Between 1933 and 1946 the NFL operated an informal ban on black players. This shameful period coincided with George Preston Marshall’s entry to the league, as owner of the Boston Braves – who would become the Washington Redskins. Marshall, whose anti-black racism led to him being described by columnist Shirley Povich as “pro football’s leading bigot” would not integrate his team until 1962.
Thankfully, the rest of the pro football did not wait so long. Two factors conspired to bring Black players back into the sport in 1946. One was the move of the NFL’s Cleveland Rams to Los Angeles, where they were told they would not be allowed to play in the publicly funded Coliseum without an integrated team. Another was the arrival of the All-America Football Conference – specifically Paul Brown’s Cleveland Browns.
A year before Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball in 1947, the Rams signed Kenny Washington and Woody Strode, while the Browns signed Bill Willis and Marion Motley. Lost Champions chronicles their story from the origins of the 1930s ban through to 1950, by which time the NFL and AAFC had merged and the Rams faced the Browns for the Championship.
Title: Lost Champions
Author: Gretchen Atwood
First published: Bloomsbury, 2016
Buy the Book: Amazon US | Amazon UK*
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Atwood’s book situates this breakthrough in the broader context of the 1940s civil rights struggle. It details how these Black players endured death threats and racist exclusion even as they made history on the field. The narrative links the fight to integrate football with events like the increase in lynchings after the Second World War and battles over segregated public spaces.
Atwood also explores why this pioneering moment languished in Jackie Robinson’s shadow for so long, arguing that Washington, Strode, Willis and Motley deserve greater recognition as trailblazers in America’s most popular sport.
THE AUTHOR
Gretchen Atwood is a former sports journalist with a passion for football, civil rights, and American history. She was inspired to write Lost Champions, her first book, after reading about the integration of pro football in Michael MacCambridge’s America’s Game.
QUOTES
“The Cleveland Browns would open the inaugural AAFC season at home against the Miami Seahawks, the only franchise in all of pro sports in 1946 located in the Deep South. Miami’s owner and head coach stocked the team exclusively with white Southern players, or white men who had starred at Southern universities. Like George Preston Marshall’s Washington team in the NFL, the Miami Seahawks were built and marketed as the team of the South, in hopes of nurturing a broad regional fan base. Black fans and press circled December 7, the day the Browns would play the Seahawks, but this time in Miami. Florida state law banned interracial sports competition, which meant that black and white athletes were not allowed together on the same field. What would happen when the Browns showed up with Bill Willis and Marion Motley? No one really knew.”
REVIEWS
“Overlap between racial issues and the NFL has been part of the sport since its early days, as shown by Gretchen Atwood’s superb book Lost Champions… Unabashed in her adoration of the sport, the author has a better grasp of football tactics than many network announcers.”
Gregg Easterbrook, Wall Street Journal
“Though these events mostly occurred independently and were spread throughout the country, Atwood succeeds in laying them out like a modern-day pro offense, powering the book’s narrative with the march to the 1950 NFL championship between the two teams that integrated professional football.”
Publisher’s Weekly
“Gretchen Atwood is to be congratulated for bringing attention to these four champion African American players who ended segregation in American football. In addition, her accounts of the murders in Georgia, segregation in amusement parks in Cleveland, and racially restrictive residential covenants make for chilling reading.”
Braham Dabscheck, Industrial Relations
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