George Taliaferro: Army Draftee, and NFL's First Black Draftee and Starting QB
George Taliaferro: Army Draftee, and NFL's First Black Draftee and Starting QB
The first NFL draft occurred on February 8, 1936. The draft kept teams with shallower pockets from competing with the deeper-pocketed teams for amateur players. Players either signed with the team that drafted them or could not play in the NFL. The 1936 draft's #1 pick and Heisman winner, Jay Berwanger, chose not to sign a contract, and neither did most draftees since only 24 of the 81 selected players appeared in an NFL game.
There also weren't any Black players selected in the 1936 draft due to an NFL agreement not to sign them. Black athletes weren't eligible for any draft until the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 required all males between 21 and 45 to register for the military. Even then, the military remained segregated until 1948. The military's athletic teams during WWII were also segregated, as discussed in my article, Taking Requests: The 1944 Great Lakes Baseball Team, though some teams integrated by 1945 since Levi Jackson, who became Yale's first Black player in 1946, played for Camp Lee in 1945.
That background takes us to the campus of Indiana University in 1945. Many who might have played college football were still in the Armed Forces, so freshmen were eligible to play varsity at most schools. One such frosh was George Taliaferro, who grew up in Gary and became an instant star for the Indiana Hoosiers that season. As a Single Wing halfback, he became the first Black athlete to lead the conference in rushing with 716 yards in 156 carries, helping Indiana win its first Big Ten football title in 46 years.
Indiana expected big things of Taliaferro during the next three years, but the Selective Service System chose to draft him into the U.S. Army in the spring of 1946.
Taliaferro was sent to Camp Lee, later called Fort Lee and now Fort Gregg-Adams, a name that honors two Black officers rather than the traitorous Robert E. Lee. While I consistently refer to colleges by their current rather than period names, I'll use Camp Lee and Fort Benning (now Fort Moore) because I use period images with those names below.
When Taliaferro arrived at Camp Lee, the commanding officer summoned Pvt. Taliaferro to his office to confirm he would play football for the fort team. As Taliaferro later told the story, he informed the officer he did not intend to play football, leading the officer to respond:
You have an alternative. You can either go to officer's candidate's school, which is an automatic three-year enlistment, or you can play football."
And just that quickly, I said, "Then I'll see you after football practice."
Walker, Andrew, 'George Taliaferro's Immeasurable Impact On NFL, Hoosier State,' colts.com, February 20, 2021.
More than 105 players tried out for the Camp Lee team that year, a number that head coach Lt. Col. Sam Francis cut to 60 by the end of August. Francis had been a unanimous All-American back and Heisman runner-up at Nebraska in 1936 after falling one-half inch short of the bronze medal in the shot put at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He then went #1 in the 1937 NFL Draft, playing four seasons before joining the Army.
Like many teams at larger bases, the Camp Lee roster had numerous major college players who had enlisted or were drafted like Taliaferro. Still, the team got stuffed by William & Mary in a preseason scrimmage before beating Fort Belvoir 8-0 in their back-and-forth season opener. Next came a 25-0 victory over Bolling Field that saw Taliaferro race 68 and 57 yards on touchdown runs. An 18-0 win over the Aberdeen Proving Grounds and a 26-14 topping of the Bainbridge Naval Training Center set up a big game with a similarly undefeated Fort Benning.
The Camp Lee Travelers had little to brag about against Benning. John Green, a West Point All-American in 1944 and 1945, recovered an early fumble to set up Fort Benning's first score. A few other first-half scores followed, and when Fort Benning blocked Taliaferro's punt in the fourth quarter, things could have fallen apart. Instead, Taliaferro connected with Hal Lewis on two fourth-quarter touchdown passes to restore a bit of Camp Lee's pride in a 35-14 losing effort.
Not only did the team lose to Fort Benning, but they also lost Taliaferro and four other backs due to injuries. They lost other starters as the Army began releasing other draftees after one year of service. Still, they finished the season strong, losing only to Fort Benning in a return match.
The Army released Taliaferro in the spring of 1947, allowing him to return to Indiana for the 1947 and 1948 seasons, where he earned All-American honors for the second and third time.
The All-American Football Conference, which began play in 1946 as an NFL competitor, held a secret draft during which the Los Angeles Dons acquired Taliaferro's rights. A few days later, the Chicago Bears selected Taliaferro in the 13th round in their public draft, making him the first Black player drafted by an NFL team. While Taliaferro's entering college class graduated in the spring of 1949, he had one year of college eligibility remaining, so the Bears did not attempt to sign him. They considered him a "future" pick, while the Dons, who had other Black players, considered him a current pick and signed him in January.
Taliaferro played with the Dons in 1949, but the league folded after that season, and he signed with the NFL's New York Yanks. He made the Pro Bowl in 1951 before the franchise failed. He then moved to the Dallas Texans, where he made the Pro Bowl again, and moved with the franchise to Baltimore, where he made the Pro Bowl a third time.
During the 1953 season, Willie Thrower entered an NFL game as a substitute quarterback for the Chicago Bears on October 18, making him the first Black quarterback in the NFL's post-segregation era. One month later, an injury to the Colts starting quarterback led to Taliaferro starting for the Colts against the Los Angeles Rams, making him the first Black quarterback to start a game in the NFL's post-segregation era.
Taliaferro played his final season in 1955 with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Having finished his degree at Indiana in 1951, he later earned a Master's of Social Work at Howard University before teaching and serving in various academic positions during his post-football career. Taliaferro passed away in 2018 at 91, having opened the door for many others who followed.
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That image of Taliaferro diving over the line is amazing! What a great recap on this incredible athletes journey.
NB: Fort Benning->Fort Moore; Fort Bragg->Fort Liberty