With tomorrow being Thanksgiving I decided to honor some of the players who have been pioneers in the sporting world. I have a couple more players in mind but those may have to wait for a couple of days.
On November 25th, 1920 the Akron Pros beat the Canton Bulldogs 7-0 at League Park in Akron, Ohio. This was game 8 of the Akron Pros undefeated season, but the game actually proved to be historical in a number of ways.
This game was the NFL’s first Thanksgiving game and it showcased two of the biggest stars of the day: The Pros Fritz Pollard, one of the first Black players in the NFL, and the Bulldogs Jim Thorpe, one of the first Native American players in the NFL. I felt Pollard also deserved some recognition in the collecting world considering he only has a few cards and they are all from oddball collections.
On a side note, it nearly impossible to find a Pollard signature. I came across only two, one from a letter and one from a photograph.
Custom Card Blog 