One year before Jackie Robinson broke the color line in major league baseball in 1947, four black players joined the Browns and Rams to become the first professional football players of African-American descent in the modern era. Here twelve players reflect not only on the vio...
One year before Jackie Robinson broke the color line in major league baseball in 1947, four black players joined the Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Rams to become the first professional football players of African-American descent in the modern era. While blacks had played on professional teams in the early days of pro football, none had joined a team since 1934. In this book twelve players who began their careers from 1946 to 1955 not only reminisce about the violence they faced on and off the field, the segregated hotels and restaurants, and general hostility that comes with being a trailblazer, but also of white players and coaches who assisted and supported them at various stages of their lives. Among the oral histories presented here are those of such Hall of Famers Bill Willis, Joe Perry, and George Taliaferro.
“Vivid and fresh, this is a terrific addition to the secret history of sports we all need to know if we want to understand today's players and games.”
Gridiron Gauntlet is a captivating reprise of lived history, an engaging, highly informative sojourn through the post-World War II reintegration of professional football as experienced and recalled by the sport's "second wave" of black players, the men whose sometimes ignored, mostly forgotten contributions and sacrifices were critical to the evolution of the game we see today. -- Harry Edwards, professor emeritus, University of California, Berkeley
...[H]umorous, disturbing, angry, sad, and uplifting. An involving and essential read for anyone interested in football. Library Journal
-- Robert Lipsyte, American sports journalist, ESPN Ombudsman, and author of An Accidental Sportswriter
An excellent and worthy contribution to sports history shelves, Gridiron Gauntlet is highly recommended. Midwest Book Review
Gridiron Gauntlet is a worthy addition to the scholarship on race in American sport. Because every word comes from the participants, the work, while serious, has the informality of a living room conversation with an accomplished and gregarious family member. Bay State Banner, (Boston)
…[A] great addition to any sports lover’s bookshelf and a valuable contribution to the civil rights history of pro football. -- Jane LaTour Public Employee Press
Through firsthand accounts of the men who shaped their times, Gridiron Gauntlet provides fresh insight into an important era of sports history. An era that despite being too often overlooked, proved crucial to the making of the modern NFL. Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era
...a book anyone who truly claims to be a fan of the early NFL needs to read.... Trust me, you won’t want to put it down.
Anyone interested in history and sports should read this book. While diversity is a common sight on fields nowadays, it’s important to know and understand how that came to be. Thebookjournal.Com
...Piascik presents a living history, taking an engaging, informative sojourn through a critical, sometimes-forgotten, and often-ignored part of the evolution of today's NFL. Well written and thoroughly researched, this book will serve anyone interested in sports studies, sports history, and sociology. Recommended. CHOICE
Thanks to Gridiron Gauntlet, the stories of these 12 individuals have been preserved as a reminder that things were not always as they are today. There was racism, exclusion and prejudice in the 40's and 50's, but these men paved the way for future generations of football players, and they should not be forgotten. -- WorldofFootball.com
Andy Piascik is an award-winning author whose articles have appeared in Z Magazine, The Indypendent, Jump Cut, and many other publications. For his book The Best Show in Football: The 1946-1955 Cleveland Browns, Pro Football's Greatest Dynasty (also published by Taylor Trade Publishing), he received the Professional Football Researchers Association's Nelson Ross Award. He is a member of the National Writers Union.
One year before Jackie Robinson broke the color line in major league baseball in 1947, four black players joined the Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Rams to become the first professional football players of African-American descent in the modern era. While blacks had played on professional teams in the early days of pro football, none had joined a team since 1934. In this book twelve players who began their careers from 1946 to 1955 not only reminisce about the violence they faced on and off the field, the segregated hotels and restaurants, and general hostility that comes with being a trailblazer, but also of white players and coaches who assisted and supported them at various stages of their lives. Among the oral histories presented here are those of such Hall of Famers Bill Willis, Joe Perry, and George Taliaferro.
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