[PARAM]

It's a good book. Written with an interesting perspective. Very entertaining. There's another one about the Cleveland Rams (released Oct. 2016) which was very interesting also. If you like books about the Rams.

[max]

The Greatest Show on Grass is an excellent podcast. I posted the link in this thread. Lots of cool episodes. Make sure you hear the one on Hock and Rams of the 50's.

[safer]

Ok, without looking it up--who was our first African American player? --and he became an actor too. Was in one of the two best Westerns of all-time. He embodied the strong, silent type.

[aeneas1]

Ok, without looking it up--who was our first African American player? --and he became an actor too. Was in one of the two best Westerns of all-time. He embodied the strong, silent type.

actually i knew the answer due to some research i did quite a while back to prep for a q&a with todd hewitt, i wanted to talk to him about all of the rams firsts, including integration, but was disappointed to discover that it was actually the l.a. memorial coliseum commission that drove the rams integration, not the rams....

[RamsFanSince82]

He was born and raised in LA, and he went to college in So. Cal.

[Elvis]

UCLA, fight, fight, fight, fight...

[Hacksaw]

The guy we're looking for is the 1st who played post WWII...

"Charles Follis is believed to be the first black professional football player, having played for the Shelby Steamfitters from 1902 to 1906. Follis, a two sport athlete, was paid for his work beginning in 1904.

From its inception in 1920 as a loose coalition of various regional teams, the American Professional Football Association had comparatively few African-American players; a total of nine black people suited up for NFL teams between 1920 and 1926, including future attorney, black activist, and internationally acclaimed artist Paul Robeson. Fritz Pollard and Bobby Marshall were the first black players in what is now the NFL in 1920. Pollard became the first (and until 1989, only) black coach in 1921; during the early-to-mid-1920s, the league used player-coaches and did not have separate coaching staffs."

"In 1933, the last year of integration, the NFL had two black players, Joe Lillard and Ray Kemp. Both were gone by the end of the season: Lillard, due largely to his tendency to get into fights, was not invited back to the Chicago Cardinals[1][2] despite in 1933 being responsible for almost half of the Cardinals' points, while Kemp quit on his own accord to pursue a coaching career (one that turned out to be long and successful)"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pla ... n_football

[safer]

UCLA, fight, fight, fight, fight...

Don't think so. It was Woody Strode who later acted in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance". Was in an awesome scene where Liberty and two of his cronies were facing off with the Duke....suddenly they heard the sound of a shotgun being pumped right behind them and they decided to back-off.

[RamsFanSince82]

[Hacksaw]

Just bought it. I'll be reading it on the plane to Florida Sunday.