The AFL was the rare upstart league that challenged the NFL … and won. Part of the narrative in that victory is that the AFL was much more welcoming to black players, especially those from a traditionally overlooked source: small, historically blacked colleges. There are elements of truth in that version of history: there was still a hostile attitude from some teams (notably Washington) towards black players at the end of the 1950s,  and the NFL did a poor job scouting at historically black colleges during that decade. The NFL, as hard as this may be for you to imagine, also had a degree of hubris that may have turned off some prospects. Over the next two days, I want to dive into the AFL and NFL wars over signing talent.  Today, an examination of black players by the leagues; tomorrow, a focus on players from historically black colleges.

Black Players In the 1950s

At the start of the 1950s, most NFL teams did not have a single black player on their roster.  During the 1954 season, there were only 31 black players in the NFL, or about 3.4 per team.  Notably, 8 of those players went on to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame; the success of black players in the ’50s helped usher in the next generation in the ’60s. By 1955, all NFL teams had a black player other than Washington, who would not until 1962.   But at least one sometimes meant just that: when the Detroit Lions won the NFL championship in 1957, the team had just one black player: future Hall of Fame back John Henry Johnson. ^[1]The ’53 Lions were also the last all-white team to win an NFL championship.  Their opponents, the Cleveland Browns, had five black players, led by rookie and league MVP Jim Brown.

As we exit the decade, the best team in pro football was the Colts. Baltimore had won the its second straight NFL championship in 1959, and that team had six black players.  Two of them were Hall of Famers in RB/WR Lenny Moore (Syracuse) and LT Jim Parker (Ohio State), and another two were All-Pros: DT Gene “Big Daddy” Lipscomb (marines), and S Milt Davis (UCLA).  The team also had a pair of backups from a local historically black college. ^[2]Johnny Sample and Sherman Plunkett from Maryland State, now the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.    A quick look at the team photo shows that this was not a very diverse team, but one that in line with how most pro football teams looked back then.  ^[3]When the Colts won the title in 1958, they had seven black players: Louisville’s Lenny Lyles, in addition to the other six.  Lyles was part of the class that integrated Louisville in 1954, the … Continue reading

Black Players In the 1960s

As we enter the 1960s, we have the birth of the AFL.  Anecdotally, there’s evidence that AFL teams were much more willing to bring on black players than NFL teams; Hall of Famer left tackle Ron Mix cited a rumor that NFL teams had an unofficial cap of five black players per team, which led to more black college football stars going to the AFL.  Mix (who is white) was drafted by the Colts out of USC in the first round of the 1960 NFL Draft; he chose to play with the Chargers instead, perhaps for geographical reasons.  But Mix’s claim doesn’t cast the AFL in great light under further inspection.

As we saw, the Colts had 6 black players in 1959 and all six returned in ’60; the Chargers team that Mix joined ended up having only 7 black players, and it’s worth noting that 6 of those were guys with no NFL experience.  One of them was Rommie Loudd, who provides a good example of the talent disparity.  Drafted by the 49ers in the 26th round of the 1956 Draft, he instead went up to Canada to play for the BC Lions; he was cut by the Bears in training camp in 1959, and then joined the Chargers for their inaugural 1960 season as a 27-year-old rookie. The AFL teams were forced to fill its rosters quickly, mostly with players who couldn’t make NFL teams.  That may have helped foster the idea that AFL teams were more open to signing black players, when in reality, the AFL was not in a position to be selective.  Eddie Macon was a safety for the Bears in ’52 and ’53 and the franchise’s first black player; he played in the CFL for a few seasons, and then joined the Raiders in 1960 as a 33-year-old … and made All-Pro at cornerback.

Consider the context: in 1959, there were just 12 pro football teams; a year later, there would be 21.  And with the AFL taking many NFL veterans and quality players from college, this forced the NFL to bring on a number of new players, too.  There’s no question that the AFL provided a disruption to the NFL talent pool system that forced the league get better at integration, but this impacted both leagues. ^[4]It’s also worth recognizing that star AFL receivers Lionel Taylor, Art Powell, and Elbert Dubenion were signed by NFL teams in 1959 but were given little or no playing time at receiver; a … Continue reading.  Given the anecdotal evidence, it may be fair to say that the AFL led on issues on race, but the NFL immediately followed, causing the actual results to look similar.

Geography and the AFL

In the AFL, there was a race for talent of any kind, but the two Texas teams faced the most difficult local environments. It’s important to remember that in 1960, Texas was dealing with all sorts of integration issues, and the University of Texas football team was a decade away from having its first black player.  The Dallas Texans — who would of course be moved by Lamar Hunt to Kansas City and become the Chiefs — were the more progressive of the two, as we’ll see more tomorrow.  But even in 1960, Hunt’s team only had four black players, including three from historically black colleges. ^[5]Abner Haynes from North Texas, along with Clem Daniels and Dave Webster from Prairie View and Walter Napier from Paul Quinn. On the other side, there was even some question as to whether Bud Adams’s Houston Oilers would have any black players.  In the end, Houston signed two black players who starred in college in the state — Julian Spence from Sam Houston State and John White from Texas Southern.  The Oilers won the AFL’s first title with two black players, and that number was only up to three (with the addition of New Mexico State’s Bob Kelly) when Houston repeated in 1961. Even by 1963, backups Charley Frazier and Bob Kelly were the only black players on Houston’s roster. ^[6]Ironically, Houston would become a bit of a savior city to the black stars of the AFL: the league’s 1965 All-Star game was moved there at the last minute after black athletes were treated as … Continue reading To round out a review of the state, the 1960 season also brought one expansion team to the NFL.  That would be the Dallas Cowboys, who were also nearly all-white that first season.

In retrospect, a reason the AFL may be remembered as being ahead of the curve on integration issues was geography: with three teams out west (Broncos, Chargers, Raiders) and another in New York city (Jets), half of the league was in these less racially-charged climates.  The league also had Hunt, who proved to be ahead of the curve on many matters.

The Data

That said, if you never heard any of the stories and just looked at the numbers, you would assume that there was no difference between the leagues.  In November 1963, Ebony Magazine wrote a comprehensive summary of the state of pro football.  At the time, there were 46 black players in the 8-team AFL (5.8 per team), compared to an even 100 black players in the 14-team NFL (7.1 per team).  That obviously flies in the face of the idea that the AFL was doing a better job of signing black players than the NFL, particularly in the early years. Three years later, Ebony Magazine reported that the 9-team AFL had 93 black players (10.3 per team) and the 15-team NFL had 149 players (9.9 per team). Ultimately, it’s fair to conclude that neither league was flush with black talent in the early 1960s, ^[7]And as noted in my history of black quarterbacks in the NFL, both leagues still struggled when it came to the quarterback position: Sandy Stephens led Minnesota to the Rose Bowl and was a high draft … Continue reading but both leagues would get progressively better over time.

The claim that the AFL thrived because it was a better landing spot for black football players is one that is much heavier on narrative than evidence. Both leagues had similar numbers of black players and stars in the early ’60s. The Packers would be the team of the decade in pro football, and Green Bay had future Hall of Famers like Herb Adderley, Willie Wood, Dave Robinson, and Willie Davis (in addition to about 100 white future Hall of Famers). In reality, both leagues, all teams were still overwhelmingly white, but gradually, pro football became more willing to accept black players at all positions.

Tomorrow: a look at the impact of players from HBCUs in both leagues.