Kenny Washington
Like the NBA and Major League Baseball, the National Football League was once an all-white organization, by mutual agreement of the owners. In the 1930s and 1940s the NFL was second among most football fans to big time college football, and NFL games were often played before more empty seats than those occupied by fans. Teams moved frequently attempting to build fan bases. A single owner could block a decision supported by all of the others. The NFL was a long way from being the organizational juggernaut that it is today.
Kenny Washington played baseball and football at UCLA, a teammate of Jackie Robinson and actor Woody Strode. While Robinson is nationally remembered and celebrated as the man who broke baseball’s color barrier, Washington is ignored after doing the same for the NFL. After graduation some major league baseball teams were interested in Washington, who statistically was a better player than Robinson, but Washington wanted to remain in football. George Halas of the Chicago Bears tried to convince the other owners to allow him to sign Washington and was blocked by a single dissenting vote, that of Washington owner George Preston Marshall.
Washington played in the Pacific Coast Football League, on a semi-pro team which called itself Kenny Washington and the Hollywood Bears, drawing sufficient fans to keep the team paid. When the NFL decided to allow the Cleveland Rams to move to Los Angeles the only place to play was the Los Angeles Coliseum, which had been built using taxpayer’s money. The Coliseum Commission informed the NFL that the Coliseum was unavailable unless the league was integrated. They were backed with pressure from the media. The league relented and the Rams signed Kenny Washington in 1946. In order for him to have a roommate on the road, they also signed Woody Strode.
Washington found himself the target of racial invective and abuse from teammates and opponents alike, as well as enduring the racial slurs of fans. In one incident Washington found himself pinned down following a play, with members of both teams piling on while chalk was rubbed into his eyes, temporarily and painfully blinding him. A running back, Washington was often subjected to attempts to take out his knees, on which he had surgeries performed during his semi-pro career. Both he and Strode were often forced to eat separately from the team, and stay in separate hotels.
Football was not as popular as baseball when Kenny Washington broke the NFL’s color barrier, and the NFL even less popular than the college game. It was baseball’s heyday as the “National Pastime”. Still, although baseball honors Jackie Robinson in every ballpark and in its Hall of Fame, Washington is virtually forgotten in the NFL’s arenas. There is no mention of him in the NFL Hall of Fame. Washington’s career in the NFL was short, his best days were spent on the semi-pro fields in California while the owners of NFL teams argued over whether integration would be good for their league and ultimately, their pocketbooks.