In the early 1920s, Fritz Pollard was one of just two black players in the early NFL and the first African-American coach in its history. A Chicago native, Pollard was an All-American halfback at Brown who led that school to the Rose Bowl. The 5-foot-9, 165-pound Pollard started playing professional football in 1919 after serving in World War I. He played for the Akron Pros, an Ohio-based team in the American Professional Football Association, later the NFL. In 1920, the league’s first season, Pollard helped the Pros win the championship with a record of 8-0-3. The following year, he became one of the team’s coaches. Throughout the 1920s, he played and coached with other teams in the NFL and in independent leagues, and he founded an all-black pro team in Chicago called the Black Hawks. A 2005 Hall of Fame enshrinee, Pollard died in 1986.