It is time for us to rectify that. Kenny Washington received numerous honors but they were primarily related to his time at UCLA. The Hall of Fame Selection Committee will meet on January 19 to vote. In fact, it still endures today. [23] His alma mater Lincoln High School has annually awarded the Kenny Washington Trophy to the school's best football player since 1949. Major League Baseball continually celebrates the contributions of Jackie Robinson, its first African-American player, but the NFL's pioneer -- Kenny Washington -- isn't in the Hall of Fame. The Rams only signed Strode and Washington to avoid a potential lawsuit. [13] He played for the Rams for three years, but although his injuries had taken their toll, he was still able to lead the league in yards per carry in his second season,[2] and even scored a 92-yard touchdown, which remains the Rams team record for the longest run from scrimmage. He was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1956 [22] and his number 13 jersey was the first to be retired at UCLA. The Redskins once referred to Houston as "pro football's most underrated super-star," but his capabilities were widely recognized. [12], Prior to his first NFL season Washington underwent surgery in both knees (his fifth knee surgery overall – as a child he contracted rickets and was once hit by car[4]), having torn cartilage removed from his left knee and what was characterized in the press as "a growth" from his right. He immediately became one of the biggest stars for the Los Angeles Rams. This should be an embarrassment for us. The following browsers are supported: Chrome, Edge (v80 and later), Firefox and Safari. His passing followed a period of declining health that included a months-long battle with inoperable Stage IV pancreatic cancer. Following his athletic career, Washington was affiliated with the Los Angeles Police Department. With the historic playoff meeting finally about to happen on Championship Sunday, NFL Research's Matt Okada charts why Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers have never met in the playoffs before. It's an honor that has been long overdue. And as you can imagine, Washington faced racist barbs, bigotry and hatred from opponents, fans and even team owners. The "Forgotten Four" reviews the spectacular football career of Kenny Washington. [6] Despite these achievements and the fact that he also doubled as a defensive back, he was named to second-team All-America selection instead of the first and was omitted from the East–West Shrine Game that year. Two months after being fired by the Lions, Matt Patricia is returning to the New England Patriots in a new role that will combine scouting and working with the Patriots' coaching staff, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Friday. "[7], After graduation, George Halas, who coached the College All-Star Game, indicated interest in Washington for his Chicago Bears team, but was unable to convince the league to permit integration. His No. NFL footage © NFL Productions LLC. He was the first UCLA player to be named All-American. After excelling for six years with the Oilers, Ken was traded to the Redskins for five veteran players in 1973. One story has it that Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher wanted to offer Washington a contract to play for the team, but only if he went to Puerto Rico first, which Washington refused to do. I am asking you, the members of the senior committee, to nominate Washington for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. [9][10], When the Cleveland Rams moved to Los Angeles, the team sought to play in the publicly owned Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum – a decision which created immediate pressure that the team be racially integrated, since black taxpayers as well as white had paid for construction of the facility. Washington, Strode and two other men broke through pro football's unofficial color barrier that season. This year's group of AFA Hall of Famers will be enshrined as the “Class of 2014” during the AFA's 34th Annual Semi-Pro/Minor League Football Hall of Fame Induction Dinner at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, 2121 George Halas Drive NW, Canton, Ohio 44708. For his contribution to sports in Los Angeles, he was honored with a Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum "Court of Honor" plaque by the Coliseum commissioners. [2] In 1945, he did serve in the military on the USO tour as a type of sports ambassador, visiting with troops and playing in exhibition games. Kenny Washington went on to become the first football player at UCLA to have his uniform retired and was voted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1956. Click to view Kenny Washington, first African American in the NFL. This was a rarity to have so many African Americans when … The Class of 2021 will be enshrined on Sunday, Aug. 8, in Canton. Each player will receive a Hall of Fame plaque based on the pithy ones that the Hall used to use back at the start. As a baseball player, Washington was rated better than his teammate Jackie Robinson. [4], In football, his position was tailback, and he often passed as much as he rushed. Kenny Washington Honors. He was a star running backa Abraham Lincoln High School in Los Angeles In college at UCLA, he rushed for 1,914 yards in his college career, a school record for 34 years. Kenny Washington: The First to Sign an NFL Contract. The Hall of Fame needs to acknowledge, recognize, celebrate and honor Kenny Washington’s contribution. In a memo obtained by NFL Network's Tom Pelissero, the NFL informed clubs Friday of a slew of new pre-2021 NFL Draft rules relating to hosting and interacting with draft-eligible players. Too often we confuse excellence with numbers. Washington died of polyarteritis nodosa on June 24, 1971, at the age of 52 in Los Angeles, California. [8] He earned all-league recognition each year, including his first year when he suffered a knee injury that prevented him from being conscripted for the war. Washington retired from the NFL following the 1948 season. He was an actor, known for Pinky (1949), Easy Living (1949) and The Jackie Robinson Story (1950). Why? He was posthumously inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame. [2] Thanks to his connections from when he had worked at movie studios during his undergraduate years, he was also chosen for a few film roles,[2] including Rope of Sand (1949),[17] Pinky (1949),[18] and The Jackie Robinson Story (1950).[19]. It doesn't take an exhaustive Google search to find stories of players misbehaving. He died on June 24, 1971 in Los Angeles, California. He was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1956 and his number 13 jersey was the first to be retired at UCLA. But what Washington accomplished cannot be measured in yards and statistics. Fullback Marion Motley and guard Bill Willis played for the champion Cleveland Browns in the fledgling All-America Football Conference, and both are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. [2] As a result, the team signed Washington on March 21, 1946, followed by Strode on May 7. As mentioned previously, the legacy of Kenny Washington seemingly disappeared almost as quickly as he came into the league. He ran head-first into not only defenders who didn't want him in the game, but also the civil rights movement. [2] Washington rushed for 9,975 yards in his college career, a school record for 56 years. Pacific Coast Professional Football League, List of NCAA major college football yearly total offense leaders, "The NFL was segregated, until Kenny Washington broke the color barrier in Los Angeles", "Forgotten hero: Washington broke NFL's color barrier in 1946", "Teammates Recall Jackie Robinson's Legacy", "First American NFL Players Helped Break Down Barriers", "Los Angeles and the Reintegration of the NFL", "Los Angeles Coliseum Court of Honor Plaques", "Remembering forgotten hero Kenny Washington", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kenny_Washington_(American_football)&oldid=1001421889, Players of American football from Los Angeles, Burials at Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, NFL player missing current team parameter, Infobox NFL biography articles missing alt text and caption, Infobox NFL biography articles with old NFL.com URL, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from March 2019, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Career statistics and player information from, This page was last edited on 19 January 2021, at 16:30. Washington, Strode, and Robinson starred on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team, in which they made up three of the four backfield players. So I leave it to you, to please consider Kenny Washington for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. There is some vague recollection of Washington throughout the league. “Electing Kenny Washington to the Hall of Fame also sends the message to students like us that being brave, overcoming obstacles and standing up … The NFL had a ban on black players from 1934 through 1946, but when the Cleveland Rams wanted to relocate to Los Angeles, one of the conditions was the team had to be integrated. He also became a skillful golfer. He signed Washington's and Strode's UCLA teammate Jackie Robinson to the Dodgers in 1947.[2]. [2] He led both teams to city championships in the same calendar year. Inducted into the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 1956 but not, at this writing, into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Washington suffered from circulatory problems in later years. Kenny Washington was born on August 31, 1918 in Los Angeles County, California, USA as Kenneth Stanley Washington. played. Kenny Washington, byname of Kenneth S. Washington, (born August 31, 1918, Los Angeles, California, U.S.—died June 24, 1971, Los Angeles), one of the first African American college gridiron football stars on the West Coast and one of two black players to reintegrate the National Football League (NFL) in 1946. He had one son, Kenny Jr., who played professional baseball. [4], Washington was a staunch Republican in his younger years and strongly supported Richard Nixon's 1950 U.S. Senate campaign. We continue our essay series with No. The 2021 Hall of Fame class will be announced during the “NFL Honors” on the eve of Super Bowl LV. Not only is Washington's exclusion in the Pro Football Hall of Fame egregious, it also goes against the core values of the Pro Football Hall of Fame itself. He was one of four African American players on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team, the others being Woody Strode, Robinson, and Ray Bartlett. An honor that has long eluded him. Every year since 2011, Abraham Lincoln High School holds a memorial football game on the anniversary of Washington's death. [2], According to Time magazine's coverage of the 1940 College All-Star Game, Washington was "considered by West Coast fans the most brilliant player in the US last year. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery. [20] He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery. [15] However, in the 1960 presidential election, Washington voted for John F. Kennedy instead of Nixon and tended to vote for Democrats for the rest of his life, but he never declared a political party affiliation. That sounds rather heroic to me. On Thursday November 7, 2019 in Dublin, Ohio, 20 Ohio Veterans were inducted into the Hall of Fame Class of 2019. [11] The Los Angeles Tribune was especially outspoken, thanks to its African-American sports editor, William Claire "Halley" Harding, a former professional athlete and member of the debate team at Wiley College. Strode played college football for the UCLA Bruins, the most integrated collegiate team in the nation in 1939, which included future NFL running back Kenny Washington and future Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Jackie Robinson. He played college football for the UCLA Bruins. Washington, Strode, and Robinson made up three of the four backfield players that year. Some might nod when they hear the name. The Rams haven't even retired his number. [23] His alma mater Lincoln High School has annually awarded the Kenny Washington Trophy to the school's best football player since 1949. [14] When he retired in 1948, 80,000 people attended his final game and the entire stadium gave him a standing ovation. Former offensive tackle Tony Jones, a one-time Pro Bowler and two-time Super Bowl champion, passed away at the age of 54, the Broncos announced Friday. If … Enter Washington, who was a local hero at UCLA during the late 1930s. Kenny Mack, Hall-of-Fame Announcer and WTPA Founding Member, Has Passed It is with a heavy heart that we must report the death on Friday, May 10 of Kenny Mack, 78, of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. The bronze plaques representing each of the classes inducted are permanently on display at the Vern Riffe Building, 2nd Floor located at 77 South High Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215. Ezzrett Anderson and Washington's UCLA teammate Strode were also on that team. Kenny “Kingfish” Washington … The night before Nixon's crushing victory over Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas, the candidate – a great football fan – spent the evening at Washington's south Los Angeles home playing music and trying to relax. [16][page needed], After retirement from football, Washington returned to the LAPD. Kenny Washington of Beaufort has been named to the S.C. In a league where the overwhelming majority of players are African-American, you can't deny what he has meant to the league. Instead, his accomplishments come from those who are given an opportunity today because of what Washington did years ago. His alma mater Lincoln High School has annually awarded the Kenny Washington Trophy to the school's best football player since 1949. Washington played just three seasons for the Los Angeles Rams, but his legacy has stood for a lifetime. That's why it's important to recognize men like Washington. The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s selection process by-laws provides that between four and eight new members will be selected. The Rams played at the LA Coliseum which was a city-owned facility. Which is quite an amazing feat if you consider the fact that Washington broke the color barrier in the modern NFL a full year before Robinson played for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. But where Jackie Robinson could avoid the baseballs thrown at him, Washington was given the ball. [4], Washington attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he was a member of both the Bruins' baseball and football teams. These slights were the source of much outrage among media outlets which blamed them on racial discrimination. These are the stories about the NFL I would like to share with future generations. One reason is because for most of the 20th century, baseball was by far the top sport in the U.S., and another was that his NFL career was a short three years. One of only two players (with Hall of Famer Marcus Allen) to win Heisman Trophy, AP Rookie of the Year, AP Player of the Year and a Super Bowl title in his career. The browser you are using is no longer supported on this site. Kenny Washington, Class: Induction: 1956 Sport(s): - Ken Washington was the first All-American in the history of the University of California-Los Angeles football It should start and finish with the Pro Football Hall of Fame. [4] Instead, Washington coached football at UCLA and joined the LAPD. If the goal of the Pro Football Hall of Fame is to preserve its history, we need to start right now with Washington. [1] He was posthumously inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame. Born March 21, 1951, he was 65. It is highly recommended that you use the latest versions of a supported browser in order to receive an optimal viewing experience. John Hicks, a 2001 College Football Hall of Fame inductee and a two-time First Team All-American and undeniably one of the most outstanding Ohio State football players of all time, died Oct. 29, 2016, after a long illness. Kenneth S. Washington (August 31, 1918 – June 24, 1971) was an American professional football player who was the first African-American to sign a contract with a National Football League (NFL) team in the modern (post-World War II) era. The second black player to be inducted in the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame, Motley joined in 1968. The Rams signed Woody Strode and Hall of Famer Kenny Washington, both who played at UCLA. Alternative Title: Kenneth S. Washington. What he did can be measured in rushing titles and Pro Bowl bids, but not those in his name directly. [8] Neither Washington nor Strode has been inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, although both Marion Motley and Bill Willis of the AAFC's and NFL's Cleveland Browns have received that honor. 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