Rose Bowl Hall of Fame
1916 Rose Bowl Game
2015 Inductee
Fritz Pollard was the first African-American to play in the Rose Bowl Game (he ran for 47 yards in Brown’s 14–0 loss to Washington State in the 1916 game) and later he became the first black coach and quarterback in the formative days of the NFL.
Pollard was a college football standout despite his modest 5-foot 9-inch, 165-pound frame. In 1916, he led Brown to back-to-back wins over Ivy League powerhouses Harvard and Yale en route to an 8–1 record. For his efforts, he was honored as the first African-American running back on Walter Camp’s All-American team. After leaving Brown, Pollard played pro football through 1926. He also had a successful coaching career through 1938.
In 1954, he was the first African-American elected to the National College Football Hall of Fame. Pollard died on May 11, 1986, at age 92. In 2005, he was posthumously inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
