Black Players in the CFL and the Argos

[jerrym]

I originally started writing this as a response to a post on the thread The mostly unknown story of the first Black player in Argo history. But I think it deserves its own thread because it goes beyond the story of Ken Whitlock, the first Black Argo player.

So you are saying that teams were still segregated, because they didn't have ENOUGH blacks on their teams? So in your opinion, how many blacks on a team is no longer segregation? 100%? Good lord.

There certainly was segregation in many aspects of Canadian society both official and unofficial. One example in employment that I experienced as a white person was on the railway where I worked as a red cap (carrying luggage for tips only at a train station) in Brockville starting at age 13 after school because my father was baggage master there. All the porters on the train were Black on the Toronto-Montreal run, which of course meant they were acting in a servant role. They could not get any other job anywhere.

The first Black player in Canadian football was reported in the following article to be Robert 'Stonewall' Jackson in 1930, likely an American, who was a porter while with the team also. I wonder why? However, an article in 3downnation (see post #4) discusses the career of Russ Gideon, a Canadian, who played for Calgary from 1925 to 1933 and may have been the recipient of the first forward pass in Canada.

Robert “Stonewall” Jackson, who played the last few games of the 1930 season while employed as a porter on the Canadian National Railway. Jackson made his debut in the Western Canada Rugby Football Union regular-season finale against Moose Jaw and dazzled the fans with a 45-yard run. He was also a standout in the Western playoffs and played in the 1930 Grey Cup which Regina lost 11-6 to Toronto Balmy Beach. Jackson's presence was regarded as a curiosity, especially when he actually worked as the team's porter on the train ride to Toronto for the national championship. It is also odd that Jackson is the only one of the 19 men in the team picture not to be wearing football gear (he is neatly garbed in a white short, sweater vest and tie); whether this is due to a shortage of uniforms, Jackson arriving late from work, or some other reason will never be known. In any case, Jackson did not rejoin the team in 1931.

(THEY CAME, THEY PLAYED … BUT NOT FOR LONG: AFRICAN-AMERICAN FOOTBALL PLAYERS ON THE SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS, 1910-63 By John Chaput)

A great read for the glory years of the CFL of the late 1940s to the 1960s when the CFL often outbid the NFL for players and Blacks often came north because of the discrimination they faced in the US but still faced to some extent here, is The Migration of African Americans to the Canadian Football League during the 1950s: An Escape from Discrimination? It includes stories of many famous players including the Argos Lew Hayman, the Argo HC and later president who brought the first American Blacks to the CFL while with the Als, Willie Wood, first Black football coach anywhere, Ulysses Curtis, and Bill Bass, as well as such famous CFLers as Herb Trawick, George Reed, Leo Lewis, Normie Kwong, George Dixon, Willie Fleming, Johnny Bright, Rollie Miles, Bernie Custis (the first Black QB), Bo Scott, and many more.
The article describes in detail the mixed racial attitudes to Black players in the CFL of which here are two of many examples:

Ottawa general manager Red O’Quinn once noted “you mighthave a clique develop, say, if you have more than five colored players.” ...


Racism was sometimes very overt. On a road trip to Winnipeg, Calgary coach Les Lear(one of the few Canadian coaches in the league since WWII) threatened to pull his entireteam out of a hotel when he was told that Anderson and Woody Strode, Calgary’s otherAfrican American player at the time, couldn’t stay at the hotel. Winnipeg coach GeorgeTrafton reportedly acted similarly in an incident involving Tom Casey.

https://web.holycross.edu/RePEc/spe/...rimination.pdf

Obviously things were better for Black football players in Canada than in the US, and things have got better over the decades, but there were and still are many problems here.

There were laws banning Blacks from sitting where whites sit in theatres in Nova Scotia until broken by Viola Desmond who was charged and convicted in 1946, the same year the first Black player, Herb Trawick, played in the CFL. That's just one example. Here are many more.
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia....ople-in-canada

In sport there is strong evidence of segregation in hockey. So much so, Black players had to form their own league in Nova Scotia in 1899. None of the three Black players, including the Carnegie brothers, on a very talented all Black line in the 1930s to the 1950s ever made it to the NHL. It took until 1957 for Willie O'Ree to break the NHL colour barrier, at a time when virtually all players and management were Canadian. I sure these attitudes were not confined to only hockey and found there way into the CFL.

The Coloured Hockey League of the Maritimes began in 1895, as an initiative of black Baptist churches in Nova Scotia.^[1] The aim was to increase and retain male membership. The league consisted of teams from Halifax, Africville, Hammond's Plains, Dartmouth, Truro, Amherst and Charlottetown, P.E.I. ...

Herb Carnegie's hockey career began in 1938 with the Toronto Young Rangers and continued in the early 1940s with the Buffalo Ankerites, a team in a mines league that played in mining towns in northern Ontario and Quebec. While with the Ankerites, Carnegie was part of the Black Aces line.^[4] The other line members consisted of his brother, Ossie Carnegie and Manny McIntyre, originally from Fredericton, New Brunswick. They were recognized as much for their talent and skill as their skin colour (Herb was at centre, Ossie was right wing, McIntyre was the left wing). In the semi-professional Quebec Provincial League, Herb was named most valuable player in 1946, 1947 and 1948. In 1948, Carnegie was given a tryout with the New York Rangers and offered a contract to play in the Rangers' minor league system. However, he was offered less money than he was earning in the Quebec league and turned down all three offers made by the Rangers organization during his tryout.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_..._in_ice_hockey

[Shatto]

That was an excellent response -- full of interesting and pertinent information. Woody Strode mentioned as a Calgary player, went on to a long and successful movie career, including playing a major role in the classic western -The Man Who shot Liberty Vallance. Viola Desmond recently had a school in York Region named after her and of course we all now get to see her on our $10 dollar bill. It is great to see her recognized in such a public manner.

[jerrym]

Below is an article on Herb Trawick, the first Black player to play in the Canadian football post WWII (see post #1 for the brief career of Robert Jackson in 1930). It was Lew Hayman, who spent most of his career with the Argos as HC and president, who brought him north during his brief tenure with the Als. Sadly both the Argos and Ottawa threatened to boycott their Als game because of Trawick being on the team. However, the Argos have become leaders in race relations with the hiring of the first Black head HC, Willie Woods, and the numerous roles Pinball has held, including HC, GM and President.

Herb Trawick made history in 1946 when he became the very first black player in the CFL. Jackie Robinson had joined the Montreal Royals baseball team a few months earlier, and his popularity enticed Alouettes’ Lew Hayman to recruit Trawick as one of only five American players allowed on the team.
Trawick was amazingly quick for a man of his bulk, standing at 5 feet 10 inches and 230 pounds, and was quickly embraced by Montreal fans for his impressive performances on the field. Yet, as with Robinson, Trawick had to endure his share of racial slurs and discrimination.

“MY FATHER AND JACKIE ROBINSON BECAME FRIENDS AND HAD THE SHARED EXPERIENCE OF GOING THROUGH THIS. IT WAS HELPFUL BECAUSE THEY COULD GO THROUGH IT WITH SOMEBODY ELSE,” EXPLAINED HERB TRAWICK JR. “I HEARD THOSE STORIES AS A YOUNG PERSON. BUT IT’S ONLY WHEN I GOT OLDER THAT I REALIZED THE SIGNIFICANCE THAT JACKIE ROBINSON AND MY FATHER PLAYED IN HISTORY. AND THAT WAS AN ENLIGHTENING MOMENT.”

“I remember nothing but love coming to my dad from Montrealers. But yet there was still some of those demarcation lines.” If the people of Montreal were more accepting and open-minded, it wasn’t always the case elsewhere. Initially, the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Toronto Argonauts threatened to boycott games if Trawick played for Montreal. ...

Excelling on both the offensive and defensive line, Trawick played magnificently for 12 seasons and became the first player to be chosen for the Eastern team seven times. He was this hugely popular figure, captain of the team, and All-Star player, yet, when the football season was over, job opportunities were limited.

“WHAT WAS FASCINATING WAS WHAT MY FATHER HAD TO DO IN THE OFFSEASON; ONE SEASON HE WAS DOORMAN, ONE SEASON HE WRESTLED, ONE SEASON HE SOLD SHOES.” TRAWICK JR. REMEMBERS HIS FATHER ALWAYS HANDLING THIS ODD DUALITY WITH POISE AND DIGNITY. “HAVING TO GO THROUGH THAT KIND OF PRESSURE MUST HAVE BEEN QUITE SIGNIFICANT AND I’M MORE AND MORE IN AWE OF THE GRACE WITH WHICH HE HANDLED IT. HE TAUGHT ME THAT YOU HAVE TO CARRY WHAT IS PUT ON YOUR SHOULDERS WITH PRIDE AND GRACE, AND ALWAYS MOVE FORWARD.”

After hanging up his cleats in 1957, Trawick was looking to get a coaching position, but no one offered him a job. “Coaching at the time was much like quarterbacking at the time. It wasn’t something black guys could do. And that’s the insidious face of systemic racism. People didn’t realize they were being racist or limiting; Things were just the way they were. And it took certain people to break through that. You don’t know how you’re picked in history to do what you need to do.”

It’s only in 1980 that the CFL saw its first black head coach when Willie Wood took the helm of the Toronto Argonauts. Twenty-four years later, in 2004, Michael Pinball Clemons became the first black head coach in CFL history to hoist a Grey Cup.
Trawick grew fond of the city of Montreal and obtained his Canadian citizenship in 1953. “My dad never wanted to leave Canada, and he never did. This country allowed him to live his dreams, and share that with others”, said Trawick Jr. He built himself a successful career in his post-playing days and became a prominent figure in the community. A park in Montreal’s Little Burgundy neighborhood was named in his honor in 1997. ...

Rather than feel hopeless about the situation, we should feel inspired to take action. Trawick Jr. remembers his father teaching him that that the quickest way to break these barriers was to sit with people who don’t know you or have stereotypes of you and spend a few minutes together. “Whatever your background is, if you laugh or think I’m smart, we’re going to have some sort of a connection, which is going to help disavow the stereotypes you have.”

“ULTIMATELY, RACISM IS JUST LIKE A SPORTS TEAM. IF WE’RE ALL PLAYING THE SAME PLAY AND WE’RE ALL DOING OUR JOB, THAT PLAY IS GOING TO WORK. IF WE’RE NOT, WE’RE GOING TO LOSE. WHY WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO LOSE? WHY WOULD YOU EVER NOT WANT TO BE STRONG? LOOK HOW WELL WE DO WHEN WE PULL TOGETHER. THAT WOULD BE MY FATHER’S ADVICE.”

https://en.montrealalouettes.com/2021/02/12/herb-trawick-man-broke-cfls-color-barrier/

[jerrym]

3downnation has a more detailed article on Robert Jackson, who was likely the first American Black player in Canadian football in 1930 and who played for Saskatoon and Winnipeg in later years. But there was a Black Canadian player, Russ Gideon, who played for Calgary from 1925 to 1933 and may have been the receiver of the first forward pass in Canada. The article also notes a few Blacks played in the NFL in the 1920s before the racial barrier fell in that league.

*Disclaimer: This story includes some racial descriptors rightfully deemed inappropriate by modern standards. They are included to give the reader a full understanding of the historical coverage of these players. ...
It’s important to understand that history is not the linear march of progress that we typically assume. There are pauses and serious patches of regression along the way, and in few areas is this more true than in race relations. Ahead of the Super Bowl this year, Viola Davis eloquently described how this occurred in the NFL. In a pre-game short that I highly recommend you look up for yourself, she explained how Black players like Fritz Pollard excelled in the NFL in the early 1920s before the league imposed an official colour barrier. ...

Though still unknown to most casual CFL fans, one player in particular is often cited as Canadian football’s first recorded Black athlete. His name was Robert Ellis Jackson and he captivated Regina late in the 1930 season. Details surrounding Jackson are scarce, but his addition to the Roughriders made the papers on September 27th, 1930 with the headline “Dusky Athlete Joins Riders.” The coverage surrounding him would continue to focus on his race for the duration of his time in Regina. The 24-year old, 155-pounder was said to have some football playing experience from the United States and went by the nickname “Stonewall,” an allusion to the famous confederate general, but where he came from was never revealed.

Jackson made his debut for the Riders in their regular season finale against Moose Jaw, ripping off a 45-yard run to the delight of fans. When the playoffs opened a week later against St. John’s, the “ebonyhued boy,” as he was frequently referred to, was top of mind for early Rider Nation. “In the second half an incessant cry of ‘We want Jackson’ from the stand forced Coach [Al] Ritchie to inject the big boy into the fray,” the Leader-Post reported following a 23-0 drubbing of the Manitoba team. “Every move he made was cheered and when he brought [future Hall of Famer] Eddie James down on an end run, howls of joy emanated from the grandstand.” Jackson scored one touchdown in four games for Regina as the Roughriders qualified for the Grey Cup for the third straight year. The team was heading to Toronto to take on Balmy Beach and Jackson became the first Black player to play in the big game.

His journey to the game was a little different than the rest of the team however. A Pullman porter by trade, Jackson drew a shift carrying his teammates bags on the way out east. As the Leader-Post described it, he was “looking after the comforts of the Regina team en-route. The gridders have spent most of their time on the trip so far in offering tidbits of advice to Stonewall and the coloured boy has been the centre of amusement,” the newspaper wrote upon arrival. “His pals are pulling for him to star in the big game on Saturday and they say he will.”

Jackson was photographed by The Globe exiting the train in Toronto in his porter’s uniform, standing next to head coach Al Ritchie dressed to the nines and hardly seeming like a member of the team. It’s an unsettling reminder of the stark racial realities that existed even as fans chanted Jackson’s name. The Roughriders lost that Grey Cup 11-6. In the official team photo taken the Friday before the game, Jackson stands as the lone Black face in the back row, the only player in a shirt and tie rather than a uniform. No one knows why.

Jackson didn’t return to Regina after the 1930 season but he continued playing football. In 1931, he joined the Saskatoon Quakers and in 1932 he played for St. John’s in Winnipeg, but he only managed six appearances over those two seasons. It’s likely his railway responsibilities kept him moving and after 1932, he simply disappeared.

While Jackson is the first Black player in Grey Cup history, he still can’t claim to be the first Black player in the CRU. For that we go back five more years to 1925, when a kid named Russ Gideon broke onto the scene with the Calgary Tigers, a precursor to the Stampeders. Born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Gideon moved to Calgary at nine years old and quickly became a standout on the city’s athletic circuit. He was a champion runner, a fearsome boxer, strong hockey player and baseball star, but where he really excelled was football, first for Crescent Heights High School, then the Calgary Juniors. ...

Though he saw two games in 1925, Gideon truly became a star for the Tigers in 1928. At 150 pounds he was described as “one of the smartest outside wings and hardest tacklers in the province.” In contrast to Jackson, coverage of Gideon generally steered away from his race. While he is referred to as “coloured” on a couple of occasions, the Calgary Herald spent far more time waxing poetic about his fleet-footed, hard-hitting play style.

On September 21st, 1929, Gideon would take part in one of the biggest moments in Canadian football history. The Tigers were in Edmonton for the season opener and fans eagerly awaited the implementation of a new rule: the forward pass. It took until the fourth quarter but they were rewarded, with Calgary’s Gerry Seiberling throwing the first one in the CRU. Strangely, no one knows who caught the first of Seiberling’s four completions that day. The Herald credited Ralph Losie, the Edmonton Journal wrote that Alec Mackenzie did it first, but Gideon had that honour attributed to him in his obituary. Gideon’s claim has been backed by the Stampeders in some official publications and historian Daryl Slade told me he remains unsure of the actual recipient. ...

Over the course of his career, Gideon played 29 games and scored two touchdowns. Far more importantly, he gained the reputation as one of the country’s biggest rouge scorers, notorious for tackling opponents in their end zone. By 1931, Gideon was one of just 12 player from the West considered for the first ever CRU All-Canadian team. None were selected. In 1932, Gideon left Calgary for Boston and a spot at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacology, returning only for a one game guest appearance in 1933. To mark his departure, a tea was hosted by the local Elks club with Gideon as guest of honour and the Dodgers baseball team threw a lavish farewell dinner. Unlike Jackson, we do know what happened to Russ Gideon after football. He became one of the first Black pharmacology graduates in Massachusetts history and served in the 366th Infantry Medical Corps in Africa and Italy during World War Two, surviving to open a drugstore in Seattle.

https://3downnation.com/2021/02/27/the-porter-and-the-pass-catcher-uncovering-the-black-football-trailblazers-canada-forgot/

[carlos]

maybe one day indigenous canadians will play

[ArgoGabe22]

maybe one day indigenous canadians will play

T-Dre Player
Jr LaRose
Neal Hughes (Metis)

[carlos]

T-Dre Player
Jr LaRose
Neal Hughes (Metis)

Neal Hughes was an early version of Declan Cross and had a few big plays to his credit. He did well to play for 10 years in the league and retired in 2014.

[doubleblue]

The Argos had a young black QB John Henry Jackson back in 1960 out of Indiana University. Got thrown into a game against the Chicago Cardinals when new QB Tobin Rote was held out, and backup/assistant coach Nobby Wirkowski was injured when sacked by his former Calgary teammate Ed Henke. Tough way to start in the CFL for John Henry against an NFL team.
He later played some for the Toronto Rifles and then settled in Toronto.

[argos1873]

Never cared about any Argo's skin colour. But good for them.

[jerrym]

Another early Black quarterback for the Argos was Sandy Stephens, who despite being a second round NFL draft pick and #5 overall draft pick in the American Football League in 1962,he chose to sign with the CFL because the two American leagues wouldn't let him play quarterback despite a great college career. In 1963 (or 1964 depending on which website you look at) he was claimed on waivers (likely because his salary was so high - Gayle Sayers one of the NFL's greatest RBs signed for $25,000 a year for 4 years with a $50,000 bonus in 1966) by the Argos where he completed 65 of 126 passes for 988 yards, 8 TDs and 13 interceptions. He also ran the ball 13 times for 78 yards, caught 8 passes for 151 yards, kicked 9 extra points, and 2 FGs for the Argos and he also did all of these for the Alouettes. (https://www.justsportsstats.com/foot...id=stephsan002) He was injured in a car accident in 1964 and out of football for two years because of that. After that he made it to the NFL but they never let him play QB.

College
Stephens was the first black man to play quarterback at the University of Minnesota and remains the only quarterback to take the Gophers to the Rose Bowl (1961 and 1962). He was one of the first "National Recruits" for the University of Minnesota, along with Judge Dickson and Bill Munsey.^[1] The mayor of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, had served in the Navy with John Mariucci, the coach of the Gopher Hockey team.^[2] Mariucci tipped off the University of Minnesota football coach, Murray Warmath about the players.
In 1960, along with Uniontown (PA) High School teammate Bill Munsey, Stephens led the University of Minnesota to an 8-1 regular season record and the national championship. Minnesota defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes 27-10 when both teams were undefeated, one of biggest games in the Iowa–Minnesota football rivalry. Stephens became the first African-American major-college All-American quarterback and finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy balloting. In 1961, Stephens received the Chicago Tribune Silver Football as the Most Valuable Player of the Big Ten Conference.

Pro Career
Stephens was a second-round NFL draft choice of the Cleveland Browns and the fifth overall selection in the AFL draft by the New York Titans. Both teams said that they wouldn’t use him as a quarterback and he never played a down in either league. The Canadian Football League (CFL) welcomed him as a quarterback, as the Montreal Alouettes offered a reported $25,000 signing bonus and a three-year contract at $30,000 per year.^[3]
After playing for the Alouettes in 1962 and 1963, he was claimed on waivers by the Toronto Argonauts in 1964. Upon leaving the CFL, Stephens tried out as a walk-on with the Minnesota Vikings. In his CFL career, he threw 22 touchdowns with 38 interceptions on 2,823 yards, while rushing for 487 yards on 88 carries and 8 touchdowns. He also caught 12 passes for 192 yards and a touchdown. He was also used as an occasional kicker, making 12 out of 19 extra points and 4 out of 8 field goals, with three punts for a 20-yard average.^[4] On September 20, 1964, he was involved in a near fatal accident.^[5] The car is which he was riding with Ted Dean, a Minnesota Vikings player, struck a tree in South Minneapolis. Two years after the accident Stephens signed with the Kansas City Chiefs as a fullback. He was willing to play any of the back positions and continued to dream of playing as a quarterback in the NFL, but to no avail. He ended his active football career in 1968.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Stephens

[doubleblue]

Another early Black quarterback for the Argos was Sandy Stephens, who despite being a second round NFL draft pick and #5 overall draft pick in the American Football League in 1962,he chose to sign with the CFL because the two American leagues wouldn't let him play quarterback despite a great college career. In 1963 (or 1964 depending on which website you look at) he was claimed on waivers (likely because his salary was so high - Gayle Sayers one of the NFL's greatest RBs signed for $25,000 a year for 4 years with a $50,000 bonus in 1966) by the Argos where he completed 65 of 126 passes for 988 yards, 8 TDs and 13 interceptions. He also ran the ball 13 times for 78 yards, caught 8 passes for 151 yards, kicked 9 extra points, and 2 FGs for the Argos and he also did all of these for the Alouettes. (https://www.justsportsstats.com/foot...id=stephsan002) He was injured in a car accident in 1964 and out of football for two years because of that. After that he made it to the NFL but they never let him play QB.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Stephens

I remember Sandy Stephens, who came up to the CFL with the Alouettes, signing for an unheard of salary of 100,000 3 year contract. Back then Canadian TV viewers just got to see NCAA players in on of three New Years Bowl Games, with the Rose Bowl probably the most viewed. Sandy was a star in the Rose Bowl and thus a big name to CFL fans.
Sandy was always a little on the heavy side. I believe he was listed at 6'0 220 as a rookie with the Als but kept growing. When he was picked up by the Argos after two years with Montreal he was listed at 240. As a run first pass second guy that kind of cut down on his production.
Always remembered former Sports Writer Milt Dunnell of the Star writing a little poem about Sandy after he arrived in Toronto.

Sandy Stephens he's no fun,
He can't pass and he can't run,
But when it comes to getting pay,
He's an all star all the way.

[jerrym]

I remember Sandy Stephens, who came up to the CFL with the Alouettes, signing for an unheard of salary of 100,000 3 year contract. Back then Canadian TV viewers just got to see NCAA players in on of three New Years Bowl Games, with the Rose Bowl probably the most viewed. Sandy was a star in the Rose Bowl and thus a big name to CFL fans.
Sandy was always a little on the heavy side. I believe he was listed at 6'0 220 as a rookie with the Als but kept growing. When he was picked up by the Argos after two years with Montreal he was listed at 240. As a run first pass second guy that kind of cut down on his production.
Always remembered former Sports Writer Milt Dunnell of the Star writing a little poem about Sandy after he arrived in Toronto.

Sandy Stephens he's no fun,
He can't pass and he can't run,
But when it comes to getting pay,
He's an all star all the way.

To be fair to Stephens he struggled like a lot of college QBs, even stars one, at the start of his career. He wouldn't be the first player to have weight problems either. Furthermore, not too many players or other people would show the determination and perseverance to return to a field as physically demanding as football after a car accident that took two years to recover from. Doctors considered it a near death experience that would leave him unable to walk for life. He not only recovered, he played in the NFL after that for two years.