(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A trailblazing Black athlete and leader who graduated from Lane Tech High School more than a century ago will have his name enshrined on the school’s football field.
Those attending games at Lane Tech will walk under a sign for Pollard Field at Addison and Rockwell.
Chicago Public Schools Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova said the district is thrilled to honor 1912 graduate Frederick Douglass Pollard.
Pollard — who was nicknamed “Fritz” and “The Human Torpedo” — played football, baseball and ran track at Lane. The school’s alumni association says he was the first African American to play football at Brown, to play in the Rose Bowl and to be inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame.
He was one of the first two Black players in professional football and the first Black head coach.
His off-the-field accomplishments included publishing the first Black-owned tabloid, The New York Independent News.
A dedication ceremony for the Lane field renaming will be slated for later this year.
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