Black First of the Day
Who became the first black professional football player?
- He was born in Cloverdale, Virginia.
- He played football at Wooster High in Wooster, Ohio.
- He played in the American Professional Football League, a forerunner of the National Football League.
- He was hired by the Blues of Shelby, Ohio.
1904
Charles W. Follis (1879-?)
In 1904 Charles W. Follis became the first black professional football player, for the Blues of Shelby, Ohio. He was born in Cloverdale, Virginia, and moved to Wooster, Ohio, where he played at Wooster High. One of his high school teammates was Branch Rickey, later president of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team. The Blues were part of the American Professional Football League, formed in Ohio in this year, and a forerunner of the National Football League, which was formed in Canton, Ohio, in the summer of 1919, the year usually taken as the date of the beginning of modern professional football.
Sources: Ashe, A Hard Road to Glory, vol. 1, pp. 98, 99; Clark, Sports Firsts, p. 40; Encyclopedia of Football, pp. 18-23.
From Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Events by Jessie Carney Smith, © 2013 Visible Ink Press®. A celebration of achievement, accomplishments and pride.
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