"The Forgotten Four".....

[DukeSlater]

I think Paul Robeson was one of the most gifted and remarkable men one could know; however, him being mentioned and not Slater just does not seem right. Didn't he only play one year of pro football? The guy was a legend collegiately, but I think most people that know him think he was a Pro Football Hall of Fame caliber player. HA!!!!

Obviously, Duke Slater was.

I will not lose any sleep over the omission, it just did not make any sense.

[oldecapecod11]

by TanksAndSpartans » Thu Feb 25, 2016 5:38 pm
"...My major thing was I personally don’t elevate Jackie Robinson above any of the football players. He fits well with that thing you mentioned about it being human nature to want ONE hero/villain, baseball gave us that and football didn’t. It wouldn’t have changed anything to me if someone had decided Robinson needed a roommate, but they didn’t. And there wasn't an AAFC and NFL in baseball - it was one league and one player..."

It was not one league. It was two: the American League and the National League. They operated under one Commissioner
but the term "Major League Baseball" (MLB) as an entity did not exist.

There are a number of things that always seem to be overlooked in discussions of this topic.

The national football league operated in a smoke-filled back room manner. Its "ban" was a so-called "gentlemen's agreement" although it was hardly gentlemanly - roguish and dishonorable might be a better description.
Baseball, on the other hand, was an open declaration. It was public. It was known. It was equally despicable.

Take a look at what really happened - and when.

Before there was an American League or a National League, on December 11, 1868 The National Association of Baseball Players excluded black ballplayers from participation when the governing body voted unanimously to bar
"any club which may be composed of one or more colored persons."
That is in the Minutes of their meeting and was their official stand.

Almost twenty years later. on July 16, 1887, New York Giants future Hall of Fame captain
John Montgomery (Monte) Ward tried to get Newark Little Giants George Washington Stovey (a black man) to pitch
for his team but word got out and Chicago White Stockings future Hall of Fame manager Adrian (Cap) Anson
announced neither he nor any of his players would ever play a team on which blacks were welcome.
Anson's threat worked - the Giants didn't sign Stovey.
On the very same day... July 16, 1887, the International League Board of Directors voted not to approve any contract
with black players.

And it continued... before his death in 1944, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis had stated
"The colored ballplayers have their own league. Let them stay in their own league"

So, neither "The Forgotten Four" nor any black players who preceded them were playing as a result of open defiance
of any league rule.

"The Forgotten Four" is merely a marketing attempt trying to sell the idea that football did it first - which it did not.

However, although opportunity didn’t knock, there were men - and some women - who had the daring and sometimes
the greed to take a chance and sponsor black baseball. They were black and white and they built the doors of opportunity.
The list was long and it ran the gamut from Tom Baird and Tom Bowser right through the alphabet
to J.L. Wilkinsin (James Leslie) and Smilin' Tom Wilson.
We all know Jackie Robinson played with Wilkinson's Kansas City Monarchs. (By the way, J.L. was a white man.)
But very few know that Smilin' Tom signed Roy Campanella at age 15 and he played 9 years with one of Wilson's teams,
the Baltimore Elite Giants. (Smilin' Tom was a black man who, they say, could smile as he slipped a knife
between your ribs for neglecting to pay your gambling losses or your bar bill at his "establishment.")
Over the years, Wilson owned teams in Nashville, Cleveland, Columbus, and Washington as well as Baltimore.
He also served as President of the second Negro National League.

Much later, the doors built by these men were finally opened and so much is made of the players while often
those who made it possible are truly the forgotten group. We all know of The Mahatma - Branch Rickey.
And we know of Al Davis who hired the first black Head Coach in the nfl. Little is made of the fact that Davis
showed even more gumption later when he fired Art Shell. He fired him when he thought he was the wrong coach -
not because he was the wrong color.

So, as much credit should be given to those owners and coaches who defied the back-door nfl agreement and
put black players on the gridiron. (We exclude the term GM because, in those days, any "manager" was likely the bus driver
or acted as a trainer.)

Some say Branch Rickey was motivated out of greed or that he did it because his team was the smallest fish
in the great New York City pond.
Fact is: he is the one man who stands out as the single-most force responsible for the integration of the Major Leagues.
Whatever his agenda truly was, he did it and baseball has never been the same.

"Next to Abraham Lincoln, the biggest white benefactor of the Negro has been Branch Rickey."
~ Grantland Rice

[JohnR]

[quote="oldecapecod11"][b
So, neither "The Forgotten Four" nor any black players who preceded them were playing as a result of open defiance
of any league rule.
"The Forgotten Four" is merely a marketing attempt trying to sell the idea that football did it first - which it did not.



Soooo, the only way football can win this argument is by emphatically stating that they were very, very, racist...just as bad as baseball, just didn't think to include blackballing in their minutes.

[oldecapecod11]

by JohnR » Fri Feb 26, 2016 6:57 pm
"Soooo, the only way football can win this argument is by emphatically stating that they were very, very, racist...just as bad as baseball, just didn't think to include blackballing in their minutes."

It is not really an argument - just varying opinions as to who should have been included in the feature.
Fact is: every point mentioned is valid - depending on how far back you want to roll the clock.

You know - and the world knows - the nfl will never admit to being racist - even behind closed doors.
Plus, there is no way to prove it. The men who made those decisions are long gone.
Additionally, those "agreements" were not part of an official business meeting - same as blackballing. (Pun intended.)

Frankly, if the matter was not part of official baseball records, it is quite certain baseball would have never admitted it either.

It is interesting that football has never had a person who held the respect of such a large number of people as Ted Williams.
Those admiring Teddy Ballgame were far and wide outside the baseball circle.
No one of his stature has ever spoken at his induction of the unfairness that existed in their sport.

The nfl may be approaching that with the brain damage issue but that won't happen until the "Trust" is busted.
Watch out for The Donald if he makes it. He can be a very vindictive individual.