The National Football League has formally acknowledged that from 1934 to 1945, NFL team owners secretly conspired to exclude Black football players from the league solely because of the color of their skin.

But unlike some of the Negro League players who were victimized by the Major League Baseball color line and who later had their talent – and the injustice done to them – acknowledged by MLB and the public, none of the many victims of the NFL color line have been recognized as such.

Brud Holland, Ozzie Simmons and Jackie Robinson were all victims of the NFL color line

Such an oversight grows is grievous considering the numerous Black college football players who, during the 12-year period that the NFL acknowledges it enforced a color line, were not only good enough to play in the National Football League but, given the opportunity, would have been stars and, in some cases, Hall of Famers.

In 1938, NFL founder and Bears owner and coach George Halas said of Black college football players, “Those who make the varsity squads at white colleges and universities have to be far superior to white candidates to get the call. As for those who attend Negro colleges, many of them are capable of playing with the finest of white college teams but they lack the (media) buildup received by others.” (Associated Negro Press, August 18, 1938.)

Given that the group of Black college football players who represent the football equivalent of baseball’s Negro Leaguers have never been formally recognized as such, the following list places into the permanent record the names of the Americans who, though more than good enough to play in the National Football League, were barred from 1934-1945 from doing so by NFL owners solely because of the color of their skin. (Players are listed by university and years played at the school.)

Butler University
Thomas Harding (1937-39)

Boston College
Lou Montgomery (1938-40)

Boston University
Jesse Chase (1934)
Moreland Forte (1935-36)
Roland Bernard (1938)
Charlie Thomas (1940-42)

Case Western
Robert Brooks (1936)
Frank “Doc” Kelker (1935-37)

Cincinnati
London Gant (1934-36)

Cornell
Jerome “Brud” Holland (1936-38)
Samuel Pierce (1941)

Indiana
Jesse Babb (1931-33)
Archie Harris (1938-40)
Fitzhugh Lyons (1931-33)

Iowa
Voris Dickerson (1932)
Homer Harris (1935-37
Don Simmons (1934-36)
Ozzie Simmons (1934-36)
Jim Walker (1939-41)

Long Island University
Dolly King (1937)

Loyola (CA)
Al Duval (1933-35)

Michigan
Julius Franks (1941-42)
Willis Ward (1932-34)

Michigan State
Albert Baker (1934)
Jim McCrary (1933-34)

Minnesota
Horace Bell (1936-38)
Ellis Harpole (1931-33)
Dwight Reed (1935-37)

New York University
Leonard Bates (1940-41)
Ed Williams (1936-38)

North Dakota
Horace Johnson (1936-37)
Fritz Pollard, Jr. (1936)

Northwestern
Clarence Hinton (1935-37)
Bernie Jefferson (1936-38)
Jim Smith (1938-1940)

Ohio State
Charley Anderson (1939-40)

Syracuse
Wilmeth Sidat-Singh (1936-38)

UCLA
Ray Bartlett (1939-40)
Clarence Mackey (1941)
Jackie Robinson (1939-40)
Sam Storey (1933-34

Washington
Charley Russell (1937)