nevada, Reno game was canceled because

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Unive ...

's football team would not play them because Bass (and another teammate) were "Negroes". He started his pro career with the

Chicago Rockets The Chicago Rockets were an American football team that played in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) from 1946 to 1949. During the 1949 season, the team was known as the Chicago Hornets. Unlike the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers, a ...

of the AAFC, where in 1947 he rushed for 44 yards and caught 8 passes for 79 yards. In 1948, Bass moved to Canada, where he played 11 games with the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...

. After trying out with the Rockets in 1949, he returned to Canada, signing with the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

, where he would play 45 regular season and 9 playoff games in 4 seasons, also being selected an All-Star in 1951. As a squad captain, Bass was a key figure in the Argonaut teams that won the 1950 and 1952

titles. After import player rules cost him his position with the Boatmen, he played 1954 with the

Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...

and was player coach with the amateur

Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers The Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers were a Canadian football team based in Toronto, Ontario and a member of the Ontario Rugby Football Union, a league that preceded the Canadian Football League. Spanning three decades, they appeared in four Grey Cup ...

in his final season. Bill Bass was one of the first group of African-American players to break the colour barrier in Canadian football, following the path blazed by

Herb Trawick Herb Trawick (February 22, 1921 – September 16, 1985) was a professional Canadian football player and was the first African American to play professional Canadian football. Trawick spent his entire 12-year career as an offensive lineman and def ...

. He settled in Ontario, and for the last six years of his life was physical education supervisor at

Delhi District Secondary School Delhi District Secondary School is a publicly funded high school that is located near downtown Delhi in Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada. Summary The rural school had one of the lowest enrollment rates in Norfolk County, and had been considered fo ...

.Ex-Footballer Billy Bass Dies, Canadian Press, Montreal Gazette, September 23, 1967: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Fr8DH2VBP9sC&dat=19670923&printsec=frontpage&hl=en He died of a heart attack at his home in Tillsonberg on September 28, 1967, at the age of 45.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bass, Bill 1921 births 1967 deaths Chicago Rockets players Montreal Alouettes players Canadian football running backs Toronto Argonauts players Ottawa Rough Riders players Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers players Ontario Rugby Football Union players Tennessee State Tigers football players Nevada Wolf Pack football players African-American players of American football African-American players of Canadian football Players of American football from Greensboro, North Carolina Sportspeople from Greensboro, North Carolina 20th-century African-American sportspeople